Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Abandons’ on Netflix, where the matriarchs of two very different families square off in 1850s Washington Territory

Kurt Sutter made his name by making a motorcycle gang into a family worth following. Now in The Abandons on Netflix, his follow-up to Sons Of Anarchy, Sutter examines family dynamics in the Washington Territory in the 1850s. One family is wealthy and connected, and the other one is a “found family” who are fiercely protective of each other and their land.

THE ABANDONS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “Angel’s Ridge. Washington Territory. 1854.” We see a small frontier town at the foot of a mountain range.

The Gist:  The Van Ness family rides into town — matriarch Constance Van Ness (Gillian Anderson), her business-minded younger son Garret (Lucas Till), her volatile older son Willem (Toby Hemingway) and daughter Trisha (Aisling Franciosi). They’re there to tell the mayor (Patton Oswalt) that they need the vein of silver that runs under the ranches in Jasper Hollow, and Constance insists to the mayor that they’ll pursue acquiring that land from the four families who own it, however they can.

One of the ranches is owned by Fiona Nolan (Lena Headey), whose family is full of “abandons,” whom she and her late husband adopted as their own — Elias and Dahlia Teller (Nick Robinson, Diana Silvers), Albert Mason (Lamar Johnson) and Lilla Belle (Natalia Del Riego). Late the same night, they find themselves defending their ranch against rustlers, setting fire to the cattle pen and sending some of the herd off a nearby cliff. Fiona and her brood are convinced that this was the Van Ness family’s doing, as a way to scare them into selling their land.

The next day, Dahlia has words with Willem while they’re both in town, and Willem drinks off his anger. Later that night, he arrives at the Nolan ranch and sexually attacks Dahlia, setting off a chain of events that gets Constance and her family worried when Willem doesn’t return to their ranch.

As Constance and her family ask around, aided by her enforcer, Jack Cree (Michael Greyeyes), and Roache (Michiel Huisman), a leader of a gang of bandits Cree brought on board to help find Willem, Fiona and Elias try to convince some of the other ranchers in the valley to band together against the Van Nesses. One family, Miles Alderton (Ryan Hurst) and his daughter, are willing to listen, but another rancher (Brian F. O’Byrne), who lives on his land alone with his beloved dog, doesn’t want to get involved.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Kurt Sutter, The Abandons has the family aspect of his last series Sons Of Anarchy, combined with Westerns that take place in frontier times, like 1883 or American Primeval. Sutter did leave the show before filming of the first season ended over creative differences.

Our Take: If there’s anyone who can make a family drama that features a found family in tough circumstances, it’s Sutter, and he is able to make both of the families featured in The Abandons compelling to watch. Yes, the Van Ness family is the more traditional of the two families, but their wealth and the determination of Constance Van Ness to take over the silver mines in Jasper Hollow make them more interesting than your typical greedy oligarchs.

Of course, Fiona Nolan and her family are the more interesting of the two, if only because how they came together. When Constance comes to the Nolan ranch and questions Fiona about Willem’s interaction with Dahlia, Fiona makes a speech about her family of “Abandons” and how she’ll never sell the land, concluding with the declaration that “God gave us this home and only God can take it away.” With that speech, the parameters of Fiona’s family becomes clearer, but we would like to either hear some more backstory or see it in flashback form.

Headey is appropriately earthy and passionate as Fiona, and Anderson does her usually fine job of being distant and calculating as Constance. In the scenes where the two stars are interacting, the mistrust and almost downright hatred between the two matriarchs is apparent. We think Headey’s performance is the more consistent of the two, with Anderson’s voice drifting from rough to smooth depending on the scene.

Also, it’s hard at first to look at the Van Ness family as anything other than evil and greedy. They do have the betterment and enrichment of the town and the area in general in mind as they try to take over all of the silver reserves under the ground, but on first blush what we see is a family willing to go to any length to get what they want.

Another thing we’re not sure is how Hemingway’s character Willem will factor into this. We know he was troubled and volatile, but where he is at the end of the first episode makes us really wonder what his presence — or lack of it — will mean in the battle between Constance and Fiona.

Performance Worth Watching: Again, when Anderson and Headey are in scenes together, it’s hard to look away.

Sex And Skin: Willem sexually attacks Dahlia, but that’s the only thing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: As we pan down past a fresh burial plot, we see the silver that’s at the crux of this battle.

Sleeper Star: Michael Greyeyes is a steadying presence as Jack Cree, especially when he tells Willem that he’s done drinking for the day.

Most Pilot-y Line: “If his nerves need settling, I’d rather it be drink than some whore,” Constance says about Willem.

Our Call: STREAM IT. As the stakes get higher and the tension ratchets up, Sutter’s ability to create surprising and deep family dynamics should make The Abandons a fascinating show to watch.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.