Netflix may have found a new Yellowstone-style hit, and it’s coming for Stranger Things’ global throne. As per FlixPatrol’s data, The

Abandons, Kurt Sutter’s frontier revenge epic, immediately surged to #2 worldwide, where it currently remains. The show was released just four days ago on December 4, 2025.

That’s remarkable for a brand-new series without the franchise power, nostalgia engine, or long-term fanbase that Netflix’s flagship enjoys. The show’s gritty, lawless-America tone and Sutter’s signature Shakespearean brutality, is playing like a premium cable series wrapped in streamer accessibility, which is the exact gap left open after Yellowstone moved off Netflix and Paramount’s licensing tightened.

Taylor Sheridan may be the modern maestro of the Western, yet the film that seared itself into his storytelling nerve came from the jungles of Vietnam: Oliver Stone’s Platoon. He first saw it as a teenager in a cinema, where the charged silence and the reactions of Vietnam

veterans reframed what a war movie could be. Its unflinching, anti-war gaze undercut the polished heroics of fare like The Green Berets and became a touchstone for how he thinks about cinema. That imprint lingers still, even as he eyes a Call of Duty adaptation with Peter Berg.

In a 2017 interview, he described the atmosphere in the theater that day. Silence blanketed the room as Vietnam veterans sat scattered among the crowd, visibly moved by the film’s raw portrayal of war. The intensity of their reactions etched itself into the young Sheridan’s mind. What stood out to him was the honesty, the film didn’t dramatize heroics; instead, it explored the devastating cost of conflict.

Platoon was a game-changer for Sheridan because it upended the conventional, celebratory depictions of war like 1968’s The Green Berets. Unlike its predecessor, which leaned into patriotic fervor, Platoon offered a near-antithesis, a harrowing anti-war narrative. Sheridan couldn’t forget the impact of seeing war stripped of glory and laid bare for what it is, chaotic, painful, and morally ambiguous, a perspective that resonated with many viewers previously fed romanticized versions of conflict on screen.

Oliver Stone, the film’s director, poured personal pain into telling this story. A Vietnam War veteran himself, Stone drew from his own experiences, deeply aware of how war breaks men. For Sheridan, this approach to filmmaking created a benchmark, a story could be both personal and universal, tragic yet necessary to tell, reinforcing the belief that powerful stories often lie in human frailty, not grandeur.

Created against considerable odds, Platoon wasn’t an easy project for Stone. Funding the film proved a challenge, as its harsh realism ran counter to the studios’ traditional narratives. But Stone persevered, delivering a cinematic triumph that featured powerhouse performances by Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and Willem Dafoe. It was crowned with 4 Oscars, including one for Best Picture, solidifying its place in film history.

It is notable how films like Platoon opened the door for other realistic portrayals of war, such as Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. For Sheridan, these were more than just movies, they were masterclasses in storytelling. Years later, his admiration for such works continues to inform his own creative projects, and some observers see this influence potentially surfacing in Sheridan’s upcoming Call of Duty collaboration with director Peter Berg.

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Why it still matters
Platoon didn’t just win awards, it struck a nerve. Its depiction of humanity in turmoil inspired creatives like Sheridan to rethink how stories can impact the audience. His love for this raw narrative style continues to shape his work as he ventures beyond the Western genre, signaling a commitment to the same unflinching honesty that once left him speechless.