‘The Abandons’ (2025) Netflix Series Review - Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey Deserve Better

The Abandons was initially supposed to have ten one-hour episodes, but due to budget cuts and creator Kurt Sutter's exit over creative differences with Netflix executives, we now have seven choppy episodes with a 35-50-minute runtime. You can really tell that people simply gave up on this series — that everybody just, wait for it, abandoned it. The signs appear in Episode 1 itself, when Fiona (Lena Headey) and her adopted kids try to save their animals and control a fire started by Constance Van Ness (Gillian Anderson). The jerky editing and scrappy images make the action almost indecipherable. It's chaos all right, but the unintentionally ugly kind. Take another scene in which Elias (Nick Robinson) and Trisha (Aisling Franciosi) follow Roache (Michiel Huisman) and Constance, and are then chased by some men. The tone doesn't change; there is no sudden eruption of thrill or tension. The chase sequence doesn't feel any different from, say, the scene where Elias, while spying on Roache and Constance from a distance, talks to Trisha. The only change is superficial and involves a shaky camera. Again, The Abandons mistakes disjointed quick cuts and closeups for genuine excitement. We experience a visual whiplash while the series thinks it has entertained us.
 

It's also quite apparent that many scenes are missing or cut from this final product. For instance, when we go from watching Elias severing a patient's hand at what looks like a hospital to finding him inside a church talking to Fiona, we sense that a scene connecting the two moments has been cut — or maybe it wasn't filmed at all? The same sensation returns when a mother and a son argue and physically attack one another, but then we merely see them exchanging one-line apologies a few minutes later. I don't know if The Abandons was the original title, though, given the circumstances, it definitely seems apt and makes sense. Even when the show's name appears on the screen, you feel as if the image was a part of a longer opening credits that, obviously, was never completed. What's more, the characters drift across the screen without ever becoming flesh-and-blood human beings. Blame the lack of agency—or, more accurately, an agency that never turns tangible, real, or urgent. Constance's desire for Fiona's land is reduced to a series of well-performed verbal clashes. The idea of a Black teacher taking on a class of White children, along with a father's objection to this decision, yields no meaningful outcome. Even Elias and Trisha's romance is deployed as a bland setup for a payoff that fizzles out with a whimper. Early on, we're led to believe that Roache, Trisha, and Elias might form a love triangle (Roache and Trisha bond over their musical interests), but nothing of the sort occurs. Roache, in fact, enters and exits the show like a half-baked plot convenience whose only job is to help Constance whenever the story demands it. 

Ultimately, one comes out of The Abandons disappointed. This sadness has nothing to do with aesthetics or expectations, both of which go down the drain as soon as the show begins. One feels bad for Headey and Anderson, two terrific actors who definitely deserved better. The scenes in which they are together hit you like tidal waves, whirring with fierce emotions. Anderson almost walks away with the show when, after listening to Fiona's speech about how god gave her her land and how only he will take it away from her, says, "If I knew I would be getting a sermon, I would have worn my Sunday finery." And when Fiona almost spills a secret by accusing Constance of corrupting a priest, the expressions on both the actors' faces threaten to break the surface of the show with unpredictable energy. In these moments, you wonder what The Abandons could have been if it hadn't been released incomplete. In its current form, however, The Abandons isn't even a show — it's damage control issued precipitously, casually, indifferently.

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times