Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan has become a franchise all his own, with every streamer now looking to replicate the same success as Paramount. Well, Netflix may have gotten one step closer to doing just that, with the popular streamer’s new crime thriller series, which has been likened to the gritty, sweeping drama of Yellowstone, as well as the same neo-western sensibilities demonstrated in the filmmaker’s underrated Wind River, which has now debuted with a killer Rotten Tomatoes score following the first reviews.

The series is titled Untamed and finds Hulk and The Dry star Eric Bana taking the lead in this character-driven mystery-thriller, which follows a special agent for the National Parks Service who works to enforce human law in nature’s vast wilderness. Suddenly, the investigation of a brutal death sends him down a path that will force him to face the dark secrets within the park, and in his own past.

Created by Mark L. Smith (American Primeval, The Revenant) and Elle Smith (The Marsh King’s Daughter), the series stars Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down, Troy) as Kyle Turner, a special agent for the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch (ISB) alongside Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, Apples Never Fall), Rosemarie DeWitt (La La Land, The Staircase), Wilson Bethel (Daredevil, All Rise), and Lily Santiago (La Brea, Mary Jane on Broadway) as Naya Vasquez, an ambitious young cop from Los Angeles who joins Yosemite’s ranger squad in the hopes of finding a new life.

‘Untamed’ Is Now “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes

Eric Bana as Kyle peers over a tree line in UntamedNetflix

The first reviews for Untamed have now started to emerge, with the crime thriller series now boasting a seriously promising score of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. “…a thriller, crime, and mystery hybrid with a solid cast and well-written characters. In other words, yes, I binge-watched this series and am ready to recommend you do the same,” said Karina Adelgaard of Heaven of Horror, with Jonathon Wilson Ready Steady Cut questioning how the show was marketed by declaring it “a great example of how to make a familiar show very well.”

Pramit Chatterjee of Digital Mafia Talkies awarded the series a near-perfect 4/5, concluding, “I’ll always appreciate a messy entry in this genre, which isn’t afraid to question the point of learning the truth when the damage done by lies is irreparable, rather than a generic one with nothing relevant to say.” Meanwhile, Daniel Fienberg of THR said the series is “self-consciously going after the audience that has made Yellowstone,” adding, “By the finale, mostly thanks to Bana and Santiago, but in part because of the novelty of the setting, I was generally engaged with Untamed.”

Anthony Morris of ScreenHub advises that audiences “Come for the scenery, stay for Bana’s slow thawing,” while Alex Maidy of JoBlo concludes, “What Yellowstone did for Montana is what Untamed aims to do for Yosemite.” All six episodes of Untamed are now streaming on Netflix, and you can check out the official synopsis for the series below.

In the vast expanse of Yosemite National Park, a woman’s death draws a federal agent into lawless terrain — where nature obeys no rules but its own.