Peter Berg’s limited Netflix series ‘American Primeval’ tells the gritty story of the 1857 Utah War and centres on the Mountain Meadows massacre.

Set during some of the American West’s most violent, dirty and savage years, the series depicts the fight for control by Mormon leader Brigham Young, First Nations Shoshone and Pauite tribes, the US Army and a haphazard cast of bounty hunters, murderers, fortune seekers and opportunists.

Featuring Betty Gilpin as a steely-faced mother travelling with her young son through an unforgiving high country (an excellent performance by Preston Mota), in six episodes of the show there is barely a gentle moment.

When it does arrive, it is often in the form of a small kindness between strangers, but even this is not enough to spare them from the bombardment of gratuitous violence that erupts at every step of the perilous journey.

Created by Mark L.Smith (‘The Revenant’), the series does have a similar aesthetic, including muted visuals, sweeping vistas of wild landscapes and closeups of gore.

Despite the hyper-violence in the show, the standout for me was the excellent performances of a strong ensemble cast. In particular, Taylor Kitsch as a gruff survivor-hermit and Irene Bedard as stoic Shoshone leader, Winter Bird.

With a body count that puts John Wick to shame, I would only recommend this limited series for those with the stomach for a gritty story full of bad characters in a miserable environment.