TV Review: Untamed (2025)

Untamed (2025) created by Elle and Mark L. Smith

A young woman falls off of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, almost taking out two mountain climbers coming up the face. National Park rangers show up to investigate, including the Investigative Services Branch Agent Kyle Turner (Eric Bana). He's a bit of a prima dona and is clearly very competent but not very popular with the regular rangers. For help (and to keep tabs on Turner), he's assigned the relatively new Ranger Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago), who came over from the Los Angeles police department. They have an uneasy but growing professional relationship as they work to discover who the girl is and why she ran off the cliff edge. The investigation involves an odd assortment of park employees and residents (including a hippie compound hiding out inside the park) and a lot of painful history for Turner. His young son died six years ago in the park under horrible circumstances, an event that did a lot of damage to him.

The story begins with interesting mystery and good character development. The cinematography is beautiful and the unfolding of the mystery is handled well if slowly. Turner's backstory is very moving and Bana gives a great performance that buoys up the slower moments of the show. Unfortunately, a lot of the elements become very familiar and the last two episodes of the six-episode arc look more like a soap opera than a mystery thriller. I was losing interest fast but they managed to finish out before I lost patience.

Barely recommended--watch for the scenery and the good acting.

Currently (March 2026) this is only streaming on Netflix.