In the pantheon of Taylor Sheridan TV shows, Landman might be the most divisive. Those who love the Texas-set drama really love it, while others just can’t get on board with the story of a fire-breathing oil company henchman trying to navigate his own turbulent romance, the threat of harm against his men by both faulty equipment and the neighboring cartel, and, well, the fact that not everyone’s happy about his line of work causing irreparable damage to the planet.
Even those in the category of adoring this new addition can admit, however, that there are some striking similarities between this and other parts of the creator’s catalogue — particularly with Yellowstone — and it goes well beyond the fact that both leads wear cowboy hats and drive trucks. In one case, there’s even a bit of shared scripting between the two shows.
Here’s a look at just some of the ways the show echoes its forebears in the Sheridanverse.
A repetitive insult
In Episode 4, Rebecca (Kayla Wallace) took the show’s dialogue game to the next level when she methodically dressed down a room full of smug lawyers in epic fashion. After she gave them all a good scare with her exquisite argument, she warned, “I’ll hang your f**king law degrees above my toilet.” As badass as that line was, it rang a bit too familiar to some viewers, who remembered a takedown by Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly). Lo, in Season 3, Beth warns Willa, “I’ll hang your diploma above my f**king toilet.”
A selfless(?) leading man
Fairly early on in Landman, we learn that the series’ lead, Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) is in massive debt and spends all of his time trucking around Texas to put out fires — sometimes literally speaking — while others get rich off of his work. Although he’s definitely working for a for-profit business, he still has an air of altruism, like securing land leases for oil oligarchs is a grand favor to the world somehow, and he even provides housing for some of the company’s other MVPs? Similarly, Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) in Mayor of Kingstown isn’t in it for his own financial gain as he works to broker peace between the prison gangs of the titular town. Sure, sometimes people do pay him for specific favors, but he seems to burn a lot of rubber on the road for free all the same.
The wild-spirited daughters
One of the more consistent criticisms of Landman is the hyper-sexualization of Tommy’s teen daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph). However, there’s some precedent in the Sheridan-verse for her overt promiscuity. Specifically, the sexual awakening of 1883‘s Elsa Dutton (Isabel May) was a major part of the storyline, with her parents becoming aware of (and surprisingly blasé about, given the time period in question) both of her male suitors. Sure, Ainsley was a bit more, shall we say, descriptive about her activities, but Elsa was just as unashamed of enjoying her men.
The wayward sons
Cooper (Jacob Lofland) has been widely compared to Yellowstone‘s Kayce (Luke Grimes) for multiple reasons. First, they both have a salt-of-the-earth demeanor and are very, very rugged outdoorsy types. Then, they each fell in love with women who run counter to the family business — in Cooper’s case, Ariana (Paulina Chavez), who he turns against his father’s company on behalf of to increase her death benefit. However, there may be another Dutton brother who Cooper could deserve to be compared to: Jamie (Wes Bentley). Why? Well, depending on what effect his new oil lease endeavor has on the risky farmout deal his father’s working up, he could be setting himself up to be his own dad’s antagonist in Season 2.
The value of land
Landman is more like Yellowstone than any other Sheridan show — save its spinoffs — in the sense that, at the heart of each show is the land upon which the characters conduct business. It’s even in the title this time! In Yellowstone‘s case, John Dutton (Kevin Costner) spent his life trying to keep his hundreds of thousands of acres from being developed by outsiders, but in the case of Landman, they’re the outsiders, holding leases to other people’s property to extract the liquid gold below — whether it destroys the plots or not, in the case of the farmout pivot to fracking.
A willingness to kill the darlings
Jon Hamm is one of the most venerated names in all of television, and he was an essential component of the first season. So the fact that Landman was willing to kill him off with such little fanfare in the finale is a real jaw-dropper for most. But Mayor of Kingstown fans will know it could’ve happened sooner, as that show said goodbye to its own bona fide A-lister (Kyle Chandler) in the very first episode. No one’s safe from falling victim to shock value in Sheridan-land, folks.
Emerson Miller/Paramount+
The anti-environmental (dis)missives
Another commonality between the characters of Yellowstone and Landman is that they both feature some pretty smug anti-environmentalism speeches from their leads. In the case of Yellowstone, John Dutton denied the value of veganism on the basis of hypocrisy and put no stock into the fact that methane from cattle is a big part of the pollution problem related to climate change. In Landman, both Monty and Tommy have their own spiels on separate occasions. Monty’s speech is the most quoted, thanks to its prominence in the show’s trailer, but the sentiment is the same with all three: Don’t tread on me while I’m making money.
The cameo game
Celebrity cameos are a big part of Sheridan’s shows — often, it’s the boss himself who steps onto the screen — and this year, Landman adopted that tradition with a surprisingly well-delivered monologue from Jerry Jones. Before that, it was Sheridan popping in for Lioness and before that, Jelly Roll took a turn as himself in Tulsa King. Why not? There are no rules here.
Landman, Streaming Now, Paramount+
