Summary
Landman is Taylor Sheridan in top, albeit familiar form, and the two-part premiere reminds us he isn’t slowing down.
Landman is the fourth – count ‘em – show that Taylor Sheridan has created for Paramount+, and it might be the most quintessentially Taylor Sheridan thing he’s ever made. That’s saying something since almost every project in his increasingly extensive portfolio has been very similar; same dramatic beats, same underlying themes, same attitude, even when he has branched out into other genres like urban crime (Mayor of Kingstown) and military action (Lioness).
Landman, which is based on Christian Wallace’s podcast Boomtown, allows Sheridan to play with both Texas and the neo-Western genre – both, clearly, two of his very favorite things. And this makes my job quite easy. If you like Sheridan’s other work, especially Yellowstone and Hell or High Water, you’ll like this. If you don’t, you won’t.
Episodes 1 and 2 of Landman, titled “Landman” and “Dreamers and Losers”, feel like one long introduction to Billy Bob Thornton’s protagonist, Tommy Norris, and the kind of crises he finds himself managing as a fixer for a giant oil and gas company and a father to two wayward children.
Thornton is in his element here as a divorced alcoholic expertly navigating an uncompromising business. And the business of oil is what matters here; not just the big money deals and negotiations, but the actual industry, which in this remote slice of Texas employs almost everyone. As Norris rightly points out in an opening narration, even if oil and gas isn’t the world’s most profitable industry, it is the most essential. Norris isn’t just managing money, he’s managing knock-on effects that govern lives.
So, Tommy is tough and uncompromising. He’s introduced closing a deal with some drug peddlers to lease their land (he threatens to build a DEA field office across the street if he doesn’t get his way), and at one point he cuts the end of his pinky finger off because it’s easier than having multiple surgeries to fix it. He’s busy.
Billy Bob Thornton in Landman | Image via Paramount+
But he’s also surprisingly tender, which we see in a few subplots that crop up, particularly those involving the two kids he has with his ex-wife, Angela. Both are coming into adulthood in very different ways; his daughter, Ainsley, is dating a semi-famous football player, and his son, Cooper, is working the oil patch with the local crews. It’s stated pretty explicitly that Tommy hasn’t necessarily been the best father, but when he needs to step up here – supporting Ainsley through a breakup and Cooper through an accident that kills his entire team and almost him – he’s there, albeit in his unique way.
Needless to say, Billy Bob is the selling point. The narrative is clearly designed to show these juxtaposed aspects of his character and it’s great fun to see how he adapts to different problems, whether professional or personal. He felt, at least to me, like someone real – not in the cliché “three-dimensional” sense, but in the connection to a place and its people sense. He feels a part of this environment, this vibe, and this tone, an outgrowth of its themes and a champion of its most staunchly held values.
If Landman Episodes 1 & 2 prove anything, it’s that Taylor Sheridan fans need not worry. Anyone who doesn’t like Sheridan’s work will almost certainly hate this; it’s some of his most comfortable and familiar storytelling to date. It’s those who’re undecided that I’m curious about. After two episodes I’m not sure what Landman offers beyond the obvious, though a part of me strongly suspects there will be something. The story’s framework doesn’t belong to Sheridan, after all, and no matter how much he filters it through the lens of his preferred style, the specificity of the material may ultimately win out. This is a story about an older dude being cool and solving problems, at least on the surface, but beyond that it’s a story about a specific place, time, and industry that is fairly underexplored in mainstream entertainment. It might arrive at some unexpected conclusions.
We’ll have to wait and see, though. In the meantime, the sharp storytelling and colossal performance from Billy Bob Thornton should keep us going.
