The Abandons

As a big fan of Western shows/movies I was really looking forward to The Abandons ever since I first heard about it. I've also been a Kurt Sutter fan ever since he created Sons of Anarchy so that grew my excitement even more. Now that's it here and I've seen it I can say that this series met those expectations. It's not the among the best westerners I've ever seen but it's still entertaining enough. Like most reviews here my biggest problem coming in is that at the time it was rare to have a woman hold so much power even more so to have two so I didn't think it would be a believable story. I was wrong, the writing and acting are so strong though that it's easy to accept it. If you're a western fan like myself then give this a try...you won't be disappointed.

I was really looking forward to "The Abandons," but unfortunately, it fell short of expectations. The plot felt disjointed and lacked depth, making it hard to connect with the characters. The pacing was slow, and some storylines seemed to drag on without resolution. While the visuals were decent, they couldn't compensate for the overall lack of engaging writing. It had potential, but ultimately, it didn't deliver. If you hung in there for the entire series, like I did, and feel disappointed-watch American Primeval.

The Abandons is a pretty good western series that takes place in 1850's Washington and follows two family matriarchs, one wealthy (Gillian Anderson) and one poor (Lena Headey) but with a loyal atypical family, as they battle each other for the land owned by the poorer one. If it sounds a lot like Yellowstone that's because it is, just not as good. It's still good enough to watch though. I actually binged through all 7 episodes in only a few days. It does start off kind of blah but it gets better as the season goes on. I wouldn't mind seeing another season or two of this.

Okay, it lacks in originality and the acting can be a bit under done, but it's not a bad story. I came into it without any preconceived notions of another 'Yellowstone'. My biggest complaint about the series, and I see no one else making comment about this, is that Sutter decided to film most of it at night and with totally inadequate lighting. Yes, I realize that in 1854 lighting was primarily candles and lanterns, which didn't give out a lot of light, but watching this I had to discern what was going on because of the pace of the action and the lack of lighting. I even turned out all the lights in the room and adjusted the contrast to offset this, all with no difference in the viewing experience. Combines with the usual (for these days) mumbling of the lines by most characters (I had to turn on the captioning) and I can say it could have been better done. Oh, well...I seriously doubt there will a second season (despite the ending) especially since Sutter left the production before it was finished.

I really don't know what to say. This show is just not that engaging. With two such strong female leads I expected more. It feels more like a Hatfield and McCoys. And there are just way too many stereotypical images thrown in that do nothing for the context. But I think the most irritating and hard to look at is how Lena Healy truly went way too far with the lip Botox. She is a caricature. Such a lovely woman and such horrible transition.