Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for American Primeval and Red Dead Redemption 2.
The 2020s have been surprisingly kind to video game fans. Two critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic video games were brought to life in live-action, with Naughty Dog teaming up with HBO to adapt The Last of Us in 2023, while the following year, Bethesda and Prime Video debuted Fallout. Both series were met with critical acclaim, each earning a nomination for Outstanding Drama Series at the Emmys in their respective years, among a litany of other nominations and wins from various other award bodies.
On the big screen, Paramount Pictures has been racing through golden rings for the better part of the decade with the blockbuster Sonic the Hedgehog film series, culminating in over $1 billion dollars at the box office across the three films. While every live-action video game adaptation hasn’t been as successful as films like Sonic, Five Nights at Freddy’s, or Mortal Kombat, or series like The Last of Us, Fallout, or Twisted Metal, fans have still benefited from seeing the stories they’ve played come to life on screen in a new way. While Rockstar Games doesn’t seem interested in joining this trend (yet), Netflix has quietly debuted a new Western series which may be the closest we ever come to seeing an adaptation of Red Dead Redemption.
What Is ‘American Primeval’ About?
American Primeval is the streamer’s gritty new limited series from director Peter Berg and The Revenant scribe Mark L. Smith. Set in 1857, the series follows Sara Rowell (Betty Gilpin) and her son Devin (Preston Mota) as they head west in pursuit of a better life. Toward the end of Episode 1, it is revealed that Sara has a bounty on her head from murdering a man in Philadelphia, and she is trying to reach her estranged husband in Crook Springs to help their son before the law can find her first. From the onset, their journey is marred by tragedy. The guide Sara enlisted and paid handsomely to take them westward is gunned down over a minor misunderstanding, leaving her to scramble and find someone new to escort them through the perilous frontier.
When the gruff loner Isaac Reed (Taylor Kitsch) refuses to help, no matter the price she offers for the task, Sara turns to the newlywed Mormons Abish (Saura Lightfoot-Leon) and Jacob Pratt (Dane DeHaan) who are headed for present-day Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, Sara and Devin find themselves caught in the middle of the horrific and historic Mountain Meadows Massacre, which Isaac narrowly saves them from becoming the victims of. Sara, Isaac, Devin and Two Moons (Shawnee Pourier) may be the heart and soul of American Primeval, but the series boasts an impressive ensemble cast whose stories weave in and out of each other.
‘American Primeval’s Isaac Reed Isn’t So Different From Arthur Morgan
It may be the fact that I have spent over 1,000 hours playing Red Dead Redemption 2—and years pining for a live-action adaptation of the game—that prompted me to draw comparisons between the two, but I am confident that I won’t be the only one to see the parallels. Most notably, Isaac Reed and Arthur Morgan (Roger Clark) have strikingly similar tragic backstories (in fact, Arthur’s deceased son was even named Isaac), personalities, and fates. Neither character fits within the constraints of the societal norms of the time, though the core difference between the two characters is that Arthur is an outlaw and Isaac is an outcast.
Depending on how you choose to play Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, you can choose between leading him to a path of high honor or low honor. High honor Arthur is the one who bears the most resemblance to Isaac. Both men deeply care about the people who come under their protection, and it is for a strikingly similar reason. In American Primeval, Isaac is hesitant to aid Sara and Devin, and downright cruel at times as she tries to find a connection with him. As the series unfolds, he and Sara begin to grow closer, and Isaac reveals that his wife and child were mercilessly slaughtered while he was away from home, which is why he has been keeping her at arm’s length. Likewise, in Red Dead Redemption, it is eventually revealed that Arthur Morgan had a son with a young waitress named Eliza, both of whom were murdered during a robbery which he felt like he could have prevented. While Arthur and Eliza were not married like Isaac Reed and his wife, Arthur did regularly see his son and financially supported Eliza. He cared about them enough to keep them separate from his criminality, which still got them killed in the end.
Their tragic backstories ultimately motivate them to protect the characters that remind them of what they lost. Arthur’s final act before he succumbs to tuberculosis is to ensure that John Marston, his wife Abigail, and their young son Jack are able to have the life he was incapable of giving Eliza and Isaac. Much in the same way, Isaac dies with blood on his lips and a sense of fulfillment because Sara and the children get to survive. Unlike Red Dead Redemption, there is an undercurrent of romance to Isaac’s storyline, and it leads to a deliciously cruel finale. As Isaac and Sara reach the end of the journey, they share a long-overdue kiss before Isaac realizes he has to return home to the place where his wife and child are buried. It’s not a decision he makes lightly, as it is clear that he wants to go with Sara, but it is also a decision that is immediately reversed by their circumstances. Isaac returns to save Sara and the children from the bandits that have pursued them across numerous episodes, only for him to die in her arms, struck down by a bullet to the heart. As tragic as their deaths are, both Arthur and Isaac die with the knowledge that they were able to break the cycle they felt trapped in repeating.
‘American Primeval’ and ‘Red Dead Redemption’ Don’t Shy Away From the Brutality of the Wild West
History has never been kind to women, but the Wild West is often depicted as an era that was particularly brutal for them. In the first episode, Sara is warned several times about being a woman alone on the frontier; however, warnings cannot protect a woman from the cruelty of men. In Episode 3, Sara and Isaac come across a small girl standing by the trail. Isaac warns her from getting involved, but Sara is a mother and, at this point, they have already taken in Two Moons, so where’s the harm in helping another child? This moment is not so dissimilar from the countless “Stranger” encounters in Red Dead Online. Sometimes, helping a man stranded without his horse will yield you a financial boon, while helping an innocent-seeming woman will get you jumped and killed by bandits. In American Primeval, however, the results of Sara’s kindness lead to one of the series’ most harrowing and stomach-churning plots.
They follow the young child back to a seemingly abandoned encampment where they are greeted by a terrifying old woman who distracts them as they are surrounded by a band of French bandits. Sara and Isaac try to fight their way out of the situation, but they are outnumbered and quickly disarmed and strung up to trees while the bandits decide what to do with them. Devin faces the brunt of the bandits’ brutality at first, until the leader sets his sights on Sara. Isaac promises to give the bandits whatever they want—food, money, resources—if they agree to untie them and let them go. The leader then asks Sara if she is willing to give them whatever they want, and it’s clear she knows where this is headed. Isaac and Devin are beaten and forced to watch as the leader drags Sara to his hut to rape her. While American Primeval, thankfully, doesn’t show the act, seeing Sara return after the attack is a sobering sight and a blistering reminder that kindness has no home on the frontier.
Likewise, Red Dead Redemption plays upon similar themes, though it downplays the horror of the act to be more palatable to players. Surprisingly, it isn’t just Sadie Adler (Alex McKenna), one of the games’ most notable female characters, who is a victim of such violence—Arthur Morgan is one, too. The latter is an optional encounter in the game, which sees Arthur stumbling across an unassuming home on the outskirts of Saint Denis. The stranger welcomes him in with the promise of a warm meal before knocking him unconscious. While some may choose to read it as Arthur simply being robbed, there is no mistaking the sound of a belt being unbuckled as the scene fades to black, nor in seeing how Arthur reacts to waking up in a clearing. Sadie’s abuse is another case of read-between-the-lines, wherein her backstory includes the O’Driscoll Boys keeping her prisoner in a basement after they murdered her husband. Like Sadie, Sara gets her revenge against the men who brutalized her in American Primeval, which is more than many victims achieve.
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‘Red Dead Redemption’ and ‘American Primeval’ Share Visual Similarities
From the onset, American Primeval’s director wanted to create a survival series in the same vein as Robert Redford’s Jeremiah Johnson, which would require them to “go into the elements.” And go into the elements they did. The six-part series features a wide range of terrain and weather from both extremes, much like Red Dead Redemption, which takes you from the snow-laden mountains of Ambarino to the Great Plains of West Elizabeth. Unlike the series, the game is set in the latter half of the 19th century, in a mostly fictionalized version of the Western frontier, though both still share the same visual aura.
In Episode 5, Isaac and co. trek through snowy mountain peaks and take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Anyone who has played Red Dead Redemption will feel a certain familiarity with the lootable locations dotted across the landscape north of Spider Gorge. They won’t be as surprised as American Primeval’s protagonists are when a pack of ravenous wolves descends upon them, followed by a violent shootout with the bounty hunters that have been pursuing Sara throughout the season. Watching American Primeval feels like an extension of trekking across the rugged landscapes of Red Dead Online. After hours of hunting down bounties, rescuing kidnapped women, rallying against religious extremists, and staring down the barrel of the gun, American Primeval is there to turn pixels into an even more addictive reality that hits all the same perfect notes.
Regardless of whether the comparisons are intentional or not—and they could all be chalked up to the projects playing upon the genre’s tropes—American Primeval is the closest we’ve come to seeing Red Dead Redemption brought to life on screen. It serves as an excellent proof of concept for what the video game could look like, should Rockstar wish to follow in the footsteps of Naughty Dog and Bethesda.
American Primeval is streaming now on Netflix, while Red Dead Redemption 2 is available to download on Steam.
American Primeval is a Netflix limited series that follows the lives of several men and women in the middle of the expansion of the American West. Social dynamics clash as men and women battle for a piece of the new world against rivals and each other.
- Release Date
-
January 9, 2025
- Cast
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Taylor Kitsch
, Jai Courtney
, Dane DeHaan
, Betty Gilpin
, Nick Hargrove
, Kyle Bradley Davis
, Derek Hinkey
, Saura Lightfoot Leon
, Preston Mota
, Shawnee Pourier
, Joe Tippett - Seasons
-
1
- Producers
-
Eric Newman
, Mark L. Smith - Network
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Netflix
