A certain type of show has lost a lot of support from critics, but fans just won’t give up on it. At this point, Ransom Canyon is a pretty good example of that. When Season 2 came out on Netflix on July 23, 2026, it shot to the top of the U.S. streaming charts very quickly. At the same time, its Rotten Tomatoes score settled at 40%, down from Season 1’s already low score of 45%. There is a difference between those two numbers that can be seen as either a problem or an endorsement.
The show, which was created by April Blair and is based on Jodi Thomas’s books, takes place in the made-up town of Ransom Canyon in West Texas. It’s about three ranching families trying to figure out who they want to be with, as well as land disputes and family grudges that go back generations. Staten Kirkland, played by Josh Duhamel, is the head of a ranch and carries the weight of his family’s history. Quinn O’Grady is played by Minka Kelly. She is a woman who is going back to a life she left behind. The best thing about the show has always been how well the characters get along with each other, and Season 2 builds on that without giving up the ensemble elements that have kept viewers coming back since the beginning.
Quinn’s mother comes to town at the start of Season 2. Patricia Clarkson, who plays the mother, is always a pleasure to watch because she adds a certain kind of calm tension to every scene she’s in. Adding Clarkson to this show is a real creative choice, not just a way to get an extra star. She’s been in Six Feet Under and Sharp Objects, and she always makes the show she’s in seem a little more serious than it would be otherwise. The relationship between her character Claire and Quinn gives the show something it didn’t have before: a real fight that doesn’t end too quickly or too neatly.
Ben Robson from Vikings, Steve Howey from Shameless, and Heidi Engerman, who just came from 9-1-1: Nashville, are also set to join the cast. Also, Season 1 actors Eoin Macken and Andrew Liner, who played the Collins father and son, seem to be leaving the show for good, which is a big change in how it works. Depending on how attached viewers were to those stories, they will have different thoughts about whether the absence leaves a hole or just makes room for something new.
Based on the number of episodes and the way the season is put together, it looks like the writers are building up to something bigger. In the early episodes, there is a power struggle at the Double K ranch. One of the more interesting secondary characters, Yancy, is getting antsy and makes the show more gritty whenever he’s on screen. There’s also a subplot about oil that might be on his land. If it’s handled well, it could give Season 3 a really interesting economic angle, the kind that shows like Yellowstone have used to keep viewers interested in more than just the romance.
It’s still not clear if Netflix will officially pick up Ransom Canyon for a third season, but April Blair, who runs the show, told TV Line that the writers’ room for Season 3 has already started. It’s not a promise, but it’s also not nothing. Netflix usually looks at how many people watch and finish a show in the first month before deciding whether to renew it. So far, the numbers—top of the charts in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and New Zealand—suggest that the audience is still there. A “big event” in Season 3 has also been hinted at by Blair. It sounds like a wedding would be a big enough event for Quinn’s mother to need to attend. And at least a promise. It’s likely the right thing for the showrunner to have done not to confirm it.
When you watch this show, you get the sense that it knows what it is and is okay with that. You can’t tell that it’s Succession in cowboy boots. The story moves slowly on purpose, and the emotions are close to the surface. The Texas landscape, shot in a way that makes the sky feel like a separate character, gives the whole thing a warmth that the writing sometimes struggles to match. People who are watching don’t seem to care about any of that. Some critics may keep taking away points for melodrama. The people who are streaming it keep showing up.
