Six episodes in and Landman has finally found a comfortable lane and compelling storyline to attach its well to. Now that oil executive/crisis manager Tommy Norris, played by Billy Bob Thornton, has his dysfunctional family under one roof, we can settle in to truly appreciating the stories that can be told of the people and places that live the rigors and dangers of a boots-on-the-ground life working in the oilfield. In part, because we have finally arrived at a point in this slow paced, character-driven narrative to even care.
“Beware the Second Beating,” though foreboding and dark as a title, the episode opens with its staple reflective music drone cinematography montage of West Texas landscape and breezy scenery at sunrise, this time with the rugged Fort Worth skyline serving as its muse, as Tommy pulls up to the gate-guarded home of his oil barron boss Monty Miller, played by Jon Hamm.
The massive estate with all its trappings is such a departure from the grit and grime of those having to pull Monty’s millions from the ground. Oil matriarch and Lady of the Manor Cami Miller (Demi Moore) is the first on the scene to greet Tommy, marking only the third time we have seen Moore’s character since the start of the series, and the first with substantial lines encased in her best attempt at the slow, drawn-out rhythm of a Texas accent. Though Moore looks every bit the typical Texas socialite and plays the part with old money grace, it is disappointing to reduce the Golden Globe-nominated actress’ role to merely fetching men drinks and looking beautiful walking through a museum of a house. There is so much more story that could also be told in this particular world from the perspective of the women who round out the cast, more so, than life-sized ornaments on the proverbial money tree they get to be now.
Unaware of things brewing back home, Tommy has come to inform Monty of the drug cartel threats he received in the field where they are working to repair wells. The two weathered men were deep in conversation about the green initiatives summit Monty had recently and reluctantly attended when Tommy receives the call about his son Cooper’s brutal attack, that fade-to-black cliffhanger from episode 5.
Second time in the hospital in as many weeks on the job? Cooper Norris may need to find a new line of work.
Angela (Ali Larter), Tommy’s ex-wife, soon-to-be live-in girlfriend, now that they have rekindled their relationship, accompanied him on the trip, and was across town ready to break her current husband’s heart, and, if lucky, his bank account, when the crisis call came into Tommy. Continuing to prove to not be Angela’s best day, she quickly finds out that not only has her soon-to-be ex-husband, Victor, changed the locks on her, he has also hired a pair of attorneys, who have taken up stakes in her former dining room, to oversee the dissolution of their marriage. Ouch! Nothing like having your divorce “dialed in.” Within minutes, Angela learns that there is not much she will be entitled to, and that she has, in fact, already been replaced, with, shall we say, a younger model. Ouch again — well, at least she gets to drive away with the Bentley.
With a panicked call to Tommy on her way out of town, with her every intent to bemoan her hard-knock life drawing the short stick on assets in the impending divorce, Angela is slapped back to reality when Tommy breaks in to break the news about the situation with their son. For a brief moment, we get to see depth to Angela as a character, through this decidedly familiar parental nightmare when your baby is hurt, you are miles away, and the moment is beyond your control. Even for these two hardened souls, fear is permanently etched on Tommy and Angela’s faces, seared by the western sun in their eyes, as they both race back to Midland to be with Cooper. As a parent, if you know you know. It’s painful to think about, even coming through a screen.
Outside of the Norris family antics, the only other storyline running through the series with any dimension, is the accidental death settlement involving the Medina families from the oilfield fire that closed the series’ season opener. Big city attorney Rebecca Falcone, played by Kayla Wallace, accompanies the oil company’s in-house counsel Nathan (Colm Feore) on a monetary house call. Forever trying to prove her power and expertise, Nathan reminds Rebecca to check her lawyer attitude at the door when talking to the families, something that proves difficult when the widows begin questioning some of the legal jargon and settlement clauses.
Skeptical, Ariana (Paulina Chavez), the young widow and fast friend to Cooper Norris (Jacob Lofland) calls the latter for advice before signing, only to have the County Sheriff answer and relay Cooper’s unfortunate and unexpected whereabouts. After ratting out her dead husband’s cousin as a possible prime suspect in Cooper’s beating, Ariana walks out of the settlement talks in rush to be with Cooper at the hospital. Chavez’s nuanced performance as the hard-to-explain friend for the young roughneck continues to move the needle dangerously close to being the heart and soul of the series. It is refreshing to watch the care and concern Chavez brings to the character, playing opposite of Lofland’s Cooper, with a quiet strength that underscores her ability to create purpose for her character outside of simple aesthetics.
As the family rallies around Cooper in his greatest hour of need, Tommy radioes the oilfield crew chief about his son’s injuries, and the need to find out who exactly put Cooper in that hospital bed, requiring, of all things, a surgeon to re-inflate his lung.
With a ten minute head-start on the Sheriff, Tommy and his roommate/right-hand man Dale Bradley (James Jordan) make their way to the oilfield housing man camp to see about a beating. When the crew chief, affectionately known as Boss, shows up with his own “interrogators,” the men, ahem, secure the information on the other assailants involved in Cooper’s beating.
Despite getting the answers needed and a measure of retribution for his son, Tommy tells Dale as they drive away from the camp, under the gritty blue light of a Texas moon, that he has to get his son away from the Patch. As a man who knows, his son is simply not mean enough for the place. Never a dull moment for the work of a landman.
It is in scenes such as these that prove that Thornton’s singular performance each week is what holds the series together.
Through him, we find the plausibility of every circumstance his character finds himself in. While other characters often come across as desperate caricatures and walking stereotypes, Thornton is allowed to explore a multifaceted personality with a commanding and charismatic look at every possible flaw and emotion that could be rolled into one salt-of-the-earth individual. And, as you walk away from the experience, he makes you believe that there truly is a man out there, somewhere on that dusty oilfield of life, who really does exist. No doubt, if you have spent any time in the Lone Star, you already know he does.
Landman streams Sundays on Paramount+.
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