Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Landman’ Gives the West Texas Oil Fields the ‘Yellowstone’ Treatment: TV Review

variety.com:

Alison Herman TV Critic Taylor Sheridan became one of TV’s most powerful creators with an epic saga set on a ranch, but his latest protagonist has little patience for agrarian fantasy.

The landowner giving Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) a lecture isn’t really a rancher, the professional fixer argues: “You’re an oilman who spends the money we give you on cattle.” For his latest drama on Paramount+, Sheridan has turned his attention to the black, oozing lifeblood of his native Texas. “Landman” has the masculine bravado and conservative milieu of “Yellowstone,” Sheridan’s flagship red state soap opera, but also builds an immersive, detailed world in the sun-baked Permian Basin that anchors the show in observed reality.

That’s not a coincidence. Per Sheridan’s typical practice, the producer penned every script, but shares a creator credit with Christian Wallace, host of the Texas Monthly podcast “Boomtown” that serves as the series’ source material.

Wallace spent time working on the oil fields himself, a firsthand experience that shows in Norris’ skilled maneuvering and the daily routine of his son Cooper (Jacob Lofland), who drops out of college to start grueling, dangerous work on the rigs. “Landman” is strongest when using Thornton’s always-compelling screen presence to guide the viewer through the vagaries of the oil and gas industry, including potential alternatives and the looming threat of climate change.