Taylor Sheridan Meets The Revenant In Netflix's 6-Episode Western Miniseries You Can Binge In A Day

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Published Sep 13, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT

Faith Roswell is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's Classic TV team. Since earning her degree in Creative Writing over a decade ago, Faith has written articles on film and TV from a variety of different angles. Faith now combines her knowledge of psychology with her love of monster movies to give more insight into what makes the best ones.

You may have read her Screen Rant lists and features covering horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, or read her Amazon Top 10 book, "Movie Monsters of the Deep."

Faith has had an extensive career as a writer, appearing on BBC live radio, researching true crime for Rotten Mango podcast, and writing for publications including Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and The Daily Jaws before beginning here at Screen Rant.

Taylor Sheridan's sweeping Western epic Yellowstone is widely credited with sparking the neo-Western revival, and the director's name is now inseparable from the genre. That said, while some of Taylor Sheridan's Western TV shows have their brutal moments, they do not reach the raw violence and horror of Netflix's standout Western masterpiece, which at times feels closer to The Revenant than Yellowstone. While not all great Western TV shows have to be violent, taking a well-covered genre and showing another side to the story is an impressive feat, and Netflix created a perfect example of this working well.

Neo-Westerns take the typical themes from a classic Western, like lawmen, outlaws, and frontier justice, and apply them to a modern setting. These can be extremely creative and gritty, while classic Westerns set further back in history have often romanticized life on the frontier. However, Netflix's American Primeval does the exact opposite, showcasing the brutality, horror, and injustice one woman and her son find while on a dangerous trip into the Wild West. Reviews of American Primeval praise the dark and gloomy tone, but warn that the series is not for the faint-hearted.

American Primeval Brings The Revenant's Brutality To A Taylor Sheridan Western

Taylor Kitsch as Isaac Reed in American Primeval

Taylor Sheridan might be best-known for Yellowstone, but the Dutton family world has expanded far beyond this one show, with the post-Civil War prequel 1883 following the Duttons as they join a wagon train journeying toward Fort Worth. While few of Sheridan's projects can be said to romanticize the West as virtually all of them include a degree of violence and death, 1883 is the show that comes closest to reflecting the harsh life of the frontier. American Primeval takes the family theme of Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone saga and introduces more hardship and horror than even 1883.

In American Primeval, there is more to contend with than a land dispute, no matter how ugly, as virtually everything is dangerous. Bad weather conditions, hunger and exhaustion, and the unforgiving environment can quickly turn discomfort into a survival situation, and this is before potential death at the hands of other people. This is also the core of The Revenant, which sees Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) on a trek through the frozen American wilderness to get revenge on the men who left him for dead after he was mauled by a bear.

American Primeval's creator, Mark L. Smith co-wrote The Revenant.

Both American Primeval and The Revenant each have a standout horror scene, with The Revenant's now-infamous bear attack being praised by experts, while none of American Primeval's most brutal moments can beat the Mountain Meadows massacre scene in which Jacob is scalped. Still, the overarching optimism of Taylor Sheridan's work still shines through in a way that The Revenant does not permit. Sara's love for her son and determination to find a place for them, along with Two Moons, is the thread that holds the series together just as the Dutton family are the heart of the Yellowstone saga.

Sara Rowell Would Not Be Out Of Place In A Taylor Sheridan Show

Sara Roswell (Betty Gilpin) pointing a gun in American Primeval

American Primeval has a talented cast, but Betty Gilpin's performance as Sara Rowell carries the show, just as some of Taylor Sheridan's great matriarchs do. On the run after murdering her abusive husband, Sara relies on her outwardly respectable demeanor to shield her and her son from scrutiny and allow her to obtain assistance across the frontier. This combination of justified violence with family as a motivator is one of the most common threads running through Sheridan's Western TV shows, and Sara would be right at home among characters like Beth Dutton.

Sara Rowell and 1883's Elsa Dutton are remarkably similar, with both women beginning from a place of little experience and becoming more knowledgeable by the end of her journey. Both are impulsive, described as "troublemakers," and yet learn on their journey. Not all American Primeval viewers enjoyed Sara's stubborn streak, but 1883 fans might have found this trait familiar through Elsa and the two characters would likely either have become friends or enemies if the shows were allowed to make a crossover. American Primeval tells a Sheridan-esque story in just six hours, making it the perfect weekend binge.