Cersei Lannister lost the game of thrones, but Lena Headey has the chance to win a brand new struggle for power in Netflix’s The Abandons. The Western-set drama stars Headey and Gillian Anderson as competing matriarchs from vastly different backgrounds, both of whom are vying for the same plot of land—one which will help their respective families reign over the entire frontier. Amidst their contest, Constance Van Ness (Anderson) and Fiona Nolan (Headey) “find their fates linked by two crimes, an awful secret, a star-crossed love, and a piece of land with silver underneath,” the show’s logline reads. “The collision echoes the American struggle of the haves and have-nots, in a place just beyond the reach of justice.”
Despite the very different settings (The Abandons sets its stage on the Washington Territory of 1854), the above description may sound familiar to Game Of Thronesfans. This time, however, it’s Anderson’s character who’s operating from a place of wealth and privilege, specifically the mining fortune she was left by her late husband. Fiona, on the other hand, is the leader of a found family of orphans and outcasts. “My family are five abandoned souls, now kin,” she says in response to Constance’s “generous offer” on the ranch. “God gave us this home, and only God can take it away.” Constance doesn’t seem to care much for divine providence—another character says she has a “godless soul”—so, unsurprisingly, she goes ahead and tries to take it anyway.
There’s also a Romeo and Juliet storyline underlying all this, as Fiona’s son Elias (Nick Robinson) strikes up a romance with Constance’s daughter Trisha (Aisling Franciosi). Will the star-crossed lovers meet the same fates as their Shakespearean counterparts or will Constance and Fiona find a way to set aside their differences for the sake of their families? We’ll see when the series premieres December 4, but based on the trailer, the latter doesn’t seem likely. After all, when you play the game of frontiers, you win or you die.
