With the second season of “Landman,” a “pot boiling” saga of big oil, big egos, big money and big mistakes concluded, what better way to while away some winter hours than binge watching this Bill Bob Thornton drama unfold, unravel and rewind?
Adult warning … this is not a show to watch with the youngsters gathered on the family sofa, a bowl of popcorn at the ready. Language, violence, sexual imagery are all part of the show – from beginning to the end of the second season. Taylor Sheridan, the current “flavor of the month” creator, writer and producer has managed yet another dynamic tale of power, danger, greed and avarice to feed the audience building machine. Think “Yellowstone” with bikinis and oil rigs.
Make no mistake, presuming one can wade through the cautions listed, “Landman” is great fun. Most of us have no idea what transpires in the Permean Basin of western Texas, which yields the vast majority of the oil drilled in the United States. Prospecting for oil, drilling and gambling with exploratory rigs, wrangling the equipment, taking the immense physical risks to say nothing of the wild economic swings that can create or destroy the fortunes of billionaires … that’s the oil business, and Sheridan has done his homework. Overlay that with the intense human dramas linked to what appears to be a very crazy lifestyle, and “Landman” comes in to focus. This is one series that pulls the “oh, just one more episode, even if it’s 1 in the morning” card.
Critics have praised the work of Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, the central character, who gingerly treads the tightrope between the gritty day-to-day work of managing literal armies of roughneck workers, violent drug lords and local law enforcement … and the rarefied air of dealing with investors who can write checks for millions of dollars on a whim, company executives who seem to be nourished only by spectacle … seasoned with trying to manage the exploits of a live-in ex-wife (Ali Larter) who has raised wild spending to an art form, a son (Jacob Lofland) who struggles to find his way in the world of big oil while falling madly in love with an oil patch widow (Paulina Chavez) and a daughter (Michelle Randolph) who epitomizes the time-tested label “spoiled brat.”
There are many entanglements, trysts, twists, secondary plot lines and, to our great joy, the appearance of Sam Elliott in the second season in the role of T.L. Norris, Tommy’s father. The artificial intelligence of the internet has the delightful habit of asking if things are “worth it.” It then answers its own question. In this case, we agree with the conclusion. With “Landman,” the “juice is worth the squeeze.”
And this well-intended suggestion. If you’ve not immersed yourself in this epic, now is the time to do it. Sheridan concluded the second round with a cliff-hanger ending that not only changes the game, but sets the plot lines off in an entirely new direction. “Landman” season three is in production. Season one and two are available on Paramount + … and the saga continues.
You have been warned.
Image credit to Paramount +