"The corner-piece foundations of classism, sexism, religion, and star-crossed love are there, but the rest of the board is filled with narrative and thematic holes. What happened here? It's almost worth watching as a sicko-mode voyeur, since the series is so disjointed and elliptical that it approaches anomaly and spectacle."
"Set in the Washington Territory in 1854, the seven-episode series follows two warring matriarchs and their respective families. Entrepreneur Constance Van Ness (Gillian Anderson) has been waging a steady campaign of sabotage and abuse against rancher Fiona Nolan (Lena Headey) in order to acquire Fiona's land and expand her own silver mines. Constance is a proper frosty lady and Fiona is a vulgar Irish Catholic, and through them The Abandons struggles to tell a story about the costs of motherhood and ambition."
The Abandons is a seven-episode western set in the Washington Territory in 1854 that centers on two warring matriarchs, Constance Van Ness and Fiona Nolan, whose land feud stems from sabotage and business ambition. The series foregrounds classism, sexism, religion, and star-crossed love but leaves large narrative and thematic gaps that undercut its exploration of motherhood and ambition. The show marks a shift for creator Kurt Sutter toward female-focused storytelling while retaining the ultraviolent, melodramatic sensibility familiar from The Shield and Sons of Anarchy. The overall effect is disjointed, elliptical, and often unsatisfying.
Read at Vulture
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