In the new year, we’re going back to the Old West with “American Primeval,” a Western survival thriller from director Peter Berg (“Friday Night Lights”), writer Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant”), and showrunner Eric Newman (“Narcos”). Netflix released a trailer for the limited series on Thursday.

The series follows people trying to survive on the frontier in 1857. “If these Natives here don’t murder you, you got the Wasatch Mountain Range, grizzlies, wolves, and riled-up Mormons,” mountain man Jim Bridger (Shea Whigham) warns in the trailer. The show’s official description puts the conflict in extremely dramatic terms: “Up is down, pain is everywhere, innocence and tranquility are losing the battle to hatred and fear. Peace is the shrinking minority, and very few possess grace — even fewer know compassion. There is no safe haven in these brutal lands, and only one goal matters: survival. ‘American Primeval’ is a fictionalized...