Summary
Landman doesn’t seem to have developed a plot in Season 2, and “A Death and a Sunset” shows that a few of the same problems remain present. But it remains oddly compelling on vibes alone, and the acting — from Billy Bob Thornton and Sam Elliott, especially — is undeniable.
Landman is the best show in the world at being compelling without anything really happening in it. It managed to get through its entire first season without much of an overarching plot, and that trend seems to have continued in Season 2. This is a vibes show in the purest sense of the term. It’s about Texas sunsets and rants about how breakfast is capitalist propaganda. It’s about big money oil deals and ill-advised university admissions; about sexism over dinner and sincerity in the wreckage of adult tantrums. None of this constitutes much of a plot in Episode 1, “A Death and a Sunset”, but it does constitute an experience.
This premiere lives up to its title, too, but we’ll get to that in a minute. In the meantime, a refresher. Following Monty’s death, his widow, Cami, is now in charge of M-Tex Oil, at least nominally. Tommy is still the one doing the deals, or at least he’s trying to be. The fear is that Cami will sink them by being a woman in a man’s world. Tommy has faith in her, and it seems justified, since her initial introductory speech to M-Tex’s assembled executives is a scathing tirade about how ruthless she’s going to be and how useless many of them are. It’s a nice statement of intent, but it also pulls double-duty as a way to ruin the vacations of the young hotties who insulted her in the bathroom about being old. Now their sugar daddies are too scared to do anything other than work.
Again, I’m not sure how this constitutes a plot, but it certainly forms the kernel of an idea that might sprout into something worthwhile in the future. Tommy is still the one taking the calls, but will Cami eventually decide that even he’s surplus to requirements? Will Tommy have the same loyalty to her that he had to Monty? Given how keen Angela is to refer to Tommy as “president of an oil company” and spend his presidential money, a financial fall from grace may well be on the table.
Things are going better for Cooper, at least. His new drilling operation has struck liquid gold, and if all goes well – which I’m certain it won’t, but let’s be optimistic – he, Ariana, and Miguel will be set for life in just a year or so. Nothing happens to Cooper in “A Death and a Sunset” that suggests this won’t be the case, but I’m sceptical. He hasn’t even managed to tell his dad about his success yet, since he’s always too busy to have a conversation, and the only time he does have spare is generally interrupted by Angela throwing cacio e pepe with grated white truffle (or whatever) against the dining room walls. You’d think Tommy would have learned not to comment on her cycle at dinner. He spent all of the first season doing that, and it never went well then, either.
Landman Season 2 seems to have a lot of the same problems as that season, or at least it does in Episode 1. There’s an entire subplot devoted to Ainsley blagging her way into college on a cheerleading scholarship that includes a truly demented rant about how policies prohibiting cheerleaders from sleeping with athletes constitute some kind of prejudice against superior genetics. The admissions officer in this scene was probably my favourite character in the entire episode, so it’s a shame we probably won’t see her again. But it can’t just be me who is totally uninterested in Ainsley’s further education, can it? I would be willing to bet decent money that this whole subplot will consist of her getting an athlete boyfriend she probably shouldn’t have. Beyond that, it seems like mostly just a catalyst to have Angela spend too much of Tommy’s money on property.
The most interesting aspect of this premiere is the introduction of Tommy’s father, T.L., played by the great Sam Elliott, who did phenomenal work for Taylor Sheridan in 1883 and is looking likely to produce the same here. T.L. is languishing in an assisted living facility, seems about as sexist as Tommy is, and is grieving the very recent death of his wife, Tommy’s mother. News of her death reaches Tommy at the end of the episode, and he resolves to go and see his father the next morning, which means we’ve got that, at least, to look forward to in the second episode. It’s perhaps just as well, since out of the gate, I really have no clue where this season might be going otherwise. But more Sam Elliott is never a bad thing.
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