I’m honestly shocked! Netflix is already canceling some of its original shows, and one of them is The Abandons – a Western drama that many people thought could be the next Yellowstone. It’s created by Kurt Sutter, the guy behind Sons of Anarchy, and it had some seriously big names like Lena Headey (Cersei from Game of Thrones) and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) starring in it. I really didn’t expect them to pull the plug so soon, especially with that kind of talent involved.
Why Did Netflix Cancel The Abandons?
I recently watched this really compelling western, and it’s set way back in the 1850s. The story centers around Fiona Nolan, played by Lena Headey, who’s a deeply religious Irish woman. She’s essentially built a family with four adults she’s taken in, and they’re all fighting to keep their farm. The problem is, a really powerful and cutthroat mine owner named Constance Van Ness – Gillian Anderson plays her – is trying to take their land in this little mining town called Angel’s Ridge, out in the Washington Territory. It’s a classic struggle against a much bigger, wealthier opponent.
Based on what’s been said about The Abandons, it was more than just a typical Western action show or a family drama set in the Old West like Yellowstone. It seems the show focused heavily on powerful female characters, and despite not being well-received by fans or critics, creator Kurt Sutter appears to have been just as skilled at building this world and its characters as he was with the biker drama Sons of Anarchy. However, many reviews suggest the show tried to do too much, adding too many side characters and familiar Western elements, and ultimately got bogged down in unnecessary storylines – a problem Sutter faced in the later seasons of Sons of Anarchy.
According to Hunter Ingram of The Wrap, the biggest weakness of ‘The Abandons’ is its tendency to overcomplicate a potentially strong story. The show features intense dedication from both Constance, who fiercely protects her family, and Fiona, who is equally devoted to her family and farm. This central conflict has the potential to drive the entire series, but the show gets bogged down in unnecessary subplots and filler. This undermines the powerful rivalry between the two leads – a ‘mother-off’ that viewers would likely enjoy. While it’s interesting to see Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson fall into common tropes of the western genre, the show loses momentum when it focuses on these distractions. By the end of the season, the impact of their confrontations feels lessened.
I just got the numbers on The Abandons, and honestly, they’re pretty grim. The show launched on December 4th, 2025, and only managed around 19.8 million views in its first month. It briefly cracked the Top 10, hitting number four for a couple of weeks, but then viewership plummeted. In the following two-and-a-half weeks, it only pulled in about 4.8 million views – basically, it fizzled out. Considering it was a Western with all the expensive set pieces that implies, it’s no surprise the show got the axe. Things were messy behind the scenes too – Sutter apparently clashed with the production team and left before filming wrapped, and I’m hearing actors were already looking for their next gigs before the official cancellation even came down.
Whatever happened on set seems to have been small, as director and writer Sutter is still busy completing his first Netflix film, a horror-drama called This Beast. The movie is inspired by a true story and centers on an 18th-century English village terrorized by an unknown creature. When dozens of villagers are killed, and religious extremism fuels the panic, a humble trapper takes on the impossible job of stopping the violence. However, this hunt isn’t just a job for him—it’s driven by a personal connection to the events.
Sutter is returning to the world of motorcycle gangs and crime with his new Apple TV+ series, Nomad, which stars Jason Momoa.
You can stream The Abandons on Netflix. Discuss Kurt Sutter’s work with us on the ComicBook Forum!
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2026-01-22 19:41