SEASON 2 of Paramount TV’s male fantasy Landman just ended (but is available to stream). Throw together a stellar cast, soap opera plotting, take-your-time direction, string-pull-doll one liners and maybe you can’t go wrong.
Billy Bob Thornton leads the way as Texan oil man Tommy Norris, alongside the likes of Andy Garcia and Sam Elliot as shrewd, gravel voiced and straight-talking old dudes. It’s good fun in a good ole boys’ world. And hats off to all involved for having 50 plus characters that aren’t either funeral plan buyers or playing generic personality free zones. It’s great fun, very watchable and the music and pick-up trucks give us viewers a road-trip through the Texas sunshine which is just the ticket in this miserable UK winter.
Women fare less well. There are five main-cast actresses (all excellent) written with all the balance you’d expect from (say) a bitter, divorced dad, drunk-texting his ex. Mrs Tommy (Ali Larter) is a hormonal (code for crazy) spendthrift who had dumped him in hard times and is now back. She misses his sexy old body (which is fair as this is Billy Bob). Daughter (Michelle Randolph) is tarty, intellectually challenged, and daddy obsessed. Please can I live with you Daddy, instead of Mommy? It’s not all your mom’s fault, sighs Billy Bob’s Tommy. Yes that happens.
There’s a beautiful 30-year-old lawyer-shrew whose legal expertise is hating on men and manipulation of her girl status. She’s doubles as a liberal so she needs Tommy’s guidance in real-world (code for man’s world) problems and her big city diploma doesn’t help when she’s dumbstruck by Tommy’s stunning logic.
There’s a hot, feisty girl playing Ariana, girlfriend of Tommy’s boy Cooper. (Cooper Norris is played to perfection by Jacob Lofland). Ariana isn’t like other girls. COS SHE’S MEXICAN as the script never bores of telling us.
She force-feeds anyone who comes into her home COS SHE’S MEXICAN. She gets passionate and shouts COS SHE’S MEXICAN. She sticks her nose into other people’s business COS SHE’S MEXICAN. She’s also full of insights about the ‘games’ women play like not saying what they want and asking men to guess. Just like a woman. It’s also off-putting as her pick-me Levi jeans get inappropriate amounts of screen time in just one of many, many, unsubtle product placements.
Oh, and then there’s Demi Moore who played an ornamental billionaire’s wife in Season 1 then graduated to ornamental CEO in Season 2. She naturally needs Tommy’s guidance in managing her fortune.
Tommy juggles all these women whilst doing his actual job managing young, impetuous gangsters and oil-based problems. Just like a man. Women don’t understand work really. Yes that’s the message. If they do work, it’s a cover for being a woman. Hi, I’m a geologist. Well, hi, I’m a woman. Here’s my card.
Tommy Norris dispatches advice via monologues and many, many one-liners like a string-pull doll. And best of all, the script makes everyone listen to his sage advice. Of course, he would lecture that men-hating dramas have been around for years. Men are often shown as incompetents or snakes. And goddam it, Tommy in my head, you’re spot on. Tommy managing women might get tedious but let’s not kid. Billy Bob could never get tedious. He could read the phone book and it’d be worth listening.
So, sexy old dudes? Count me in, with a girlish giggle. Maybe it’s a female fantasy too.
Landman Season 2 is available for streaming on Paramount+ and can also be found on Amazon Prime Video as part of the Paramount+ channel add-on.
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Photos Courtesy of Paramount+
