'Landman' Season 1 Review: Billy Bob Thornton fires on all cylinders in Taylor Sheridan's intricate drama

Taylor Sheridan's Landman (Season 1) requires Billy Bob Thornton's Tommy Norris, and us, to endure a lot of taxing circumstances. And when it comes to us, I don't intend to apply a negative connotation to the word 'endure'. I'll explain in a while. Norris is the 'landman' of the title, a fixer and Vice President of an oil company run by Monty Miller, played by Jon Hamm as a man who takes on ten times the stress he handled as ad exec Don Draper in Mad Men.

Norris is the one in the trenches, navigating all the sordid deals and multiple attempts at bodily harm while Miller is being fed updates in his plush, air-conditioned office. Considering how Norris manages some of the most painful encounters with the least amount of drama, one could assume he is a masochist. A hospital scene where he sorts a badly injured finger is one grimace-inducing example. Even the doctor is taken aback! In Norris, Thorton gives his most spellbinding character since Lorne Malvo in Fargo (Season 1).

Based on Christian Wallace's podcast "Boomtown", Landman, which he co-created, depicts an ugly tussle between two businesses — oil and drugs. It takes us deep into the inner workings of the American oil industry and introduces us to roles we usually don't hear about. The concept of the landman and the extent to which his responsibilities stretch, for one. Sheridan, being the thorough and passionate researcher that he is, and who has by now revealed himself as a prolific screenwriter with a taste for untold stories that span generations (the number of properties he is currently involved in is jaw-dropping!), puts us amidst some of the most well-defined characters caught in murky waters.

And as he did in films like Sicario and Hell or High Water, Sheridan takes us on such an extremely gritty, morally ambiguous roller-coaster ride alongside a host of grey-shaded principal characters that he makes you wonder whether you would do the same if you were in their place. I mean, with the amount of stress they all go through, it feels like hell, but one that you would rather see from a distance than be a part of.

On one side, Norris is negotiating with nasty drug cartels who would go to any extent to get what they want. On the other, he is skating on thin ice even in his dynamics with Miller, who, in one instance, makes it clear to Norris who the real boss is. But Norris, as we later learn, will be the least of Miller's concerns when confronted with a far graver realisation. For Norris, there are more challenges in the form of his ex-wife Angela (Ali Larter), daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph), and son Cooper (Jacob Lofland). Interestingly, both dad and son would feel uncomfortable if the other two showed up unannounced.

With these two female characters imbued with some incredibly annoying characteristics, in addition to a headstrong and "woke" female attorney working for Miller, Sheridan could get accused of writing "bad female characters", but despite finding it difficult to get through every scene involving the mother and daughter, I get why Sheridan depicted them in a certain way. I guess it's his way of saying, "You see what Norris has to put up with here?" I also want to add that it means that these actors were efficient in their roles.

Sheridan throws in some interesting visual metaphors, such as the appearance of a coyote in two crucial situations with two different outcomes, the meaning(s) of which are left to the viewer to decipher. But it's evident what Sheridan is hinting at, and it remains to be seen whether Norris will get out of everything in one piece, if not unscathed, as he did in the first season. 

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