Set in Midlands, Texas, Landman transforms Christian Wallace’s Boomtown podcast into a visually evocative, character-driven drama. The series, co-created and executive-produced by Wallace and co-director Taylor Sheridan, captures the essence of an oil industry that powers much of modern life, though some of its characterizations are rather thin.
In Boomtown, Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris—a chain-smoking, no-nonsense fixer—inhabits a gray zone between the executive elite and the tough-and-ready “roughnecks” who pull oil from the earth in Midlands. Tommy is full of biting wit and wearied edges, throwing back beer as if it were soda pop despite having past issues with alcohol.
The show’s opening moments are rife with exposition, as a Mexican drug cartel holds Tommy captive over a misunderstanding about access to mineral rights. Even bound and hooded, Tommy exudes a gritty resolve, lecturing his captors on the vast reach of the oil industry, its dominance over global markets, and how rakes in “three billion dollars a day in pure profit.”
Though often riveting, these data-heavy monologues abound in the five episodes of Landman made available for review. They often feel like detours, detracting from the flow of a scene even as they impart a brutal lesson about Big Oil’s grip on the globe. Educating viewers isn’t a bad thing per se, but the series struggles to seamlessly integrate these moments into its story.
Thornton’s intense protagonist is juxtaposed with Jon Hamm’s Monty Miller, the self-made billionaire owner of M-Tex Oil, whose interests remain almost exclusively limited to fluctuating oil prices. Though Monty occasionally shows concern for his workers’ health, it’s harder for us to locate his moral compass compared to Tommy. Monty feels underdeveloped, as does his glamourous wife, Cami (Demi Moore), who’s often seen in the pool at their grandiose home or admonishing her husband for not paying enough attention to his health or their children.
Throughout the series, the camera lingers on vast, desolate oil fields and laborers performing exhausting, often life-threatening jobs. In many ways, Landman is an homage to these men, many of whom, according to Tommy, are uneducated ex-felons. Rather than focus solely on the high-powered lifestyles of the tycoons running and profiting from Big Oil, the series emphasizes the physical dangers endured by the everyman workers and the hardships their families face.
Landman’s most poignant moments stem from Tommy’s interactions with the roughnecks he oversees and his ex-wife, Angela (Ali Larter), and their children. He reluctantly reconnects with both his son, Cooper (Jacob Lofland), who’s dropped out of college and taken a job at M-Tex Oil, and daughter, Ainsley (Michelle Randolph), who’s tired of her mother’s selfish ways and wants to come live with her dad. But it’s difficult to shake the sense that the series is biding its time before really drawing us into the roots of the tension between Tommy and his family.
Ultimately, though, Landman succeeds as a survival story—of both the workers operating at the sharp end of the business and the industry itself, as its leaders recognize that its business model is no longer sustainable. The series arguably leans too often into clichés—like an abundance of country music on the soundtrack and scantily clad female characters strolling across the screen—but it also offers an unvarnished look at a contentious industry and the lives tethered to it.
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
