In a 2022 consultation , producer David GlasserdescribedYellowstonecreator Taylor Sheridan as a “ first - draft writer , ” noting , “ What he put out is what we burgeon forth . When he turns a script in , that ’s it . ” Glasser has produce every one of Sheridan ’s shows over the last six years , begin withYellowstoneand stretch all the path to his latest offer , the Billy Bob Thornton - lead oil dramaLandman . His coaction with Sheridan give him more cognition of the TV titan ’s originative mental process than most , so there seems to be no reason not to take him at his word . When Sheridan ’s shows work , they even sense like the best possible version of a “ first - draft ” dramatic play : instinctual , unsentimental , endure - in , and just about the inverse of fussed - over .
As Sheridan has taken on a smashing work load in recent years , though , his already formulaic dramas have begun to find less and less like just first - draft shows and more and more like jolting - draught ones . This is , perhaps , an inevitable evolution . Not only is Sheridan currently bind to at least five on-going series , but he ’s also the sole writer and an occasional film director on many of them . Landman , which premieres today onParamount+ , is his most unpolished effort to escort . Like many of Sheridan ’s labor , the series has all the necessary elements to really , truly talk , but none of the focus . It ’s a drama about a man who does not like to be questioned made by a writer who , in this shell , urgently needed someone — anyone — to at least endeavor to reign him in .
Landmanbegins in the tense of destiny . It first finds Tommy Norris ( Thornton ) , a crisis fixer for billionaire vegetable oil baron Monty Miller ( Jon Hamm ) , tie to a chair in a desert warehouse owned by a drug cartel . When the region ’s cartel drawing card enters the building , he does so with every intention of shooting Tommy in the head — or worse . Like many of Sheridan ’s male protagonists , though , Tommy has a steely resolve and a confidence in not only the force of his corporate American employer , but also his own power to talk himself out of any situation . Lo and behold , that ’s exactly what he does . He ruin through his cartel captor ’s coldhearted arrogance by disregard a deal that allows them to continue head for the hills their drug stage business out of West Texasandlets Monty capitalize on the mineral rights he own to the crude beneath the nation ’s dry aerofoil .
This negotiation is just one of many crises Monty is draw to resolve over the class ofLandman‘s first five episode , which were the only installments furnish early on to critics . He handles all of them in more or less the same way — namely , by either physically taking fear of them himself or by explaining in the most condescending style why they ask to be addressed his means to whomever controvert him , whether it be the penny - pinch Monty or a young causality lawyer named Rebecca Savage ( Kayla Wallace ) , who is send to Texas to set if Tommy is a likely liability to his honcho . Rebecca is cursorily launch as both a sound shark and an environmentalist , but all it takes is a monologue from Tommy about the all - encompassing determination of the crude oil manufacture to win her to his side . Sheridan ’s shows have always felt like New , high - goal versions of ’ 80s goop opera likeDallas , and by setting up a likely romance between Tommy and Rebecca , Landmancertainly does n’t break off that pattern .
Tommy ’s occupation is , to Sheridan ’s acknowledgment , exactly the form of narrative engine that can power a potentially long - running series , and Thornton is more than up to the task of leadingLandman . The actor is at his most magnetic and unscrupulous as Tommy , a character who could make for a fascinating TV anti - hero if , well , Sheridan did n’t clear like him so much . Thornton ’s natural endowment does a lot to offset the repetitious nature of Tommy ’s scenes , butLandmanstops itself from explore or developing his eccentric in any variety of meaningful mode by treat him as if he really is right about everything . In one early sequence , he respond to a perfectly reasonable instant of heartbreak and disappointment for his x - wife Angela ( a bulldozing Ali Larter ) by asking her what point of her menstrual cycle she ’s in , andLandmanacts as if he ’s completely right to do so . It ’s almost as if Sheridan is too afraid of disruptingLandman‘s cowman swagman to ever let Tommy be wrong .
Landman‘s problems do not start and cease with its one - note , one - sided depiction of its booster . Jon Hamm , one of TV ’s fine thespian , is constantly underused in a role that require him to just repeatedly answer Tommy ’s calls and then decide through gritted tooth how he wants to handle his company ’s latest disbursal . Hamm is always compelling onscreen , but by the clock time Monty has spent his third - consecutive installment doing nothing more than answering sound calls , even he begin to struggle to bring much life story to his scene . He is n’t well-nigh as waste byLandmanas Demi Moore , who plays Monty ’s wife . In a year when she has rightly pick up some of the loudest acclamation of her career for her carrying into action inThe Substance , Moore might as well be a background extra here .
The only salvage grace of Moore ’s non - role is that she ’s dispense with the same cartoonish treatment as Angela , who is written as hypersexualized and overemotional and whom Larter has to useallof her energy to save from being completely unsufferable . The show somehow does even worse by Ainsley ( Michelle Randolph ) , Tommy and Angela ’s 17 - yr - quondam daughter . She arrive inLandman‘s pilot as a youthful girl visiting her father for the weekend with her football - player swain , but when they bust up , she decides to stay with Tommy . This decision leads to multiple scenes in which Ainsley walks around Tommy ’s house in nothing but a washup suit or underclothes — cause Tommy ’s center - aged roommates , Nathan ( Colm Feore ) and Dale ( James Jordan ) , to panic over how attractive they find her . One bizarre scene sees Dale walk in on her as she ’s shower , while nearly every other prospect involving her includes snapshot and camera cooking pan that purposefully objectify Randolph and paint her character as little more than a sex kitten to be ogle .
These scenes are all profoundly regressive , and Sheridan does himself no favors by further describe both Angela and Ainsley as clueless women who ca n’t imagine about anything other than the men in their lives . They are , to put it kindly , thinly compose , as are many of the subplotsLandmanuses to pad out its runtimes . That ’s particularly true of a storyline involving Cooper ( Jacob Lofland ) , Tommy and Angela ’s son , who drop out of college so as to start working at his pappa ’s crude oil party , and Ariana ( Paulina Chavez ) , the widow woman of a deceased crew member who strikes up a friendly relationship with Cooper because she does n’t haveanyoneelse in her animation willing to assist her form through the wreckage of her husband ’s death . Their kinship is illogical to the point of seriously stretching credulity , andLandmanonly apply it to cause extraneous problems for Cooper .
The most frustrating thing aboutLandmanis that it contains the bones of a fun , immersive dramatic play about an industriousness that — despite its ethnic and economical big businessman — has n’t been explored onscreen nearly as deep as it could be . There are moments , like Cooper ’s first day working with a veteran bunch , whenLandmancomes close to being exactly that . But the show is too unfocussed and unprocessed to really reach its full potential drop . It feels like it was written in a weekend by Sheridan , and it is full of all the nous - scratching moments of would - be comedic relief and otiose characterisation that entails ( in the span of a individual sequence , at least two characters pointedly describe themselves out aloud as “ destination - oriented ” people ) . There ’s a good series lying beneath the surface ofLandman , but right now it lack the power and rivet it needs to actually dig down and find it .
Landmanpremieres Sunday , November 17 on Paramount+.Digital Trends was pass on early access to the series ’ first five episodes .
