Texan occupations have been mined for television gold since at least 1949, when the Lone Ranger first buddied up with Tonto. For better or worse, The Lone Ranger created a blueprint for TV shows that want to explore the great Texas mythos of people making change against all odds. From Coach Taylor’s clear eyes in Friday Night Lights to Coach Monica Aldama’s tough love on Cheer, the formula remains the same: Take a complicated and charismatic protagonist, pit them against momentous adversity, set it all to a great soundtrack and sweeping views of the Texas setting of your choice, add in a dash of camp, and pardner, you just might have yourself a hit TV show.
That leads us to Landman, which drops new episodes every Sunday on Paramount+. Cocreated by Taylor Sheridan of Yellowstone fame and former Texas Monthly staffer Christian Wallace (the show is based on the Texas Monthly and Imperative Entertainment podcast Boomtown, and TM is an executive producer). Half prestige drama, half soap opera, it offers the perfect opportunity to dig in with episode recaps. It’s stuffed with action, family drama, sex, and enough pickup trucks to start a dealership. Landman dares to look beyond the frilly lives of wealthy oil executives in Dallas and ask, What about the rough and tumble folks who are actually out there in the field, taking care of the land, man? (I apologize.)
Enter Tommy Norris, a devil-may-care, get-things-done sonuvagun played with grit by noted non-Texan Billy Bob Thornton. Tommy’s the landman for M Tex Oil out in the Permian Basin. He’s weathered years of living in Odessa and Midland and has been dealing with the myriad of problems and people that come with the very easy, not dangerous, super uncontroversial job of drilling for oil.
When we meet Tommy at the beginning of the episode, he’s tied up to a chair, breathing heavily through a bag over his head. Two Mexican men with questionable moral codes babysit him nearby, punching him in the face when Tommy asks to use el baño. Turns out these two are part of a cartel—drug runners? Barbershop quartet gone bad? It’s Tommy’s job to explain to them that M Tex owns the area’s mineral rights. He wheels and deals so that M Tex can get to drillin’. “Our product is the same,” Tommy says as the cartel boss man finally signs the contract. “Ours is just bigger.” Tommy hops in his pickup, checks his bloodied cheek, chugs two beers, and is on his way. Like the Olivia Pope of Odessa, the Landman has it handled.
The episode flashes forward six months to a private plane’s landing on a desolate West Texas road. It looks as though an illicit drug deal is about to go down between faceless baddies in the plane and faceless baddies in a van. Then a tanker truck hurtles down the road and crashes through the plane in a fiery scene that could have been in a Michael Bay movie. Drugs go flying, bodies and vehicles are set ablaze, and Tommy has his next headache.
After injecting himself with testosterone and vitamin B12 (is our Landman deficient?!) and throwing unwrapped Hot Pockets in the microwave, Tommy is off to survey the scene of the accident. He’s gotta grease local law enforcement, start plotting how his crew will get around the mess, and liaise with bigwig Monty Miller, a twangified Jon Hamm in his sole scene in this episode. (Hamm isn’t the only star mostly missing from the premiere. Demi Moore, who has second billing, doesn’t make an appearance at all!) I was worried I was about to get lost in mumbo jumbo about insurance and corporate minutiae during Tommy and Monty’s call, but this ain’t that kind of rodeo. “Just keep this s— out of the news,” Monty says to Tommy, referring to the accident. “This is the patch, Monty,” a chuckling Tommy responds, using shorthand to describe the oil industry. “An airplane full of drugs being run over by an oil tanker ain’t news, that’s just another Monday.” There’s so much soap here, it’s practically antibacterial, and I love it.
Speaking of soap, another star gets her one scene this episode when Tommy’s ex-wife Angela (Ali Larter, giving full G.C.B.) calls to tell him she’s heading to Cabo with her new boy toy. That means Tommy’s gotta take their teen daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) for the weekend. Meanwhile, Tommy’s eldest, Cooper (Jacob Lofland), has, for some mysterious and angsty reason, started to work in the patch. It’s his first day and a trio of Tejanos, including a very good Michael Peña as Armando the ringleader, have taken the newbie under their wing, gently hazing him and teaching him how to speak Spanish.
Cooper, who presumably doesn’t have to be doing this hard work, is an outsider among these mostly nonwhite blue-collar laborers. The show moves with ease between the megarich oil execs, the regular-rich middle managers, and the working guys in the field, who are just scraping by. It’s an oil-soaked spin on upstairs/downstairs shows such as Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age. A scene at a local cafe between Tommy and a lawyer also digs to the core of the tension between these big companies and perhaps folks who’d like to believe they are above this dirty business. “I find it difficult to do business with people who offend me,” says a landowner after Tommy cracks an unprintable joke. Without breaking a sweat, Tommy dresses him down. M Tex pays him $2.5 million every year, without which he’d be belly up with a ranch full of nothing. “Don’t you dare pretend I offend you,” Tommy says. “You smile and you take it.” It’s a pointed note: We all, no matter your politics or moral sensibilities, are not only complicit but dependent on this—pun intended—crude business.
Ainsley finally arrives in Midland with a surprise guest, her football stud beau named Dakota Loving (Drake Roger). My alarm for messy drama starts going off when Ainsley, clad in a sweet white-lace dress and denim fringe jacket, casually hikes up her hem to flash some thigh to Dakota. “It’s so windy!” she coos. (I can almost hear the gay guys in the audience finger-snapping at our new queen.) On the way to a local high school football game, Dakota says he’s going to the University of Alabama (red flag!) and planning to talk to the Tide’s coach to make sure Ainsley also gets in.
When Ainsley proclaims she’ll just DIE if she doesn’t go with Dakota to Alabama, a miffed but steely Tommy point-blank asks his daughter if she and Dakota are sleeping together. “Daddy! Of course!” she responds (causing my mouth to open in delight). “We have a rule and we stick to it.” Tommy knows better but asks her for the rule anyway. I’ve censored a part of this because it’s too unholy to repeat, but I think you’ll get the picture: “As long as he never c— in me, he can c— anywhere on me.” Strange that Ainsley threatened death, and yet it is I who is writing this recap from the pearly gates, deceased and in a fit of giggles after hearing this young woman speak these words to her father just as plainly as if she were telling him the weather. Ladies and gentlemen, this show is camp.
While his sister is busy discussing her sex life with their father, Cooper is ending his first shift in the patch. The guys who have been giving him a hard time all day sense his wounded vibes and invite him over for dinner, bonding over the tried-and-true tradition of grilling meat and drinking beer. Turns out Armando and his uncle are ex-felons who spent time in prison for theft. Felons can make money only by stealing it or working in the patch, Armando says. “It’s better if you work for it real hard,” he says. “That way, nobody can take it away.” He’s making the case to Cooper—and the audience—for why anyone would want to do this dangerous, labor-intensive work, and it’s an astute one. Their conversation reminds me of the story of a family friend’s son, who died when he fell asleep at the wheel driving back to Laredo after a long shift in the patch. I’d wager most folks in Texas have heard similar tales and/or know somebody who has been affected by this body-crippling work.
Tacos are shared and a good laugh is had when Cooper starts coughing and panting after taking a too-spicy bite. “Don’t f—n’ die!” the younger cousin says. Death by taco would be sweeter than what’s to come for this gang.
Back at Tommy’s place, it’s time for bed, and Ainsley reeeeally wants to snuggle up with Dakota on the couch. A surprisingly lighthearted fight between father and daughter reveals some of the contours of Tommy’s relationship with his ex-wife. “If she lost the power of speech,” Tommy laughs, “I’d marry her again tomorrow.” Ainsley breaks into a surprisingly earnest monologue about how she’s never just slept with Dakota and wants to feel his arms around her without going all the way. She promises not to have sex with him, and because Tommy is a cool dad (?), he relents, and Ainsley joins Dakota on the sofa. Alas, Dakota’s idea of romance starts and ends in his pants. He does not want to just hold her in his arms tonight. Ainsley comes back to Tommy’s room in tears, embarrassed and heartbroken. We don’t see what happens to Dakota just yet, but I can’t wait for Ainsley to dry her eyes and (hopefully) kick his ass in the next episode.
It’s morning and I really want Cooper’s second day in the patch to be a good one. Alas, anyone with common sense knows there’s trouble afoot when a huddle of guys is clanging away at pipes in an oil field. Cooper runs off to the truck to find the right wrench for better clanging when one especially big clang sends sparks into the air. An unknown loose pipe has been leaking gas, and a geyser of flames erupts, consuming the three men. Just another day in the patch.
