Netflix’s “American Primeval” promises to show “America like never before.” But as fans of frontier stories know, there’s really nothing new under the Western sun.

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?

With the western genre an increasingly difficult sell for audiences, the streamer’s gritty new series seems to have beaten the odds. Louis Chilton looks at the merits and significance of ‘American Pri