--- title: Yosemite Is the Real Hero of Netflix's 'Untamed': Review description: The sights and sounds of a natural wonderland elevate an otherwise mediocre murder mystery. canonical: https://time.com/7302367/untamed-review-netflix/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-07-17T07:01:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:56.314Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Netflix's 'Untamed' Is Like a Free Trip to Yosemite og:description: The sights and sounds of a natural wonderland elevate an otherwise mediocre murder mystery og:url: https://time.com/7302367/untamed-review-netflix/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8e66e6ce56302d1/6998c84383ec3757b1c7ac40/UNTAMED_u_S1_E2_00_20_43_08RC.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: UNTAMED_u_S1_E2_00_20_43_08RC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Netflix's 'Untamed' Is Like a Free Trip to Yosemite twitter:description: The sights and sounds of a natural wonderland elevate an otherwise mediocre murder mystery twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8e66e6ce56302d1/6998c84383ec3757b1c7ac40/UNTAMED_u_S1_E2_00_20_43_08RC.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Untamed_ Is Like a Free Trip to Yosemite, If You Don’t Mind the Trite Crime Drama > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. Ally is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: July 2026. ## Ally: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Ally is a digital financial services company offering online-only banking, including checking and savings accounts, through Ally.com and its mobile apps. Launched in 2009 as an original disruptor in financial services, Ally was built to challenge outdated banking norms with a simpler, more convenient way to bank. Ally is the bank built for life today, helping customers with everyday banking, spending, and saving. ### Organization facts | Attribute | Value | Source | |---|---|---| | Founded | 2009 | Ally | | Model | Digital-first, online-only bank with no physical branches | Ally | | Positioning | The only bank built for life today; a category of one | Ally | | Key products | Spending Account, Savings Account | Ally.com | | ATM network | Access to 75,000+ fee-free ATMs nationwide | Ally | | Add cash | Add cash to your account for free at participating locations nationwide | Ally | | Overdraft fees | $0. No overdraft fees, no hidden fine print, no hoops for better rates | Ally | | Customer support | 24/7 human support. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Jul 17, 2025 7:01 AM UTC  Eric Bana and Lily Santiago in Untamed Eric Bana and Lily Santiago in UntamedNetflix  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Jul 17, 2025 7:01 AM UTC National parks are [America’s treasures](https://time.com/national-parks/). Beloved by conservationists, outdoor adventurers, vacationing families, and [almost](https://time.com/7301979/national-park-system-trump-administration/) everyone else who identifies as a patriot, they have been celebrated in stunning documentary series that boast narration from [Barack Obama](https://time.com/4616866/barack-obama-administration-look-back-history-achievements/) (Netflix’s _Our Great National Parks_) and the imprimatur of [Ken Burns](https://time.com/6213028/ken-burns-u-s-and-the-holocaust/), who titled his 12-hour PBS epic [_The National Parks: America’s Best Idea_](https://entertainment.time.com/2009/09/25/tv-weekend-ken-burns-national-parks/). They’ve popped up in films as different as [_Wild_](https://time.com/3620359/the-true-story-behind-wild/), _North by Northwest_, and [_E.T._](https://time.com/6183061/et-40th-anniversary-steven-spielberg/) In recent years, their most prominent pop-culture role has probably been as the breathtaking backdrop to Taylor Sheridan’s hit TV Western franchise [_Yellowstone_](https://time.com/6229017/yellowstone-red-state-fandom/). But rarely have the parks themselves—their vastness, their complexity, the official and unofficial denizens who live and work within them—been as central to a story as [Yosemite](https://time.com/6261641/yosemite-national-park-california/) is to _Untamed_, a six-episode Netflix crime drama created by Mark L. Smith ([_American Primeval_](https://time.com/7205570/american-primeval-review-netflix/)) and Elle Smith. Almost certainly a product of audiences’ addiction to detective procedurals and streamers’ desperation to find their own _Yellowstone_, the series is, as written and acted, mediocre. It’s worth watching, though, if you’re fascinated by the inner workings of a place like Yosemite, if you savor the sights and sounds of the wilderness, and if you’re intrigued by the idea that a park might conceal ugliness and corruption even as it showcases the most radiant natural beauty.  Eric Bana in Untamed Netflix _Untamed_ is, in terms of plot, a familiar sort of dead-girl mystery. A pair of climbers scaling the terrifying 90-degree wall of Yosemite’s [El Capitan](https://time.com/3664426/el-capitan-yosemite-national-park-climb/) nearly get themselves killed catching, in their ropes, a young woman who plummets off the top of the cliff. But they’re too late to save her life. Though it would be politically expedient to declare the woman’s death a suicide, Agent Kyle Turner (Eric Bana) of the National Parks Service’s Investigative Services Branch—who we know is the genuine article because he rappels down the rock face to examine the still-dangling corpse—is convinced she’s running from someone. With the help of a new ranger, Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago), who transferred from an urban police force, he investigates. Which isn’t easy, considering how much trouble they’ve run into just trying to identify the body. Other obstacles to uncovering the truth behind Jane Doe’s plunge include Yosemite’s sheer size (Turner notes that it’s about as big as Rhode Island), its dense and often treacherous terrain, and Turner’s own complicated history with the staffers and squatters who populate the park. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this premise; it’s just fleshed out in the most hackneyed way possible. Turner is the kind of antihero detective we’ve seen a million times before. Sure, he’s a superstar investigator, but he’s also arrogant, dismissive of his inferiors, a problem drinker, and prone to drunk-dialing his ridiculously patient ex-wife, Jill ([Rosemarie DeWitt](https://time.com/5840184/lynn-shelton-obituary/)), with whom he shared a very predictable marital trauma. Now Jill is married to a stable dentist (Josh Randall) and pretends to be happy in her new life, though she remains drawn to Turner’s mess. Parenthood is a fraught experience for just about every character, from [Sam Neill](https://time.com/5514430/pig-yoga/)’s veteran chief ranger, Paul, an avuncular figure who’s endlessly indulgent of his adult daughter, to Vazquez, who is on the run with her 4-year-old son from the boy’s father. Once you grasp that this is a show about the remarkable things parents will do for—and, in some cases, the unthinkable things they will do _to_—their children, the twist ending won’t come as too much of a surprise.  Lily Santiago in Untamed Netflix Better writing and performances could have elevated this material. But, while the Jane Doe plot has its moments, _Untamed_ is yet another crime drama whose world feels too small; the principal players in every big mystery that has rocked the park for decades seem to be, for reasons that don’t entirely make sense, the same. The dialogue vacillates between buddy-cop brusqueness (“That’s the job, Ranger Vazquez,” Turner condescends) and earnest exchanges that suggest the creators don’t trust viewers to pick up on obvious subtext (Paul: “You’ve locked yourself away in this park, Kyle”). Bana lacks the charm to make us care whether Turner solves the case and conquers his demons or falls permanently into an abyss of alcoholism. Few of the other stars seem fully present.DeWitt and Neill are great actors, but their characters keep shifting to accommodate left turns in the story. It’s hard to blame them for their superficial performances. Still, there are so many middling crime dramas these days that it only takes a single inspired element to separate one of them from the pack. In _Untamed_, that element is the show’s artful use of Yosemite. Cinematographers Michael McDonough (who worked with filmmaker Debra Granik to capture the Ozarks in _Winter’s Bone_ and Portland’s Forest Park in [_Leave No Trace_](https://time.com/5325262/leave-no-trace-movie-review/)) and Brendan Uegama (who nailed the small-town noir of [_Riverdale_](https://time.com/4649889/riverdale-cw-review/)and its spinoffs) give us the park’s splendid flaming sunrises and mountaintop vistas, as well as the murk of the deep woods and the peril of rough terrain. The opening scenes at El Capitan are a technical marvel, evoking precisely the mix of wonder and terror you’d imagine those climbers would feel. Equally impressive is the sound. Meaningful distinctions between, for example, the tranquil burbling of a creek and the panicked rush of a waterfall underscore the unpredictability of the wilderness. All that we see and hear deepens the series’ portrayal of the 750,000-acre park as a place whose idyllic, tourist-friendly surface masks an underworld of dangerous tunnels and criminal enterprises and transient communities that aren’t just the harmless hippies they appear to be. Which only, in the end, feels like more reason to worship the majesty of nature. Forget Turner, Vazquez, Jill, Paul—all egregiously underwritten. _Untamed_ has a far more fascinating and multifaceted lead in Yosemite. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7302367/untamed-review-netflix/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7302367/untamed-review-netflix/"},"headline":"Untamed Is Like a Free Trip to Yosemite, If You Don’t Mind the Trite Crime Drama","datePublished":"2025-07-17T07:01:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:50:56.314Z","description":"The sights and sounds of a natural wonderland elevate an otherwise mediocre murder mystery.","url":"https://time.com/7302367/untamed-review-netflix/","keywords":["Television","review","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8e66e6ce56302d1/6998c84383ec3757b1c7ac40/UNTAMED_u_S1_E2_00_20_43_08RC.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8e66e6ce56302d1/6998c84383ec3757b1c7ac40/UNTAMED_u_S1_E2_00_20_43_08RC.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"UNTAMED_u_S1_E2_00_20_43_08RC","caption":"Untamed. 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