Spoilers for American Primeval, now streaming on Netflix** The first episode of American Primeval, directed and executive produced by Peter Berg, follows single mother Sara Rowell (Betty Gilpin) as she and her son Devin (Preston Mota) attempt to make their way from Jim Bridger’s (Shea Whigham) Fort Bridger to California.

The series, now streaming on Netflix, depicts the brutality with which the Mormons sought to create a new world for their beliefs, the pride with which the native people held onto their ancestral lands, and the tragedy of the people just seeking to make a new home in the chaos. But is any of it true?

Peter Berg directs an epic six-part drama about the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, in which more than 100 settlers were murdered by militant Mormons.

Netflix’s new historical drama “American Primeval” is currently the No. 1 series on the site. But how much of the show and its characters are based on the 1857 Utah War?

American Primeval ’s director and executive producer Peter Berg ( Friday Night Lights) knows that depicting real events isn’t without its challenges, and while much of what’s depicted on screen is dramatized,

American Primeval, a new Netflix limited series about the Utah War in the 1850s, isn’t afraid to dramatize the horrors of the Old West. Directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) and written by Mark L.

In this final episode of American Primeval, a fanatical Brigham Young rants about his God purifying the world from wickedness as his Mormons, fresh off a genocidal attack on the Shoshone, solidify their claim on Utah by burning Fort Bridger to the ground.

Star Dane DeHaan and makeup department head Howard Berger explain how they and special makeup effects artist Jamie Kelman pulled off the Frankenstein look of a scalped Mormon settler and his rotting head following a wagon train massacre: "I wanted to destroy him from the outside.

The American Primeval ending is reflective of the way the series started with epic death and destruction. We shared a list of the major deaths in the season finale.