David Thewlis appears early in the trailer for Barkskins, and it was his appearance in period wilderness costume that made me stop and watch.
Elijah Wood and Marcia Gay Harden, two actors I admire greatly and always enjoy watching, then popped up in short order. Combined with the dark aesthetic and gnarly action, the trailer made me want to know more, despite the presence of a familiar yellow logo in the lower right.
Yes, that's the logo for National Geographic, a title and brand I've always associated with real-life nature stories. In the past, I've tuned into the National Geographic cable channel for soothing nature docs, but I confess that I haven't been paying attention since Disney gobbled the channel up, including it as a feature on its Disney+ streaming service.
In a little bit different scenario, Barkskins will premiere on the National Geographic cable channel on May 25, 2020 (Memorial Day in the U.S.), and then be available the next day on the Hulu streaming service. Now, what's the series about?
Based on a novel by The Shipping News writer Annie Proulx, first published in 2016, the series "follows a disparate group of outcasts and dreamers battling to escape their pasts while navigating the brutal frontier hardships, competing interests, and tangled loyalties at the crossroads of civilization: the New World."
Brutal really comes across in the trailer, which you can watch below.