Breaking news
Rigobert Song reacts to his controversial appointment -
In Burkina Faso, coaches are no longer paid [Exclu] -
bad news, an African champion will not come -
LVMH Watch Week 2025 relocates at the last minute -
Gottéron: after the leader, the red lantern -
Football: Neymar destroys Mbappé in an interview -
who are the 18 Caennais in Ajaccio? -

What is this unexpected and bloody series that is a hit on Netflix?

We regularly complain here about a Netflix catalog too often revolving around generic production, but we also have to know when we are wrong. In recent weeks, the streaming platform has proven us wrong. Between Carry-On at the end of the year and the start of 2025 which starts very strongly with To Life or Sakamoto Daysthe SVoD service showed us that quantity could still rhyme with quality. And it's not going to stop just yet since everyone, including us, has just fallen under the spell of a new series: At the dawn of America.

Subscribe to Journal du Geek

Who is behind it?

American Primevalfrom its original name, is a creation of Mark L. Smith, an emeritus screenwriter who notably participated in the screenplays of The Revenant, Twisters, Martyrs ou Overlord. Just these examples can already give you a clue about the content of the show, but we'll talk about it in more detail. The production was entrusted to Peter Berg, the man behind Deepwater, 22 Miles, Hunting in Boston, Blood and Tears…here too, a clue is hidden in this filmography and it is not Mark Wahlberg.

At the dawn of America tells the collision between the small story and the big History of the birth of the American West, when a woman and her young son seek at all costs to cross the West while the area is a battlefield between expansionist settlers, the Mormon militia wanting to claim the Promised Land, and the Native Americans ready to do anything to defend their lands.

© Netflix

It is almost incomprehensible to discover this series so late when, beyond a western directed by Berg – who is not the first to come – the casting itself justified a much more intensive promotional campaign. Taylor Kitsch (John Carter, True Detective), Betty Gilpin (GLOW, The Hunt), Dane DeHaan (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Valérian), Jay Courtney (Suicide Squad, Jack Reacher), Shea Whigham (Mission : Impossible 7), Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy) and many others. Whether you know them all by name or not, we are faced with a cast of “ gules » many times crossed and talented.

For what At the dawn of America cardboard?

You don't have to wait until the end of the six episodes that make up this mini-series to understand why it so quickly found its audience. Although the western genre is not the most popular, it portrait of an America in its infancy where morality is no match for personal interest is conducive to a multitude of intrigues around lawless characters. And Smith has a hollow nose in leaving the usual conflicts between cowboys and Indians or between cowboys and cowboys to interest us in a third force present: the Mormons.

From there, we will find classic themes, but always interesting to explore : greed, religious fanaticism, redemption, revenge, etc. The scenario knows how to hook us as much with the flight of a small motley band through (really) wild territories, as with the war for power between the three camps. We are not saying that every aspect of the scenario is flawless, however none of its facets can be described as filler and we want to see the conclusion of each segment. Berg and Smith master their rhythm and the twists and turns so that each episode offers us a questioning of the forces present, the actions of each person, and the new problems which are sure to arise.

© Netflix

However, would this be enough forAt the dawn of America stands out as much in the current landscape of the series when all eyes were on the imminent arrival of Severance season 2? Let's not hide it, what stands out here is the ultra-violence that reigns there. From the first episode, the scene is set with a bloody massacre of several minutes in sequence shot. And this is just the beginning.

The Netflix series intends to spare us nothing between corpses, mutilations and traumatic events. The violence is extremely visual, suggesting a future America founded on immorality by men who have long lost their humanity. The barrier between the individual and the animal is often shaky, as if the goal could only be transformation, all communication having, in any case, become impossible. A savage state in which the good guy must become the bad guy if he wants to survive.

It is the last point which makes At the dawn of America so captivating: a large number of protagonists and, yet, each has an important role to play in the story. Whether you love them or hate them, the scenario forgets no one and we can't wait to get to the end to find out who will be the last man, or woman, standing. Here we have a western which has ingested modern codes to offer us a gripping story, both narratively and visually (despite very dull photography). An experience you won't regret.

???? To not miss any news on the Journal du Geek, subscribe on Google News. And if you love us, we have a newsletter every morning.

-

-

PREV Music: Small Nkuka in concert in Pointe-Noire in February
NEXT Best chef in the world in 2017, she will open a luxury hotel-restaurant in Ille-et-Vilaine in a castle that she renovated