Untamed follows a special agent investigating a murder mystery in Yosemite National Park
National parks are a hot topic right now in the United States. With the news that more than 1,000 National Parks Service (NPS) employees were laid off in early 2025 during federal government cutbacks, discussions circling public safety, maintenance and park operating hours have been more plentiful and more public than ever before. As a result, American national parks are now less equipped to handle the injuries, missing persons cases and occasional deaths that do inevitably occur on wild, uninhabited land.
Yosemite National Park, situated in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, has typically hosted more than four million visitors per year; of those visitors, an estimated 12 to 15 deaths occur each year in Yosemite.
Netflix’s new limited series Untamed focuses on just one, telling the story of a young woman’s death in the park. Unlike most fatalities in the park, this one is not accidental. What follows is a trek deep into the woods of Yosemite in search of a killer who has a better grasp of the untamed land than nearly anyone else.
“Untamed is a character-driven mystery thriller that follows Kyle Turner (Eric Bana), a special agent in an elite branch of the National Parks Service who works to enforce human law in nature’s vast wilderness,” notes the series synopsis. “The investigation of a brutal death sends Turner on a collision course with the dark secrets within the park, and in his own past.”
The leading ISB agent is not alone in his quest through the rough terrain, however. Turner is joined by budding Los Angeles-born park ranger Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago of La Brea), who is “more accustomed to city life than to the wilds of Yosemite” (per Tudum). New to the wilderness herself and lacking experience in the field due to her youth, Vasquez is somewhat of an audience surrogate, charged with introducing viewers to the dangers and beauty of the California park.
“Because Vasquez is new to the park, we get to see the park through her eyes,” co-showrunner Elle Smith tells Tudum. “We get to understand what this job is, and see the beauty of the park, but also the dangers.”
Smith’s co-showrunner (and father) Mark L. Smith reiterates that aspect of the park. “Everyone thinks of Yosemite as this beautiful place with all the vistas and all the scenery,” he says, “but we were trying to touch on the dangers that are just beyond that. I love stripping all the cheats away, stripping [away] all the more modern tools that people can use. It really gets down to the character and what they can find within themselves.”
One character in the series who has been very well acquainted with the park throughout his career is Paul Souter. Played by Sam Neill, Tudum reports that Souter has “been the chief park ranger in Yosemite for half his life,” noting that the aging professional has clearly found a rhythm in a job he enjoys. Further described as “a dedicated husband, father, grandfather, and friend to Turner,” Souter cuts a sympathetic character
in Untamed.
Rosemarie DeWitt and Wilson Bethel also star as Jill Bodwin and Shane Maguire, respectively. While Bodwin’s presence as Turner’s ex-wife helps to provide some personal background to the lead’s otherwise cool and brooding character, Maguire, a former army ranger, supplies added force and protection where necessary, given his military background and penchant for seclusion.
Over the course of the six-episode limited series, Bana’s Kyle Turner hunts for a killer, one who knows Yosemite National Park as well as he does. However, the dark secrets lurking in both Kyle’s past and that of the park itself may prove to be just as dangerous as the murderer.
Untamed, streaming on Thursday, July 17, on Netflix