Published Jul 2, 2026, 7:39 PM EDT
Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wife and daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, and conducts interviews. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own. His novella, The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain,** **was released in 2023. His Western short story, The Devil’s Left Hand, received the Spur Award for “Best Western Short Fiction” from the Western Writers of America in 2025. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family.
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There’s something about the Western genre that pulls us back in no matter how far we stray from the mid-to-late 19th century. The wild frontier calls to us even from our modern comforts, pulling us into an untamed land full of outlaws, Indians, ramblers, and cowboys. While some Westerns are slow burns or take a minute or two to secure our attention, there are other times when the genre grabs our interest from the beginning and keeps it until the very end — and those are the shows we aim to highlight here.
While certain popular Western programs, like Gunsmoke and Bonanza, end on not particularly high notes, there are plenty of horse operas that stick the landing. We’ve put together Western shows that will keep you laser-focused from start to finish, ranging from epic miniseries’ to a decade’s worth of television. So settle in for the Old West, because we’re headed for the frontier.
From that harrowing opening sequence to the title alone, Godless throws the viewer right into the deep end of the unending battle between the Western outlaw and lawman — only, in this case, it’s so much more than that. The seven-part Netflix drama boasts an impressive cast that includes Jeff Daniels, Michelle Dockery, and Jack O’Connell, and features enough complex (yet rootable) characters for viewers to get behind. You’ll certainly have no trouble sticking with it.
When Roy Goode (O’Connell) evades his former mentor Frank Griffin (Daniels), he hides out in a town full of women after a mining disaster killed nearly every man in town. With Griffin and his band of outlaws on his tail, Goode must work together with the people of La Belle to defend their home. Godless kicked off the modern streaming trend of limited Western series, and it’s even considered one of Netflix’s most perfect miniseries.
Another Netflix series that’ll hook you with little trouble at all, American Primeval is easily the grittiest Western series on this list. With the backdrop of the infamous “Mountain Meadows Massacre” and the rest of the Utah War in the forefront, mountain man Isaac Reed (Taylor Kitsch) is tasked with guiding Sara Holloway (Betty Gilpin) and her son through the wild frontier. Along the way, they’re stalked by everything from bounty hunters to outlaws and everything in between.
A complex blend of genuine history and fictional events, American Primeval is an intense six-part adventure that touches on a lesser-explored era of frontier history. With Kim Coates** **as the notorious Mormon leader Brigham Young and Shea Whigham as frontiersman Jim Bridger, it almost serves as a follow-up to ***The Revenant **— *which tracks considering Mark L. Smith wrote that film as well.
Another modern take on the Old West, Lawmen: Bass Reeves follows the first black U.S. Deputy Marshal west of the Mississippi as he rides across Indian Territory to enforce the law. Played by the remarkable David Oyelowo, Bass Reeves is a force to be reckoned with as he rises above his past as a slave to become one of the most effective lawmen in the region. If producer Taylor Sheridan’s name is what got you in the door, Oyelowo will be the one to keep you watching.
Although there have been hopes that Lawmen could continue as a Western anthology series, this eight-part limited series offers more than enough excitement for fans looking to revisit Indian Territory. With a cast that also includes Donald Sutherland, Dennis Quaid, and Lauren E. Banks, this Paramount+ triumph is a powerful entry in the Western genre canon that certainly earned its high praise. Creator Chad Feehan outdid himself with this one.
Although some might consider Little House on the Prairie to be more of a “Midwestern” than a traditional Western, it certainly qualifies as a horse opera. Based very loosely on the autobiographical novels by **Laura Ingalls Wilder **(played by the ever-smiling Melissa Gilbert on the series), the NBC series ran for nine seasons as it followed the Ingalls (and later the Wilder) family as they settled in Walnut Grove. With brand-new challenges every week, 200 episodes will fly by as you plow through the prairie.
Sure, there are a few duds in there, but with nine seasons and four made-for-TV movies to hold you over, you’ll feel like you’re part of the Ingalls family in no time. Just don’t expect a direct adaptation of the novels — this show takes some serious liberties. If you’ve already binged through Little House a few times, here are some similar shows you may want to give a try.
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
For something a bit more fantastical, may we suggest Outer Range? The sci-fi-flavored neo-Western follows the Abbott family of Wyoming ranchers in the aftermath of a mysterious black hole that appears in the middle of their west pasture. But patriarch Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) has some secrets he’s hoping to keep under wraps, secrets that risk being discovered if more curious parties take a gander on his land.
Outer Range gets really weird the longer it goes,** utilizing time travel in one of the most creative ways for a horse opera**. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but this out-of-the-box two-season Western drama deserves to be highlighted for its creativity and impressive cast. Of course, Outer Range also ends on a pretty massive cliffhanger, so watch at your own risk — though, truth be told, the ride itself is so wild you may not even mind.
Another stellar two-season Western (this time with a definitive ending), The Son was AMC’s answer to Yellowstone before *Yellowstone *even hit the airwaves. Following Texas cattleman, oilman, and family patriarch Eli McCullough (Pierce Brosnan), this riveting period drama waxes poetic on the importance of legacy, and how myths may be constructed to maintain such a powerful brand. Brosnan is at his best here as Eli struggles to maintain his hold over his family, land, and sanity.
The Son is one of those near-perfect Western shows that most forget about, but that’s a real shame considering how addicting these 20 episodes are. The narrative structure itself is a highlight, as it follows an older Eli played by Brosnan in the 1920s while flashing back to his younger self (played by Jacob Lofland) in the 1850s during his time with the Comanche. In the second season, the series even flashes forward to the 1980s to follow his granddaughter, something Yellowstone would never have done.
In the explosive aftermath of ’80s blockbuster Westerns like Young Guns, ABC was inspired to helm its own take on the Old West with The Young Riders. Following a group of Pony Express riders — a mix of original characters and historical figures like Josh Brolin’s “Wild Bill” Hikock — as they rode into trouble around the West, the series uses the early years leading up to the American Civil War as a backdrop for conflict surrounding race, creed, and other hot topics of the day.
One of the best free-to-stream Western shows out there, The Young Riders is a three-season adventure that just keeps pulling you back for more. The riders themselves are a likable bunch who always stand up for the right thing, no matter how hard or complicated. As one of the last major Western programs to follow that “traditional” model of mythic old-school genre storytelling, The Young Riders stands tall as a reminder of the genre’s strengths.
With more episodes than even Little House (though fewer seasons), Have Gun – Will Travel remains at the top of the Western game. From the first time we met Richard Boone’s Paladin, we knew that this Old West hero was more than the usual shoot-‘em-up bounty hunter, and that remained the case throughout the six-season run. Each episode pits Paladin in a unique set of circumstances that we can’t wait to see how he gets out of them.
Have Gun – Will Travel was also a half-hour Western, and because of those shortened episodes, the plots move along at a speedier pace while maintaining their substance. That’s to the show’s advantage, of course, as it boasts 225 episodes, though all of these fall in at around 25 minutes a piece. That’s plenty of Paladin adventures for a longer binge.
Another six-season horse opera drama, Longmire is of the neo-Western variety. Based loosely on the mystery novels by Craig Johnson, the A&E-turned-Netflix series follows Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) as he patrols the least-populated county in the continental U.S. — a county that seems to pull in more crime than the lawman knows what to do with. Somehow, however, we always believe it.
Longmire is a blast. Although set in contemporary times, the show has a real knack for allowing those old-school Western sensibilities to shine through Walt’s character. There’s a reason that we consider it one of the best Western shows out there, and it’s for those same reasons that viewers still demand a revival. Maybe now that Paramount and Warner Bros. are merging, we’ll finally get one.
The definitive adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s fabulous Western novel, Lonesome Dove is what happens when high-quality filmmaking meets the long-form nature of television. Long before movie stars transitioned to the small screen in our modern streaming age, Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones came together as former Texas Rangers Augustus “Gus” McCrae and Woodrow F. Call to blaze the trail from Texas to Montana. And we’ve never quite recovered.
Lonesome Dove gets everything right about the genre, masterfully adapting its source material with ease. As arguably the most essential Western television production out there, it boasts plenty of action, violence, drama, suspense, romance, and character work to capture the heart of any viewer out there. It’s a stunning piece of work.
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