Why are experts furious at Netflix series ‘Untamed’?
A lot can happen within a single week. And a lot has happened on the series front of things since the July 17th premiere of Untamed on Netflix. The new mini-series, supposedly set in Yosemite National Park, has already become the most-watched title of the week globally, and the hype is clearly sky-high. Yet, amid its chart-topping streak, Untamed just hit a snag with experts voicing pressing concerns against the show.
In a recent conversation with SFGATE, Beth Pratt, author of the upcoming book Yosemite Wildlife, highlighted the discrepancies between the reality and the representation of Yosemite in Untamed. For Pratt, the gruffy and traumatised Federal Agent, portrayed by Eric Bana, was not the issue. It was the portrayal of Yosemite that raised her eyebrows.
Pratt criticised the show’s alleged backdrop in Yosemite and the underrepresentation, so much so that neither the park, nor the people, nor the scenery are “recognisable.” Having lived near the park for 26 years, she explained, “It’s a bit like if you bill Brad Pitt in a movie in the lead, yet he never appears in the film. Of the six-hour series, I estimate maybe five minutes had any real Yosemite footage.”
While Yosemite’s B-roll sets the stage initially, the show’s true backdrop is British Columbia’s rugged charm, featuring Mount Seymour, Whistler Olympic Park, and Grace Lake. For the uninitiated, the Pacific Northwest might masquerade as Yosemite’s grandeur. However, for those who’ve experienced the park’s majesty firsthand, the resemblance is tenuous at best. Although the ones interviewed realise that Untamed is in the DNA of fiction, they still can barely come to terms with the inaccuracies about wildlife.
Misrepresentation of the untamed in Untamed
A Harris’s hawk pecks on a bloody shoe in one of the scenes, while another shows a herd of elk. Viewers might also remember a CGI bear charging towards Vasquez, filled with misplaced aggression. As it turns out, the first two species are not found in Yosemite National Park. And according to a former Yosemite Search and Rescue worker and a climber, mountain guide in the Sierra Nevada, Dustin Weatherford, “[The bear scene] stood out the most because there would never be a bear attack like that.”
But that’s not the only complaint Weatherford had. The dramatic opening scene, where two climbers are trekking on a rockface when Jane Doe falls from the top, entangling the dead body in the rope, is supposedly El Capitan. However, there’s little reality in the portrayal. The scene is, in fact, riddled with missteps, from ill-equipped gear to the climbers’ hesitant equation, and the jarring impact of the woman’s body on the rope and bolts.
The worst of it all is apparently when Bana’s character, Agent Turner, teeters on the edge, sans rope and helmet, gazing down the wall. As per Weatherford, if anyone did that in reality, they’d get “fired” in a minute. “Nobody wants to be around a leader who’s taking those risks,” he said. Even the founder of the Yosemite Climbing Association, Ken Yager, raised objections around similar things.
Yager has been sceptical about whether Untamed ensured assistance from a climbing consultant, pointing out the dome-shaped wall. What’s more unrealistic to him is that Jane Doe supposedly had to do a 17-mile hike to get to the edge, which she did barefoot while being shot in the leg. But the concept of narcotics manufacturing in an abandoned gold mine is even more hyperbolic since there are no mines in the park.
Yet, with all those inaccuracies, another park service insider confirmed the relationship between Bana’s character and his “less powerful co-workers” was actually on point. According to Bana, in an interview with Hey U Guys, he conversed with a real ISB agent in order to portray Agent Turner. The investigative branch investigates the crimes within the park boundaries and is outside the jurisdiction of individual parks.
Another thing Untamed gets right, according to Pratt, is when a ranger tickets vehicle campers for improper food storage. But the rest looked a bit over the top with their affluent costumes and behavioural habits. As Pratt sees it, it’s nothing less than a “missed opportunity,” especially at a time when “national parks and park rangers are threatened like never before.”
Although she wishes Untamed did more with the rangers’ representation, shedding light on their struggles, she’s ready to offer help if there’s a second season.