Like creator Kurt Sutter, you too should ditch The Abandons
Netflix's painfully misguided Western series stars Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey.
Photo: Michelle Faye/Netflix
Netflix’s The Abandons is misguided nonsense, a show that takes itself so relentlessly seriously that it verges on parody. It’s remarkably easy to see the disastrous production issues that led to creator Kurt Sutter leaving the series. The drama thinks it’s Deadwood but plays more like Westworld, with simplistic cosplay instead of genuine period detail and characters who are two dimensional if they have any personality at all. And it’s telling that generally charismatic and accomplished performers like Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey get stuck in its mud.
Sutter, the creator of Sons Of Anarchy and one of the formative voices for The Shield, brings his brand of macho tough talk to the Old West in this show set in the Washington Territory in 1854. The Abandons centers two families of very different backgrounds and social standing in its take on the Hatfields and McCoys. On one end of town is Constance Van Ness (Anderson), the matriarch of the most admired clan in the area, a power player whose empire continues to expand across the region until it runs into Fiona Nolan (Headey), who refuses to give into Constance’s ploy for her land. Fiona has her own makeshift family of “abandons,” adopted children who are loyal to her until the end, which may come sooner rather than later.
Of course, Constance and Fiona have their allies, mostly of their own kin. The prince in Constance’s empire is Garret (Lucas Till), but her daughter Trisha (Aisling Franciosi) refuses to play a background role, carving her own identity in this dark corner of the country. From his introduction, it’s clear that eldest son Willem (Toby Hemingway) is going to be a problem as he’s sketched as the kind of toxic power figure who takes what he wants, when he wants it, until he runs into somebody unwilling to give up something.
Countering the Van Ness family are the outcasts of Nolan’s clan, which include kindhearted Elias (Nick Robinson), undervalued Albert (Lamar Johnson), loyal Lilla Belle (Natalia del Riego), and faithful daughter Dahlia (Diana Silvers). When Willem rapes Dahlia, the Nolans take action, which leads to a missing Van Ness, an investigation, and a cover-up. As Constance searches the region for her MIA son, a shockingly small number of subplots play out over seven short episodes. (Some are closer to a half hour than a full.) There’s a constant sense that The Abandons is a sketch of an idea, with characters and a setting in search of a story. And the Nolan vs. Van Ness battle is the foundation on which too little is ultimately built.
