Landman review: new Taylor Sheridan series on Paramount+

Plot: Set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas, the series is an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.

Review: Taylor Sheridan has continued to expand Paramount’s roster of series to the point that they may want to reconsider naming their services after him. The writer-director has created shows centered on cowboys, outlaws, criminals, prisoners, soldiers, and historical figures. With Yellowstone returning to complete its original run and five other series on the air, I was prepared to discount Sheridan’s latest series, Landman, as another variation on his established formula. After seeing the new series led by Billy Bob Thornton, I am excited to say that Landman is Taylor Sheridan’s best series since the debut of Yellowstone. With a stellar cast including Ali Larter, Jon Hamm, and Demi Moore, Landman is another look at the wealthy and working class tied to the oil business and how the dangerous world of fracking and drilling claims lives in different ways. It is a fascinating blend of drama and an edgy sense of humor, making for a very entertaining new series.

Billy Bob Thornton leads the series as Tommy Norris, a crisis executive who works for the CEO of MTex Oil, Monty Miller (Jon Hamm). Previously a tycoon in the industry himself, Tommy lost everything when the market bottomed out and now works in the fields of Midland, Texas resolving issues for MTex. In the first five episodes, Tommy must contend with multiple deaths, each a potential liability for Monty’s company and each involving complex issues that resonate profoundly with the petroleum engineers and rig operators risking their lives to pump oil from the ground. Tommy lives with friend and engineer Dale (James Jordan) and MTex attorney Nathan (Colm Feore) while interacting by phone daily with Monty about how to navigate each legal and financial crisis. Thornton is charismatic as Tommy switches between hardhat and cowboy hat depending on the situation and deals with lawyers, drug cartels, and the most complex challenge of them all: his family.

While Tommy is the main character, Landman also follows his twenty-two-year-old son Cooper (Jacob Lofland), who has aspirations of his own but feels he must work in the oil fields to earn his place, his seventeen-year-old daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) who is trying to find her place in life, and a tumultuous yet sexually-charged dynamic with his ex-wife Angela (Ali Larter) that gives him extra stress daily. With the subject matter of Landman heavily dramatic and some brutal moments punctuating each episode, Billy Bob Thornton gets to have some fun with truly funny moments that stand out in each episode. Taylor Sheridan’s writing plays with life and death, with the body count rising almost every episode. Still, I was laughing just as much either through the hilarious circumstances Tommy ends up in or Thornton’s perfect deadpan delivery of some biting one-liners. I appreciate the somber and violent moments punctuated by some humor, which gives Landman a balance missing from some of Taylor Sheridan’s other series.

The trailers for Landman note Jon Hamm and Demi Moore‘s inclusion in the cast, but both are featured very little in the five episodes made available for this review. Hamm does get to deliver as Monty Miller has to hear the challenges Tommy apprises him of each day, feeling the stress piling on his shoulders. Hamm and Thornton share no screen time in the first half of the season, with Demi Moore being relegated to just a few lines overall. I expect more from both characters in the back half of the season. The additional screen time is allotted to Kayla Wallace as MTex attorney Rebecca Falcone, a surprising character I initially underestimated but who rivals Kelly Reilly’s Beth Dutton from Yellowstone as a woman you do not want to underestimate. We also have nice turns by Mustafa Speaks as crew leader Boss, Mark Collie as Sheriff Joeberg, and Paulina Chavez as Ariana, a widow whose connection to Cooper is a major factor in the first half of the season. Everyone here is quite good, with the established actors and the newcomers meshing well as an ensemble that fits into Taylor Sheridan’s brand of storytelling.

Co-created with Christian Wallace, the host and writer of Boomtown, the podcast that inspired Landman, all ten episodes of this first season were written by Taylor Sheridan. Sheridan also directed the first two episodes, while Stephen Kay helmed six of the remaining ten, with Michael Friedman on the remaining two. If you look back at his prior projects, the ones where Sheridan has written the entirety of a season tend to be his stronger narratives, and Landman is no exception. The balance of lighter moments does not shy away from the intensely dramatic and heavy material that this story centers on. Landman does not glorify the oil business but has some stark commentary on how our reliance on fossil fuels shapes our world. While series like Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age have looked at the disparity between the upper class and the workers who shape their lives, Landman straddles both sides with Billy Bob Thornton’s performance serving as an example of a relatively wealthy man whose life exists on the boundary of the working class and the leadership of the executive level.

Landman offers a mix of melodrama, sex, and the spoiled lifestyles of the rich and powerful with the high stakes of those who may not survive working in the oil fields and yet put their life on the line day after day. This story blends the gritty tone of Mayor of Kingstown with the guilty pleasure glimpse of the rich from Yellowstone with the just right sense of humor of Tulsa King for a fantastic television experience. Landman is not about rich people behaving badly as much as it is a peek into a world many of us know nothing about. Taylor Sheridan has built each perspective in this series and pulled them together into a fascinating portrait of what people do to make a living. I have enjoyed most of Taylor Sheridan’s series so far, but Landman is the best work he has done since the first season of Yellowstone. I am excited to see how the back half of this season wraps up, but based on the first five episodes, this already ranks as one of my favorite series of the year.

Landman premieres with two episodes on November 17th on Paramount+.