Netflix's western has strong performances but squandered potential.

I love a good western, so I was excited to see promos for The Abandons on Netflix, a miniseries featuring two awesome actresses: Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson. The two star as the matriarchs of two families in a showdown on the frontier.

Anderson plays Constance Van Ness, a wealthy widow. Her family runs the silver mine, making them the de-factor power behind the town. Headey plays Fiona Nolan, a hard-talking former governess whose found family of orphans runs the cattle ranch known as The Abandons. Constance has her sights set on their land, which she hopes will have new veins of silver to exploit.

Each of the two families has a handful of kids, which adds up to far too many characters for a meager seven-episode run. Only a few of them get any screen time to speak of. Garret Van Ness is Constances' heir-apparent, struggling to earn his mothers' trust. On the Nolan side, daughter Dahlia is a trouble-magnet whose confrontation with Willem Van Ness early in the first episode sets up the season's main conflict. Her brother Elias is a socially awkward cowboy with a crush on Van Ness' daughter, Trisha.

The fact that the story features two women going head to head is a welcome novelty, but we're still left with what is a fairly bland vanilla for a western: wealthy land baron tries to buy out—or drive off, if need be—poorer, independent ranchers. Throw in a star-crossed lovers story between Trisha and Elias, and a few other western standbys (tensions with the native tribes, racist townsfolk, etc.), it's nothing we haven't seen a million times before.

Despite the trope-heavy setup, the execution was done well enough to keep me invested. Headey and Anderson each do a fine job, and their scenes together are some of the high points of the series. Several of the supporting characters stand out, including Ryan Hurst and Brian O'Byrne as two homesteaders Fiona tries to recruit, and Michael Greyeyes as Constance's native scout/right-hand-man. The soundtrack was also unexpectedly cool, with modern-day folk songs being used to dramatic effect at key moments.

Overall, though, the show feels like squandered potential. The characters are a bit thin, and the set design somehow makes everyone look like they're cosplaying. The episodes are weirdly inconsistent in length, which seems to be the result of some last-minute tweaking done after Netflix had creative differences with the show's creator. It's fine, but with the premise and the actors involved, it could have been more. It's not really surprising that Netflix declined to pick it up for a second season, just a shame that it ended on such a giant cliffhanger.

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