'The Abandons' Review: Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey Deserve Better Than Netflix's Plodding Western

'The Abandons' Review: Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey Deserve Better Than Netflix's Plodding Western Lena Headey in The AbandonsImage via Netflix By  Carly Lane Published 44 minutes ago Carly Lane is an Atlanta-based writer and critic who has been with Collider in some form or fashion since 2021. She considers herself a television nerd, diehard romance/sci-fi/fantasy reader, and nascent horror lover. Her fondness of books is only eclipsed by the towering TBR that her shelves can't possibly contain. She is the author of A REGENCY GUIDE TO MODERN LIFE: 1800s ADVICE ON 21ST CENTURY LOVE, FRIENDS, FUN AND MORE, published through DK Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) and currently available wherever books are sold. Sign in to your Collider account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Rare is the show that can successfully stage a comeback from a major creative overhaul. There have certainly been some exceptions to the overall rule over the years — especially in the realm of long-running network television, where departures happen both in front of and behind the camera — but it rarely bodes well when a creator exits a show while it's in the midst of being made. Such is the case for Kurt Sutter's The Abandons, which marks the writer and director's first show for any network or streamer since FX's one-and-done The Bastard Executioner a decade ago. The Western drama initially had a lot going for it based on both pedigree and premise alone; who wouldn't want to watch a series starring Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson as a pair of warring matriarchs in the 1850s, fighting for every scrap of land they can claim for their families?

Unfortunately, any discord that may have occurred between Sutter and executive parties behind the scenes — which, according to reports, resulted from Netflix being unhappy with rough cuts of the series premiere — does seem to have made an impact on the final product. Based on the seven episodes provided for review (the show was originally greenlit for 10, then trimmed to eight), The Abandons is far from the female-forward Deadwood replacement many may have been hoping for, and despite the immense talent brimming over from its leads, Headey and Anderson's best scenes can't make up for plodding pacing and an uneven focus that leads to the story's best characters and elements being sidelined, with the season culminating in a sloppy race to the finish to tie up every dangling narrative thread.

What Is 'The Abandons' About?

In the fictional town of Angel's Ridge, in the largely unsettled Washington Territory, two families stand on opposing sides of an ongoing land war, with privilege and wealth only occasionally outmatched by scrappy resourcefulness. Constance Van Ness (Anderson), a widow and mother of three, is the town's preeminent authority in all but name (think Ian McShane's Al Swearengen, only with much less... well, swearing), someone even the sheriff defers to when there are legal matters that need addressing. Her ruthless ambition involves mining as much wealth as she can from her land — literally, in this case, since the ongoing search for silver is how she's made her fortune — and removing any obstacles that might stand in the way of allowing her to widen her control. In many ways, Fiona Nolan (Headey) is the precise opposite of the woman she despises most, having scraped and clawed to achieve even the smallest measure of Constance's success. With no biological children of her own, Fiona has adopted several orphans, forging the kind of family that doesn't look like any other in Angel's Ridge, but one that fights just as passionately to protect what's theirs.

Their offspring are also frequently spinning in and out of each other's orbits, given Fiona and Constance's ongoing conflict as well as the fact that Angel's Ridge is a pretty small town to begin with. Willem (Toby Hemingway), Constance's volatile and impulsive older son, harbors an interest in Fiona's adoptive daughter, Dahlia Teller (Diana Silvers), even though she rejects him at every turn. Meanwhile, Dahlia's brother, Elias (Nick Robinson), may be kindling a secret crush of his own on Constance's daughter Trisha (Aisling Franciosi), who would much rather practice her skills on the piano than anything else. As for Constance's other son, Garret (Lucas Till), he continually makes efforts to prove himself to his mother, but his inexperience and bluster often render him a laughingstock behind his back.

When a late-night ambush on the Abandons, the land that Fiona owns, ends in the loss of some of the family's cattle, Dahlia gives Willem an embarrassing dressing-down in public, and his wounded pride drives him to retaliate later on. What unfolds on that fateful night creates ripple effects that threaten not only to drive an even bigger wedge between both families but could potentially culminate in the total destruction of Angel's Ridge. The lengths that Fiona and her children go to in order to cover up what really happened also bring a swirl of allies and enemies into the picture, chief among them Miles (Sons of Anarchy's Ryan Hurst), a soft-spoken, gentle-giant neighbor who questions Fiona's recklessness but holds secrets of his own, Xavier Roache (Game of Thrones' Michiel Huisman), Constance's new hired man who has no issue with getting his hands dirty or operating outside of the law, and Jack Cree (Michael Greyeyes), Constance's loyal enforcer who begins to harbor his own doubts about remaining linked up with the Van Ness matriarch, especially once she starts making increasingly cold-blooded decisions.

Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey's Strong Performances Can't Save 'The Abandons' Uneven Pacing

Again, based on mere concept alone, The Abandons had a lot of promise — and in one major aspect, the series does deliver. When you cast two iconic actors who carry presence in their mere pinkies and have built up a well-deserved reputation for playing powerful women, success would normally seem guaranteed. Gillian Anderson infuses the character of Constance Van Ness with a frosty sensibility that slowly, tantalizingly thaws into something much more unbridled, and by the time her outer facade has melted to reveal her true nature, she evolves from chilling to terrifying. Where Constance is The Abandons' ice, Lena Headey's Fiona Nolan is its fire, guaranteed to throw a punch first and ask questions only after the blood has dried. That impulse, unfortunately, puts her in situations that are increasingly difficult to get out of, but Headey's performance (albeit with a somewhat uneven Irish accent) sufficiently convinces you that Fiona will beat the odds to withstand any trial she and her children are put through. Any time these two are onscreen together, it's a thrill, even though their gravitas can't overcome the story's biggest weaknesses in pacing and plotting.

There are a handful of intriguing characters built up around The Abandons' two strongest cornerstones, but the show doesn't have sufficient time to devote to all of them. It's no surprise that the forbidden romance between Franciosi's Tricia and Robinson's Elias earns significant attention, and not only because their dynamic is one of the most interesting to watch; Franciosi is certainly no stranger to period dramas, but she's always more captivating onscreen when her characters' quiet poise begins to unravel, and the same holds true for her performance in The Abandons. Similarly, Till's Garret starts out as the Van Ness failson with a laundry list of unacknowledged mommy issues — which one moment in particular hammers home without an ounce of subtlety — but greatly improves once he's not alternating between issuing wooden speeches and having childish tantrums about his own leadership potential.

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Unfortunately, other supporting presences don't receive nearly as much development or growth, with their scenes haphazardly scattered throughout the season as a means of breaking up the primary conflict. Fiona's other two children, Albert Mason (The Last of Us' Lamar Johnson) and Lilla Belle (Natalia del Riego), are relatively siloed off into their own storylines, with the latter earning no meaningful dialogue or interactions to strengthen her dynamics with her fellow adopted siblings. Johnson arguably delivers one of the show's most intriguing performances, but outside of a promising new vocation and an equally charming romance that blossoms late in the season, Albert is never built out quite as richly as the character deserves. Even Silvers' Dahlia, whose trauma at Willem's hand has lasting consequences for both her and her family, isn't substantially developed beyond that inciting incident, to the show's detriment. On a macro level, there are other, more glaring issues, including the fact that most of the story's Indigenous presence is treated like window dressing for its established world. By the time the season starts to approach the finish line, the focus has to widen to account for a major action sequence with unconvincing visual effects at best, but it's also difficult to drum up any real excitement when most of the characters involved haven't been fleshed out enough for the weight of any potential losses to be felt.

It's hard not to wonder what The Abandons would have looked like if Sutter had remained to steer the ship from beginning to end, but in his absence, the Netflix western series can't sustain any significant narrative momentum, despite the two acting powerhouses that are billed highest. The show's episodes are wildly divergent in runtime — some stretch for closer to an hour, while others only clock in at around 35 minutes — and both the story and characters ultimately suffer for it. There may have been a glimmer of promise in the premise when The Abandons was first announced, especially for a genre that has rarely been led onscreen by women, but the plodding end product that was cobbled together after Sutter's departure can't successfully be carried on Anderson and Headey's strengths alone.

4 10

The Abandons

Two acting powerhouses can't save this plodding Western.

Like Action Drama Release Date December 4, 2025 Network Netflix Directors Otto Bathurst, Stephen Surjik Writers Kurt Sutter

Cast

See All

• Lena Headey Constance Van Ness
• Gillian Anderson Fiona Nolan

Genres Action, Drama Creator(s) Kurt Sutter Expand Collapse Pros & Cons

• Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey deliver strong performances as The Abandons' warring matriarchs.
• Aisling Franciosi's Tricia becomes infinitely more interesting once her poise begins to unravel.

• Most of the supporting characters aren't fleshed out in substantial ways.
• The episode runtimes are drastically uneven, and the pacing suffers for it.
• The finale doesn't get enough narrative runway for the stakes to feel earned.

• TV Reviews
• Lena Headey
• Gillian Anderson

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