The titular town of Ransom Canyon in Netflix’s new Western drama series is a real place in Northern Texas, but with several major differences. Released on Netflix on Thursday, April 17, 2025, Ransom Canyon is already being compared to Yellowstone, with some viewers and critics claiming it’s on pace to be just as good as the beloved Taylor Sheridan series. That said, critics and mixed overall on the series at the time of writing, resulting in a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 50%
The cast of Ransom Canyon is one of its strongest attributes, led by the combined talents of Josh Duhamel, Mika Kelly, James Brolin, and more. Upon its release, Ransom Canyon skyrocketed up Netflix’s Top 10 TV Shows list, surpassing the critically acclaimed Black Mirror season 7. Similar to Yellowstone’s early seasons, which were filmed in Utah before moving to Montana for seasons 4 and 5, Ransom Canyon was filmed somewhere else in the United States than where its title suggests.
Ransom Canyon Is A Real Town In Texas
It’s Nothing Like The Fictional Town In The Netflix Series
Ransom Canyon is an actual place outside of Lubbock, Texas, which is where the Netflix series takes place. However, the real Ransom Canyon is not a rural yet affluent town full of Southern charm and romantic drama as depicted. The characters, sights, and sounds seen in Ransom Canyon were invented for the Netflix series, originally conceived by Jodi Thomas in her 2015 novel of the same name. While scenic in its own way, the actual Ransom Canyon isn’t depicted in the Netflix series whatsoever.
Netflix’s Ransom Canyon Was Filmed In New Mexico
The Beauty Of North Texas Was Captured Near Albuquerque & Santa Fe
Ransom Canyon series creator April Blair told Tudum that most of the filming took place around Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and partly in Las Vegas (NM, not Nevada). “Most of New Mexico is adobe architecture, and there’s this one little old mining town in northern New Mexico very close to the Texas border called Las Vegas, ironically, that just looks like an old Texas town,” Blair revealed. If you said that Ransom Canyon was filmed in Las Vegas, you technically wouldn’t be wrong. However, if you said it was filmed in the real Texas town of the same name, you would be.
