While Brigham Young (Kim Coates) succeeds in burning down Jim Bridger’s (Shea Whigham) beloved fort, Bridger survives the fire. In real life, Jim Bridger would head east to plea his case to the U.S. Government against Young. Fort Bridger would be resurrected as a key U.S. military base of operations and Bridger wouldn’t die until 1881.

Netflix’s new Western series is a bleak and bloody affair.

Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin star in a Netflix mini-series about the brutal, brutal West.

The fates of these five characters — and those of the people they encounter along the way — unfold over six gruelling and sprawling episodes. The latest offering in TV’s recent Western renaissance, it feels darker and grittier than Taylor Sheridan’s soapy “horse opera” Yellowstone and a world away from the romanticised West of the genre’s heyday.