UNTAMED

The invitation in UNTAMED is straightforward: follow a murder investigation through Yosemite National Park and spend some time with people carrying personal troubles. Across six episodes, writers Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith supply enough incident to keep the case moving, but too many familiar complications to make it compelling. We find it watchable in stretches, without finding enough here to recommend the whole. The opening briefly suggests something less predictable.

Eric Bana does much of the useful work as Kyle Turner, the maverick investigator partnered with Lily Santiago’s rookie Naya Vasquez. Bana makes Turner’s troubles feel credible, even when the writing treats a troubled detective as sufficient reason to pay attention. Santiago is an alert, engaging presence opposite him, and their difference in experience gives their scenes some welcome friction. Rosemarie DeWitt, as Jill Bodwin, also makes the personal material feel worth attending to. These performances give us reasons to stay interested when the investigation itself has become routine.

Michael McDonough’s cinematography makes the Yosemite wilderness worth sustained attention, even when the case has begun to wander. There is scale here, and a welcome sense of an environment larger than the people investigating it. Todd Fjelsted’s production design offers a credible setting for the police work, though little about that work feels particular to this place. Directors Thomas Bezucha, Neasa Hardiman and Nick Murphy keep the setting prominent without consistently making it a source of suspense. Too many of the scenes between the views could take place elsewhere.

Ryan Jones’s editing keeps the investigation moving, although speed does not prevent it from feeling overextended. The extra subplots take time away from the central partnership without giving the characters much more depth. We grew bored during those detours, because spending longer with these people rarely changed what we thought about them. Six episodes should be enough to tell this story without making its developments feel hurried.

A detective drama does not need to invent a new sort of detective to work. Familiar roles can be useful if the case tests them or the location changes how the investigation proceeds. UNTAMED too often settles for the maverick, the rookie and the private troubles, then adds another complication when these stop holding our attention. Jeff Russo’s music does not give those complications the urgency they lack in the writing. The attempts to surprise us make the case busier without making it much harder to anticipate.

There are pleasures here, particularly when Bana and Santiago have room to develop their partnership rather than service another strand of plot. The opening also has a force the series cannot sustain, so we understand the temptation to keep going in the hope of its return. Those content with a familiar procedural and an appealing setting may find enough to pass the time. If the mystery matters more than the scenery, we would keep looking.