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We binged American Primeval yesterday and while it had its good moments, it left a bad taste in our mouths. Yes, spoilers ahead, but also understand some of the show is loosely, very loosely, based on actual history, one of them a key event I incorporated in my own work of fiction.
The show has a couple of storylines which do not interact with each. A woman and child on the run from the law who get aided by a reclusive mountain man on a nebulous mission to link up with the boy’s father on the other side of the Wasatch. And the battle over land between Mormons, Native Americans, the US Government and, in a good role played very well by Shea Whigham, Jim Bridger.
People have remarked on how brutal the show is, but the interesting thing is their faint recreation of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (they refer to it only as the “Meadows Massacre”) is not anywhere near as brutal as the actual event. The real event was indeed a massacre, when emigrants who had surrendered to the Mormons and were guaranteed safe passage, were slaughtered. Here they go down fighting. Sort of. It seems no one, not a wagon train, not the US Army, not people on the run, ever thinks of posting guards. Yes, my Ranger handbook was screaming at me.
