The Abandons’ Is Netflix’s Hottest Western, but Kevin Costner’s Gritty 71% RT Series Is a Lot More Ruthless

Since its premiere on December 4, 2025, Netflix’s latest Western series The Abandons has been making waves. Now at #3 in the US and global streaming charts, following only Stranger Things and Sean Combs: The Reckoning, the series, led by Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson, is certainly making a mark. But while the series’ tension between the wealthy and the self-starters is certainly nail-biting, countless Western series have moved viewers over the years. Among them is the underseen 2012 series Hatfields and McCoys, led by Western trailblazer Kevin Costner and the late and great Bill Paxton.

Based on the true story of one of America’s oldest and most well-known feuds, Hatfields & McCoys follows the rivalry between the Hatfields of West Virginia, led by patriarch “Devil” Anse Hatfield (Costner), and the McCoys of Kentucky, led by Randall McCoy (Paxton). The series, which became the first scripted drama released by History Channel, followed these families as they returned home near the end of the Civil War and shattered any relationship they still had left. Their tensions start off as suspicions and misunderstandings at first, but quickly escalate into a violent, all-out warfare by the end. As hostilities continued, and outside forces joined the fight, the government and even the US Supreme Court eventually intervened to stop the confrontation from escalating any further.