6 Recommended Western Shows You Can Binge In A Weekend

Published Sep 13, 2026, 5:30 PM EDT Faith Roswell is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's Classic TV team. Since earning her degree in Creative Writing over a decade ago, Faith has written articles on film and TV from a variety of different angles. Faith now combines her knowledge of psychology with her love of monster movies to give more insight into what makes the best ones. You may have read her Screen Rant lists and features covering horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, or read her Amazon Top 10 book, "Movie Monsters of the Deep." Faith has had an extensive career as a writer, appearing on BBC live radio, researching true crime for Rotten Mango podcast, and writing for publications including Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and The Daily Jaws before beginning here at Screen Rant. The Western TV revival might have begun with Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone, a sprawling family saga that is a love letter to both the Western American landscape and the genre itself, but many Westerns now outshine Yellowstone, with some spectacular miniseries that rival even the great classic TV shows. Some of the best Western TV shows of all time have been remarkably long-running, but the years since the Golden Age of Westerns have proven that a perfect miniseries can become a masterpiece, focusing on character-driven storytelling and clever pacing. There is a lot to be said for getting invested in a long-running TV show, but some series seem made to be enjoyed over a weekend, with a story that can have just as much of an impact precisely because it is condensed. Some excellent Western miniseries tell historical stories that have been largely forgotten by time and overshadowed by others, some are more experimental and creative, and there is even a short and bingeable Western for fans of Taylor Sheridan, which is essential viewing, elaborating on his wider universe. The English Chaske Spencer and Emily Blunt's six-part Western thriller, The English, is a revenge story that deserved much more attention than it received. While many TV shows in the Western genre can polarize audiences and critics, The English has received a respectable 84% positive Rotten Tomatoes rating from both, with The Guardian describing the series as "a rare, sensational masterpiece." The miniseries covers a lot of ground in its short runtime, entwining the fates of Pawnee native Eli Whipp and Englishwoman Lady Cornelia Locke as the two cross the plains. Both Blunt and Spencer drew high praise for their performances, and the show feels like one long visually stunning movie that incorporates crime, romance, and history. The stories of Eli's quest for the land he is owed and Cornelia's search for the man who killed her son are equally compelling, and the series includes one of the best Western TV villains of all time in David Melmont. Technically, The English could be binged in just one day, but the series' powerful ending will leave audiences thinking, so the show's impact is likely to last longer. 1883 The second TV show in Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone franchise, 1883 is a ten-episode prequel that follows the Dutton family as they flee their dire circumstances in Texas and head West across the Great Plains in search of a new start. The series stars Western veteran Sam Elliott (Tombstone,) real-life country music couple Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, and Isabel May (Alexa & Katie,) with cameos from Tom Hanks, Billy Bob Thornton, and Sheridan himself. Even aside from the exciting cast, 1883 has been praised for bringing some grit to the Yellowstone world, rather than remaking the show in another time period. After playing Elsa Dutton in 1883, Isabel May would go on to narrate 1923, the next series in the Yellowstone saga. Despite being part of the Yellowstone universe, you do not have to be familiar with the original show in order to enjoy 1883, and many fans recommend beginning with the prequel for an added sense of the Dutton family's history. While occasionally drawing criticism for being heavy-handed, this is generally a matter of preference and, with an 89% positive critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the show has been praised more than criticized. The ambitious approach could have been badly received after such a groundbreaking neo-Western, but 1883 is a success in its own right. Into The West Into The West was an exciting prospect even before the series was released. Produced by Steven Spielberg and with one of the most stacked casts in any Western TV show, it looked set to become an instant classic. However, it has instead been one of the best Western TV shows that nobody remembers, despite earning multiple accolades. Into the West was extremely ambitious, with over 250 speaking parts and a detailed story that includes both real and fictional characters. The Wheeler family makes Yellowstone's Dutton family look small, and the six-episode miniseries follows their story from the 1820s to 1890s. The series feels like a series of movies, with each of the episodes lasting for around two hours, but unfortunately, Into the West was years ahead of its time, airing before the Western revival and flying under the radar. To complicate matters further, it was very difficult to find on streaming platforms, leading to potential audiences being unaware that the show existed. That said, it is well worth watching for the sheer scale of the project and performances from the cast, many of whom were nominated for awards. Into the West's cast includes Western veteran Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men,) Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings,) Alan Tudyk (Firefly,) and Zahn McClarnon (Dark Winds.) The show is about the way two lives are connected by a marriage between a Native American character and a white character, and was nominated for 16 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning two of them. Godless Netflix's seven-part Western is a must-watch, as it is one of the most innovative series in a genre that is often criticized for being predictable, and a rare female-fronted story. Set in the isolated mining town of La Belle, which is populated mostly by women after a mining accident killed most of the men, the show has virtually all of the tropes fans expect from a Western, yet breaks every stereotype at the same time. When a young outlaw on the run finds himself in La Belle, the town bands together to protect him from the gang pursuing him. The title "Godless" comes from the fact that the town of La Belle has no preacher. A harsh reality of the Western genre, especially classic Westerns, is that they have not all aged well, with potrayals of Native American and female characters ranging from one-dimensional to offensive. However, even after nine years, Godless is aging extremely well, offering a fresh take on the Western formal that has still not been beaten, and earning impressive Rotten Tomatoes scores from both critics and audiences, who gave it 83% and 85% positive ratings, respectively. American Primeval Western fans who have seen enough classics that romanticize life on the frontier must make American Primeval their next weekend binge. The six episodes of American Primeval are some of the most brutal in any TV show of any genre, with graphic violence and harrowing moments that instantly set the show apart from other Westerns. Against the backdrop of the Utah War, two paths cross when traveler Sara Rowell asks tracker Isaac Reed to take her across the frontier. While the story is fictional, the setting is based on real events that have not had many TV adaptations. American Primeval is a Western that is filmed like a prestige war drama, and this unusual cinematic approach has made the miniseries stand out as one of the best Western TV shows on Netflix. Despite only being around six hours in total, the series is sometimes hard to watch and may need to be spread out. That said, this heavy tone does not mean that the show is anything other than brilliant, with the emotionally hard hitting story being one of the best features of the series. Lonesome Dove With Lonesome Dove getting a new Netflix adaptation, there is no better time than now to watch the iconic Western miniseries. Based on Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, the story is about two retired Texas Rangers with very different personalities and approaches to life, who decide to settle in Montana by leading a massive, perilous cattle drive from their small town to the Montana wilderness with the aim of building a ranch there. With a 98% positive critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Lonesome Dove is one if the best miniseries of all time, in any genre. Lonesome Dove was nominated for 19 Emmy Awards, winning seven of them, and while the series is just four episodes long, it feels like a much longer saga, exploring friendship and aging while touching on both comedy and heartbreaking tragedy, sometimes within the same scene. Jillian Share, President of independent studio Teton Ridge Entertainment, explained the excitement for the Netflix revival, saying that “Lonesome Dove is the kind of story that only comes along once in a generation." Source: The Guardian