Taylor Sheridan’s conspicuously veiled ode to the oil industry continues, as Landman makes a return for its third installment of the season, with “Hell has a front yard.”
The episode opens in true Sheridan fashion with the gratuitously dramatic drone flyover of the expansive West Texas landscape at sunlight, as Cooper Norris (played by Jacob Lofland) wakes at camp to an unexpected initiation when the Medina crew cousins come to avenge the death of their family members during the recent oil rig fire, where Cooper found himself as the only survivor. Cooper holds his own in the dust up, invoking some rather impressive wrestling skills honed, he later admits, during his brief stint “at Tech.” That would be THE Texas Tech for those who know. Wreck ‘Em. Cooper’s skills in the dirt ring impress “Boss,” a brute of man who could bench press two Coopers with one hand, who offers to take the novice roughneck on as the worm (read, “newbie”) on his crew.
Across town, Billy Bob Thornton’s weathered landman Tommy Norris (Cooper’s dad) is at the Midland airport, with daughter, Aynsley (Michelle Randolph), in tow, to begrudgingly welcome his ex-wife, Angela, (Ali Larter) who has come out west to check up on their children.
Eager to escape the hell that is time spent with his ex-wife and her many assets, Tommy leaves Angela and Aynsley in the company of the country club staff to meet the bull dog of an attorney sent from Fort Worth to assess the recent plane/tanker crash that gave us the explosive opening to the Paramount+ series’ debut episode.
Away from the patch (as the oil field is affectionately known), Cooper must confront the loss of his former crew on a deeper level when he goes to the home of Luis’ (former crew boss) widow to pay his respects to the Medina family. Inside, he finds himself in an unexpected tender moment with Ariana Medina and her newborn, when the young widow literally cries on Cooper’s shoulder bemoaning her life ahead, living without her husband. Cooper’s piercing blue eyes, always on the verge of tears, himself, reflect the anguish of the survivor’s guilt forever stained on his oil-singed face.
Out in the oilfield with the Gen Z, top-of-her-class law school standout who arrived onscreen at the end of episode 2, Tommy must school the legal whiz kid, played by Kayla Wallace, on both the legal ramifications and red tape nightmare that would come if he reported to authorities every piece of equipment that went missing in his line of work while not necessarily solving the problem. When the young attorney asks about the wind turbines dotting the landscape she spies off in the distance, and her supposed rush-to-extinction they must create for the oil industry, Tommy sets her straight with an encyclopedic readout about wind as an alternative energy, not the oft-thought of green energy held by popular opinion. Tommy emphatically tells her, “there is nothing ‘green’” about wind production, given the significant amount of oil energy needed to actually design and develop the massive, 450-foot tall modern-day windmills, themselves.
While impressive with the breath and depth of the knowledge Thornton’s character seems to spew forth at a moment’s notice, the entire scene reads more like a powerpoint presentation better suited for an energy convention than a plausible conversation held on the dusty back roads of West Texas. In short, it’s too contrived.
And, the slap-you-upside your head messaging leaves one to question whether or not every episode will ultimately devolve into a 54-minute uninterrupted commercial for big oil. The thought would be unfortunate with the amount of compelling story that would go untold through the lens of the characters that have been carefully curated for the canvas, as a result.
Nevertheless, the episode ends with an impressive five-minute time lapse photography video package that unfolds like another industry documentary as Cooper and his new crew get to work erecting a new oil well. From the ground below “the worm” marvels at the work of his fellow roughnecks carving out their place in the annals of progress, doing what many would, arguably, considered to be one the most dangerous jobs in the world. Tommy says as much in his dissertation.
To this point, unfortunately, it seems the only characters you can come to care about are Father Norris and son - Tommy and Cooper — who seem to be the only two, thus far, allowed to be introspective and understanding of their place in the microcosm of their industry.
What has become even more apparent and most disappointing to note as each episode of the 10-episode season for the oil drama unfolds is the constant portrayal of the women who appear only to be one canvas as widow dressing. Their dialogue, at times, is both immature and forced, playing disappointingly on every Texas blonde girl trope imaginable. And, one should also really start to question the budget afforded the show’s wardrobe department, as there seems to be a strange shortage of fabric for the clothes the ladies are asked to wear as their onscreen attire.
In this episode alone, four of the five women wear nothing more than a bathing suit onscreen for the entire episode. And, the only female character to appear fully clothed is the hot shot corporate attorney, but, even she quickly becomes the damsel in distress as she finds herself paralyzed with fear when she stumbles upon a West Texas rattlesnake while inspecting the oilfield accident sites. This leaves Tommy to swoop as some sort of pseudo-white knight with his shovel in-hand to take out the offending rattler. It is a contradiction of sorts, when, not two scenes before, the character was chastising Tommy the Landman on his violation of age and gender bias in the workplace.
Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Ali Larter, and Jon Hamm, Landman returns with another installment every Sunday on the Paramount+ streaming platform.
What did you think?
Loved it
Hated it
So/So
Comments