The Abandons Review: Netflix's Western Goes Full Shakespeare — And It Works

Netflix saddles up with The Abandons, a gritty frontier saga that flips the Western playbook, pitting rival factions led by formidable matriarchs in a dust-choked showdown—a rarity for the genre.

Netflix has a new Western, The Abandons, and it does not ride in the usual formation. It is a dust-and-spurs feud led by two women who are absolutely running the show. Honestly, I cannot think of another straight-ahead frontier series that puts dueling matriarchs on opposite sides like this. The vibe is part gunsmoke, part fate, and more than a little Shakespeare in the dirt.

What it is about

We are in the Washington Territory, 1854, in a farming town called Angel Ridge. Constance Van Ness (Gillian Anderson) wants the land and the leverage, and she is not shy about getting it. Constance is a quietly ruthless power player, married with three kids, and she is been tampering with the locals' cattle to squeeze the community into submission.

Her children: there is the golden-boy son (Lucas Till), the good-hearted daughter Trisha (Aisling Franciosi), and the eldest, Willem (Toby Hemingway), who is the family disaster. Willem gets blind drunk and attacks Dahlia Teller (Diana Silvers). A nearby clan intervenes, Dahlia drives a pitchfork into him, and as he is bleeding out, Fiona (Lena Headey) steps in. She plants a boot on his throat and snaps his neck before the Van Ness machine can spin this into an untouchable crime. That one decision lights the fuse on a season-long war where the question is not who drew first, but who is still standing at the end.

If you are sensing fate, loyalty, betrayal, and power circling each other like vultures, you are on the right track. The show also threads in a lovers-on-opposite-sides thing between Elias (Nick Robinson) and Trisha (Aisling Franciosi) that plays like a frontier Romeo-and-Juliet, for better and worse.

Who is in this

• Gillian Anderson as Constance Van Ness, the town's calculating powerbroker
• Lena Headey as Fiona, the matriarch whose choice turns a feud into a war
• Toby Hemingway as Willem, Constance's eldest and the spark for the conflict
• Diana Silvers as Dahlia Teller, who fights back and survives
• Nick Robinson as Elias, tangled up in that star-crossed romance with Trisha
• Aisling Franciosi as Trisha, Constance's daughter with a conscience
• Lucas Till as the golden boy in the Van Ness family
• Also in the mix: Ryan Hurst and Katey Sagal (familiar faces for Kurt Sutter fans), plus Patton Oswalt, Michiel Huisman, Lamar Johnson, and Natalia del Riego

Behind the scenes drama (and a cleaner coat of paint)

The Abandons comes from Kurt Sutter, the creator of Sons of Anarchy and Mayans M.C. He was hired to build this for Netflix, then left before filming wrapped over creative differences. No one is saying exactly what set off the split. What you can see on screen: this is noticeably more sanitized than Sutter's past work. Cleaner edges, fewer scars. That is an odd choice for a Western, but the show still keeps some Sutter DNA via regular collaborators like Katey Sagal and Ryan Hurst.

There is also a very specific flavor to the writing. Dialogue swings between blunt frontier talk and a more buttoned-up, mid-19th-century American formality. It sounds like a gamble, but it is weirdly addictive once your ear adjusts. Stylistically, think neo-Western: contemporary filmmaking rhythms, modern character beats, and current social concerns draped over a classic wagon-frame story.

So, is it worth your time?

If you are expecting Unforgiven grit, this is not that. It is a darker slice of Americana with a Western Gothic streak, and yes, a few obvious genre comforts. The romance subplot leans familiar, the tone wobbles at times, and the show can explain itself a little too much. But it is also unpredictable in a way most series are not anymore — action beats and character exits actually shock.

Bottom line: it is not your father's Western, but the ritualistic slow burn sticks with you.

The Abandons streams exclusively on Netflix starting December 4. All seven episodes were reviewed.