It wasn’t long ago that it seemed like the Yellowstone franchise was ready to close up shop. After Kevin Costner’s very public exit from the flagship series, the former critical darling limped to the finish line. News also came down that Taylor Sheridan was leaving Paramount, signing a lucrative deal with NBCUniversal to develop shows and movies. However, hope arrived in the form of the trailer for Y: Marshals, a spinoff focusing on the youngest Dutton child, Kayce. Beth’s series, The Dutton Ranch, which will also feature Rip Wheeler, is progressing as well, bringing Westworld actor Ed Harris and Annette Bening into the fold.
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Both of those series are still a ways away, though, leaving a ranch-sized void in need of filling. While the easy solution is to start Yellowstone over from the beginning, that’s not the only option. Streaming giant Netflix, which is in the middle of its Stranger Things farewell tour, is showing love to the ever-growing Western genre. The Abandons, a drama from Kurt Sutter, is currently taking the platform by storm, landing the number four spot on the Global Top 10 Shows list, just behind the first season of Stranger Things.
Taking place in the 1850s, the series focuses on Fiona Nolan, played by Game of Thrones‘ Lena Headey, who adopts four children after failing to have one of her own. Life is good for her in Oregon until some aristocrats show up on Nolan’s doorstep and claim to own the land her home sits on. That arrangement doesn’t work for a woman who’s used to fighting for what she wants, so a conflict breaks out.
Since The Abandons dropped on Netflix on December 4th, it’s racked up 37 million hours worth of views. Those stellar numbers are probably only to grow over the next few weeks as people head home for the holidays and scour all of the streaming platforms for something to binge. And The Abandons is probably going to need all the help it can get because it faces an uphill battle in the fight for its renewal.
The Abandons Has Been on a Bumpy Road
Three weeks before The Abandons was set to end filming, Sutter left the production. Despite coming up with the idea years before he began working on Sons of Anarchy, he and Netflix couldn’t get on the same page, with disagreements over the show’s structure causing a rift. Otto Bathurst and Rob Askins wrapped things up, and just over a year later, the show dropped on Netflix.
Unfortunately, the issues during production may have taken a toll on the final product. The Abandons currently holds a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, which is well into the “Rotten” range. But Netflix rarely lives and dies by critical response. It’s going to look at the numbers and let those decide whether the Western series deserves another chance to jump on its horse.
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Image courtesy of Virgin Films
