And rather nastily, too.
I’ve been watching the Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ series “Landman” starring Billy Bob Thornton as a cynical oil drilling executive with the most non-feminist wife in TV history and a bimbo daughter. In the episode that just dropped, the daughter finds herself paired at TCU with a roommate from Hell: a militant, non-binary extremist who demands a “safe space” in “their” dorm room without music, light, fragrances…life, basically. Ainsley, the bimbo daughter who doesn’t know what her roommate’s pet ferret is (“What’s a ‘weasel’?”) despite an IQ around 80 (That’s a guess, and it might be generous) and a vocabulary to match, is shown winning a brief argument over the validity of gratuitous pronouns, with the grim roommate saying, not in jest, that without instruction she wouldn’t know what Ainsley “identifies” as.
I found the portrayal of the non-binary character unfairly negative, playing into the worst stereotypes imaginable. I know several non-binary individuals and trans men and women, and none of them is anything like the monster this character is. How is that character any different from a fairness perspective than a Steppin Fetchit character denigrating blacks as lazy, shuffling dolts, or the many ridiculous gay characters who lisp, flop their hands from limp wrists in Mel Brooks movies?
Of course, Ainsley Norris, Billy Bob’s bimbo slut daughter, is an absurd stereotype too, but at least she’s nice, sweet, and benign. What surprised me about the episode is that the writer and producer were willing to oppose their super-woke community’s knee-jerk, absolute support of the LGBTQ community, including its excesses, particularly as a trans rights controversy hits the Supreme Court.
The ethics question is whether such an extreme slap in the metaphorical face of the non-binery/trans social trend is a welcome ethical course correction for a biased popular culture, or unethical punching down at a troubled group that already has a lot to cope with, including body dysphoria, indoctrination by the Left in crippling beliefs, hostile, even violent bigots, and arguably, mental illness.
What’s going on here?
Ethics Alarms 
Knowing nothing about the show and only going on what you just described, it sounds like they are doing that TV thing of putting complete opposites together for hijinks or something. Are Bimbo’s parents Republicans?
Based on their lines, they would have to be, though the show is not overtly political. Ainsley managed to move out of that dorm room almost immediately, so a new, female, “Odd Couple” does not seem to be in the cards. The non-binary character is so repellent that such a show would be unwatchable.
I have not seen Landmen yet, but knowing a little about Taylor Sheridan and having seen his show Yellowstone (first two seasons of the show were interesting and entertaining, then it started going downhill fast), he is an atypical Hollywood persona that doesn’t seem beholden to the typical woke bubble nostrums. If I recall, he poked fun at woke issues numerously. I feel like Sheridan can bludgeon you over the head, if he’s trying to make a point. As far as Hollywood goes, I think he is an exception and not the rule.
What’s going on here, I think, is that the weirdo community has gone too far to the point of absurdity with pronouns, and the transgender community has done enough crazy stuff, i.e. shooting children at school, to the point where a lot of folks, especially the kind who’d watch this, think of them as dangerous, unstable, brittle types who just go off their heads with one wrong word. Us ordinary folks are just fed up, and this is playing to that fed up demographic.
I was wondering if you would get around to addressing this show, seeing as how it’s a stew of unethical conduct and characters. Maybe two (the old lawyer, Nate, and Tommy’s son) are generally decent humans…Tommy (Thornton) is a pragmatist.
To be fair, Tommy’s daughter and once-and-future-wife seem to be there mainly for comic relief, and the satirically stereotypical woke roommate just plays into that.
Maybe it’s this?
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Cher%20snap%20out%20of%20it%20gif&mid=5367934B8502525C48DD5367934B8502525C48DD&ajaxhist=0
Mental illness is being celebrated. The people you know aren’t all this extreme, but anyone who labels themselves “non-binary” or “transgender” is mentally ill. Even wanting to label yourself as such tells me you have a problem with reality, the same way someone who is anorexic or anything like that has a problem with reality.
Beyond that, these people will be nice to you if you play their game, but the moment you challenge them, hell comes fast and furious for you. They aren’t pleasant people to be around if you force them to face reality, at least most of the time.
It even happens at Wal-Mart. They stare at you when you walk up to check out like they are trying to figure out if you are an enemy if you don’t give off that liberal vibe. It’s really unnerving and makes me actively avoid their lanes if I can.
Maybe your experience is with a select few, but from my experience and every video I see online (and my experience isn’t just online), the show accurately captures the vibe, even if it takes it to a bit of an extreme.
As a writer of fiction, I’m not sure ethics should enter into an analysis of a piece of fiction. I think the only questions that have to be asked are: is the character credible and does it function within the piece to make the point the creator is trying to make. I think the character is plausible and the scene works. Is the character a stereotype? Maybe so. Are there lots of stereotypes running loose. Yes. Are they fair game? I believe they are.
Additionally, the new roommates at the beginning of the semester is a fairly standard situation. This is a very well updated version. I think the dialogue is really well done and the gorgeous girl playing the naif is well cast and does a great job of showing her trying to be accommodating with this guy and being literally reduced to tears. Again, could I see this happening? Yes.
And maybe the question in the headline above is wrong insofar as perhaps it’s not satire, simply realism.
In the first season the Landman (the wonderful Billie Ray Thornton) had a great dialogue with a envirnonmentalist opposed to oil drilling.
I’m gald to see the antiwoke direction of this show continues. Arguemntum ad absurdum does point TO he fallacy of your MISunderstanding of reality.
Much like what is going on at the Suprem court today.
BTW Did you catch that the charcter was from MINNEAPOLIS?
Like you, I found this rather mean-spirited. Personally I prefer a lighter touch in satire — here’s a favorite from JP on the pronoun topic: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SzTuKZk0vU4
For those not wanted to follow the link, here’s my favorite line
“That’s a powerful truth to live”