Netflix’s Female-Led ‘Deadwood’ Replacement Is Continuing to Dominate Streaming

Everyone loves a good Western. There’s something inherently comforting about the genre — the open land, the horses, the saloons, the idea of family forged through survival. It taps into something primal, and now there’s a new contender riding in fast. Netflix has just unleashed The Abandons, a brutal, female-led Western that’s already stormed into the streamer’s Top 3.

Only about a week into its release, The Abandons takes what looks like a familiar revenge setup and completely scorches the template. Lena Headey stars as a hardened frontier survivor who rises into a reluctant matriarch, guiding a fractured “found family” across unforgiving terrain. Standing in her way is Gillian Anderson, chilling and ruthless as a powerful mining baron who wants the same stretch of land — and the wealth hidden beneath it.

Set in Washington Territory in 1854, the story starts with a seemingly straightforward land dispute. But nothing stays simple for long. The ground is valuable, power can be purchased, and nearly everyone involved is carrying wounds that run far deeper than the frontier dust. What unfolds isn’t a traditional Western so much as an all-out territorial war, where survival isn’t earned — it’s paid for in blood.

Is ‘The Abandons’ Worth Watching?

Unfortunately, the consensus seems to be that the show isn’t all it’s trumped up to be. The series is packed with undeniable talent and hugely engaging performances, particularly from the two legendary leads at the heart of the story, but it seems like that doesn’t add up to much more than window dressing. Collider’s Carly Lanelabeled the series as “plodding”, opinining that Headey and Anderson deserve much better than what they were given, and noting her take that original helmer Kurt Sutter‘s disagreement with Netflix executives had a material effect on the final product:

“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.”

The Abandons is streaming on Netflix now. Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest updates on your favorite streaming shows.