Angela (Ali Larter) and Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton) Norris in Landman(2025, Credit: Paramount+)
When I changed the direction of my writing from interview to pop culture analysis, my first piece was about the final seasons of Yellowstone and House of Cards. (That piece can be read here.) The final season of both shows did not have their leading man, but House of Cards fell apart because the show depended on Kevin Spacey, whereas Yellowstone survived because it didn’t need Kevin Coster. The heart and soul of the latter was Taylor Sheridan. Now Taylor has created several Yellowstone (2018-2024)spinoffs as 1883 (2021-2022)and 1923 (2022-2025), but it’s with Landman that he created a completely different environment with new locations, stories, and characters. Thus, I consider Landman (2024-2026) his first follow-up to Yellowstone.
The result is a show that constantly hits #1 or #2 on the Nielsen streaming charts, has had two successful seasons, and is on its way to a third season. Despite its success, audiences have been polarized by it. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score for season one was 64 percent, and season two was 40 percent.
How does a show sustain a large viewership with divided audiences? That’s all due to the world that Taylor Sheridan has created. It’s set in the oil fields of West Texas. In Landman, Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) works in the West Texas oil fields as a crisis executive for M-Tex, trying to take the oil company to success and fix many crisis situations that come along. Like Yellowstone, it also centers around his family. Cooper (Jacob Lofland) dropped out of college to work on an oil rig, hoping one day to start his own oil company. On Cooper’s first day on an oil patch, there’s a terrible oil rig explosion. From that tragedy, Cooper meets up with Ariana (Paulina Chávez), whose husband was killed in the oil rig explosion. Their relationship starts friendly but becomes romantic.
The ladies of the Norris family may explain some of the audience division. In Yellowstone, there was a character named Beth(Kelly Reilly), who had an extremely strong personality, drank a lot, and used her sexuality at times to get what she wanted. Audiences were very divided on Beth. In Landman, we have Angela Norris (Ali Larter), Tommy’s ex-wife, who also has an extremely strong personality but is also a woman who spends money like she’s superrich, and she expresses her sexuality a lot in her mature age. Tommy may love her, but Angela does drive him crazy. Even audience members who like Angela will have moments where she drives them crazy. For instance, there’s a scene where she flips the dinner table and smashes dishes because Tommy correctly states she spends too much money. Then there is Ainsley (Michelle Randolph), who is their daughter. To be fair, she is still a teenager who is not a very sophisticated person and has no interest other being a cheerleader at college. Given that Angela and Ainsley are major characters and a lot of family drama surrounds them, this may be a turnoff for a good deal of viewers. And at the same time, there are viewers who respond strongly to them as they did to Beth in Yellowstone.
However, if some audience members don’t like the Norris ladies, they might like Rebecca Falcone (Kayla Wallace), who is an out-of-state lawyer for the M-Tex oil company and works with Tommy. Unlike most of the red-state characters, she probably comes from a blue state where she argues with Tommy about climate crisis and fracking. When it comes to showing off her lawyer skills, Rebecca is super tough striking fear into anyone, whether it be oil executives, insurance company executives, or the police. While people who don’t like Angela or Ainsley would probably like Rebecca, she is a supporting character.
Finally, there are the owners of M-Tex. Monty (Jon Hamm) is the initial owner but suffers a fatal heart attack at the end of season one. Before his death, he makes Tommy president and his wife, Cami (Demi Moore), in charge of M-Tex.
In season two, with Cami in charge, M-Tex will take on a whole new direction. Monty has left M-Tex in financial disarray. Tommy, who has suffered bankruptcy, is naturally risk-averse. Cami, on the other hand, is determined to take on a lot of risk. Likewise, we met Gallino (Andy Garcia) as a leader of the drug cartel in the finale of season one, but in season two, we see that he is also a legitimate financial investor. Tommy, knowing Gallino works for the cartel, is naturally reluctant to work with him. Yet Cami, determined to get M-Tex on top, does not mind working with Gallino, despite his history with the cartel.
Family drama also continues in season two with Tommy’s estranged father, Thomas “TL” Norris (Sam Elliott). The death of Tommy’s mother forces them to reconnect. We learned that TL was an enabler for Tommy’s alcoholic mother. Tommy left his family early, but at his mother’s funeral, Angela convinces Tommy to have TL move into the house with them. This begins to repair Tommy’s relationship with TL.
I have heard that Landman is essentially Yellowstone set in the oil fields of Texas. There is some truth to that. Both shows are set around a family in a rural state. In Yellowstone, it’s the Dutton family in Montana, while Landman is the Norris family in Texas. In addition, there are issues in politics, crime and business that members of the family must deal with.
But there are also instances where Landman is not like Yellowstone. For one, in Yellowstone, the Dutton family is very powerful. One can hardly say that about the Norris family. Tommy is never in power. He works for Monty, and then Cami and Gallino. The Norris family is still in a developing stage, with Tommy and Angela coming together, along with new additions as TL and Ariana (who is engaged to Cooper at the end of season two). The Dutton family has already come together by the beginning of the first episode of Yellowstone.
Another factor about Taylor Sheridan is that his two shows are set in red states. He certainly understands people who live in red states and creates realistic characters of them. In our hyperpartisan political world, this has led to discussions of what Taylor’s politics are. A good deal of conservatives felt Sheridan was speaking to them and not interested in any of the woke stuff that some of Hollywood is engaged in.
While there are elements in Landman that aren’t liberal (for instance, mocking the talk show The View), Sheridan hardly seems MAGA. For instance, Ariana, who works at a bar, is nearly raped by a patron. As he attacks her, he tells her, “Go back home to where you’re really from.”
Likewise, Ainsley goes to college and is initially roommates with Paigyn (Bobbi Salvör Menuez), who is nonbinary. At first, they don’t get along and Ainsley moves out. Yet, they meet up again at cheerleading practice. Paigyn, who is training in sports medicine, sees Ainsley and gives her advice to survive the rigors of cheerleading practice. Thus, the two reconnect and consider sharing a dorm again.
From the success of Yellowstone and Landman, Taylor Sheridan continues to create successful shows centered around a red-state family. While he understands red-state people very well, he also can make his show appealing to blue-state people as well.
