Set in the oilfields of West Texas, Landman follows the lives of roughnecks and billionaires in the booming oil industry.

Landman (season 1: episodes 1-9) Review

Another sepia-rich and gritty drama from Tyler Sheridan, the man who pays Paramount+’s mortgage and subsequently keeps modern Star Trek’s lights on despite their canon-breaking, non-binary beta male bs, Landman’s first season stars Billy Bob Thornton as the grizzled manager of a relatively small independent oil company in the middle of nowhere, Texas and all of the familial and professional drama that entails.

Unlike other Sheridan programs like Yellowstone and Tulsa King, both known for their relentless and over-the-top drama, be it repeated gang wars, manhunts for kidnapped children, or dumping whole towns’ worth of bodies off at the “train station,” this first season of Landman feels far more grounded. This is likely due to the copious real-life dangers involved in pumping crude.

Annually, deaths for those who work in oil and gas number in the hundreds, and hospitalizations in the thousands. With this level of danger organically present, it would take very little to cross over into melodrama, which, so far, the program has more or less avoided.

Another divergence is that of its lead characters. Where many of Sheridan’s other projects are overflowing with bigger-than-life characters like Sly Stallone’s Dwight “The General” Manfredi, who is a charismatic and tough gangster right out of a Scorcese film, and Beth Dutton, who makes manic and maniacal into an art form, Billy Bob Thornton’s character is far more of a no-nonsense everyman who’s just trying to get through another day in one of the most dangerous professions in the world.

The one over-the-top character in the program, Billy Bob’s wife, played by Ali Larter, is a volatile foil hot enough to be completely out of touch but aging out and coming to understand what’s truly important in life. She is a crass and classless slut who has relied on being a 10 to survive throughout her life. Even though she’s trying to settle down, her narcissistic amorality threatens to ruin every situation in which she finds herself.

When paired with Billy Bob, who only wants to survive, be it to the next day or the end of dinner, the audience is treated to a delicious mix of tension and unease without the life-altering consequences that are so often the plot points in the Tylerverse.

The wonderful chemistry isn’t limited to just these two. In fact, Landman may be the most perfectly cast program in the last 20 years. It helps that their characters are so well defined and that the performers who embody them are so talented, but there’s also that little spark of something extra that helps the mix, no matter the pairing.

One thing Landman does share with its brothers and sisters is a cast of morally ambiguous characters. There are no “good men” or women and few truly evil ones. Instead, amoral characters with only the basic foundational ethics (e.g., it’s generally wrong to kill, working hard to feed your family is good, etc.) flounder in life without understanding why, with perhaps one exception.

In a shockingly touching and brilliantly performed cameo, Dallas Cowboy’s owner, Jerry Jones, playing himself, shares arguably the season’s most impactful and certainly its deepest monologue about those things we value in life and what few things among them have the ability to generate meaningful happiness.

That may be Landman’s greatest attribute. It’s not afraid to take its time and judiciously deliver impactful moments while still managing to be engaging. It’s a surprisingly well-balanced series, especially when one considers the frenetic and sometimes high-octane flavor of its Sheridan contemporaries.

Landman (season 1: finale) Review

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