The Billy Bob Thornton star vehicle “Landman,” following the stressful life of a West Texas “landman” and operational executive for an independent oil company in West Texas, has a lot going for it, mostly Thornton, who is one of our most interesting and versatile actors. The Paramount streaming series is already better, in my view, then the last two oil dramas I watched, the over-rated “Giant” and the relentlessly unpleasant “There Will Be Blood,” in great part because as with all of his roles, Thornton brings a great deal of humor to the proceedings.
I have not finished the series’ first season (I sure hope there is a second), but I was struck by the long scene above in which Tommy Norris (that’s Billy Bob) gives a quick primer to his company’s attorney on the facile conventional wisdom of the anti-fossil fuel lobby. The rant begins (at the 57 second mark), as Tommy denies the “cleanness” of wind power, and he takes off from there. It was an instant classic that quickly went viral on social media: as soon as I heard it I knew I could find the speech on YouTube and resolved to post it today.
There are also a lot of rebuttals to the speech on line, and that’s great: the ethics point is that for once Hollywood isn’t stuffing smug 21st Century woke politics into its audience’s brains, but is presenting a dissenting analysis. More more amazing yet, this one comes from a series’ protagonist and an appealing one at that.
Taylor Sheridan, who created “Landman,” cast Thornton and wrote and directed the speech deserves thanks and credit for packaging a provocative point of view that is sure to spark debate. Debate is ethical. What isn’t ethical is cultural indoctrination, which is how Hollywood has mostly been approaching the oil issue for decades.
Not surprisingly, the Wikipedia entry linked above states that the series contains “misinformation about renewable energy… “exposed as common propaganda tropes by Big Oil.” This is why Wikipedia should be considered a member in excellent standing with the Axis of Unethical Conduct. If Democrats had won another term in the White House, we would probably see “Landman” forced to include a disclaimer on Tommy’s speech.
Ethics Alarms 
So it takes getting through almost the entire first awfully atrocious first season to finally find something ethical about that complete dreck?
I’ll pass.
Couldn’t finish the first episode it was so abjectly abysmal. I didn’t need to see anything more combined with suffering through half of the first season of the equally squalid Yellowstone.
I forced myself to get through the first episode and concluded that Landman is awful to the core. The characters are unbelievably cartoonish (the ex-wife and daughter, the crew chief who heats beans in the can in the microwave, and then eats them out of the can, the stereotypical aggressive woman lawyer etc. etc.). I found Billy Bob’s speechifying annoying. And I don’t think the show even comes close to showing what Landmen actually do (although I admit that a show about guys doing title searches might not make for riveting watching). Who would want to work with or do business Billy Bob’s character?
I rank Landman right down there with The Paradeeps of Pittsburgh and The Pitt.
Heck, I was impressed that Ali Larter is still kicking: I thought her career was through when the Final Destination films ran out. She is virtually unrecognizable, however. And the “Karate Kid’s” girlfriend, Robin Lively, Blake’s half-sister, turns up too.
That speech comes half way through episode 2, and I would have regretted missing it. I almost never bail on a series after a single episode.
Ah, I misunderstood the context you set up saying you hadn’t finished the 2nd season – I assumed you meant you were almost there.
We almost never quit on a series after episode 1 either. But Landman ep 1 is genuinely awful (and I wish there was a stronger word than that) pure crap.
I’m surprised if you didn’t like There Will Be Blood, another show with virtually zero redeemable characters, that somehow Landman, whose characters make Daniel Plainview appear to be almost a civic minded saint.
So far the only seemingly right headed character we encountered in Landman before bailing was the local rancher who complained that the oil company’s efforts accidentally burned 300,000 acres of his land. In the interactions Billy Bob’s character proved once again he had the civility of a rabid possum who hadn’t eaten in a week. The man pointed out that such carrying-on was inappropriate which then allowed the character, I assume channeling some sort of pent up and unjustifiable rage in Taylor Sheridan, to rant about power structures and how much the local-who-thinks-he-is-a-big-shot needs to remember his place in the world.
Except that the local didn’t act like a big shot, he only expected civility and repair of damages. You know, the kind of expectation that ends contractual relationships if not met in real life, but not in Landman-fantasy-land where Taylor Sheridan gets to imagine all sorts of crap being real life.
Anyway, I think we saved ourselves from watching cardboard cut out caricatures.
The best line of that episode was, “Jeez, honey, if your mother had lost the gift of speech I’d still be married to her.”
jvb
The characters (or caricatures) set up the story lines further in to the series, and make it interesting. I’m my view.
You guys remind me of my wife’s view of the movie Falling Down, with Michael Douglas. She saw how the first half was presented, and didn’t like it – not realizing her concerns were addressed later in the movie, and providing a different view of things.
I wonder what you guys think of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, where the characters are portrayed as a bit over the top in more than a few scenes, as well.
TMWSLV confounded lots of people when it came out, including critics. It took me a while to realize Ford was intentionally pitching the tone over the top to evoke Western legend rather than reality, even to the point of using cheap TV Westerns sets in the stagecoach scenes. It’s a brilliant concept, well executed, and gutsy. For such a rough-hewn curmudgeon, Ford was really an auteur.
To do the landman job well, the best you can hope for is a character that does the least harm and lies only when he has to. He treats people like adults, well except his daughter. He isn’t Walter White or Dexter. He seems to aim to do the least harm. Andy Griffith would not keep the oil flowing, which is his job.