Landman

Landman is an American Drama television series based and flmed in West Texas. The show was created from the podcast Boomtown hosted by Christian Wallace. The series was created by Taylor Sheridan and Chrstian Wallace. 

    Landman is about Tommy Norris (played by Billy Bob Thornton) and his family living and working in the oil industry. Tommy's Family consists of his Ex-Wife Angela (Ali Larter), their Son Cooper(Jacob Lofland) and Daughter Ainsley(Michelle Randolf). A few other important characters are the owner of M-TEX (the Oil company that Tommy works for), Monty Miller (Jon Hamm), the wife of one of the oil rig workers Ariana Medina (Paulina Chavez) and the Causation Lawyer Rebecca Falcone (Kayla Wallace). 

Landman premiered on November 17th, 2024 and the series ended on January 12th, 2025. The series has been renewed for a second season as of March 2025. The show aired Sundays on Paramount+.

The first episode of the season starts with Tommy Norris being kidnapped by the cartel. This is to show the connection the cartel has to the lands of the oil field. Tommy has to come up with a deal with the cartel to insure that they work along side one another and do not interfere.

Tommy then goes over the statistics of the oil field being that the oil industry makes 3 billion dollars a day in profit, generates 3.4 trillion dollars a year in revenue, and is the 7th largest industry in the world.  He procedes to talk anout his role in the oil industry is as a manager of M-TEX, where he is to “Secure the lease and manage the People”. 

  The next scene in the show shows a cartel drop off from a stolen plane owned by M-TEX to a van in the middle of a different oil company's land, when an oil truck comes around a bend and crashes into said plane and white van. This causes a 300K lawsuit.

    Cooper (Billy Bob Thornton son in the show, played by Jacob Lofland) starts to work on one of the oil rigs. And on his second day there was an explosion on an oil pump that only left his son alive out of his crew. 

The remainder of the show is shaped by these events. 

Landman is rated TV-MA due to the use of language and violence. The target audience of this show would be young conservative blue collar men. 

The show itself is following the trend created by Yellowstone. This trend being the depiction of a life as country western rancher. Since Yellowstone came out, there have been a lot of western shows that have followed in its footsteps. I do feel like Landman sets itself a bit apart, not being specifically about being a rancher, but still having that general country western feel.  

Casting the actors Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Hamm, and Ali Larter create an association principal. They know that when looking at highly sought out actors, the viewer will want to click and watch this show. When searching about Season 2 of Landman, you can see that they have also cast Sam Elliot. Who wouldn't want to watch Sam Elliot?

I did find that there were sub-plots within the show that were time fillers. They used Angela and Ainsleys random adventures to fill the episodes and veered the show toward sex appeal with how the directors portrayed the actresses. In terms of culture, Landman portrays Hispanics in a negative light.  The show depicts Hispanics as drug dealers and convicts.
The directors did a great job with character appeal, using witty humor and great comebacks. Tommy and Angela's banter throughout the show is sure to give a good laugh. 

What I learned about watching this show is how integrated marketing and advertising is in everything even though, even though you may not realize it.  This whole show is geared towards making the oil industry look good. Landman constantly references the oil industries importance for the economy and how the United States would collapse without it. A majority of the advertisements during the show was almost all oil companies advertising for employment.  I came to the realization that the show was being used to recruit young blue collar workers, since this was the target audience. After doing some research, I found that the United States has a shortage of Blue Collar workers currently.

My husband and I watched this show as it aired every Sunday and look forward to the next season to come out! We watch Paramount+ often, and look forward to the commercial for the new season. 

Sources:

“Blue-Collar Labor Shortage and Redefining the New Normal.” The Adecco Group , 2 Nov. 2021, www.adeccogroup.com/future-of-work/latest-insights/the-blue-collar-labor-shortage-and-redefining-the-new-normal-top-5-trends-from-the-world-of-work.

https://www.facebook.com/peoplemag. “Is “Landman” Based on a True Story? Inside the Oil Boom That Disrupted West Texas and Inspired Taylor Sheridan’s New Show.” People.com, 2024, people.com/is-landman-based-on-a-true-story-8741474. Accessed 5 May 2025.

Papadopoulos, Charles. “Landman True Story & Inspiration Explained: What to Know about the Texas Oil Boom.” ScreenRant, 19 Nov. 2024, screenrant.com/landman-show-true-story-real-life-texas-oil-boom/. Accessed 5 May 2025.

Sheridan, Taylor , and Christian Wallace. “Landman.” Paramount+, Paramount+, 17 Nov. 2024, www.paramountplus.com/shows/landman/?&ftag=&vndid=&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADtO7xHAbkCh-VoKte6jeQf1FZLhN&gclid=Cj0KCQjwoNzABhDbARIsALfY8VOTb35RBwpXs-qfdDrH_SD3kLekB_vuinsuU1k4IgWe5RMnwXbxj90aAq51EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds. Accessed 5 May 2025.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Landman (TV Series).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Dec. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landman_(TV_series).