‘Landman’ is a mess — but it sure entertains

EPISODE 1 of the second season of Landman - ostensibly about Tommy Norris, a fixer for an oil company - kicks off with a minute-long rant against breakfast.

- SOPHIA NGUYEN

BILLY Bob Thornton and Sam Elliott in Landman.

(The Washington Post)

In Episode 4, a sand hauler plows into a pickup truck on company land. There are multiple fatalities. We basically never hear about it again.

In Episode 7, Tommy and his ex-wife-turned-fiancée, Angela (Ali Larter, given acres of scenery to chew), have an unprintable shouting match about the appropriate uses of an omelette.

Also, unrelatedly, in Episode 7: His pop scolds him, “I can’t wait till your prostate is the size of a grapefruit? then urinates on a rattlesnake.

Its ludicrous. There's nothing like it on television. Each week, I drink it up with the relish of “There Will Be Blood’s” Daniel Plainview, prospecting with his straw.

The show began on more stable footing, following the forever-exasperated Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton) through dusty vistas. In the constellation of projects by Taylor Sheridan, our leading red-state auteur, it landed somewhere between artisanal Sheridan (the critically acclaimed screenwriter) and franchise Sheridan (the impresario of Yellowstone and its spin-offs, and a purveyor of $38 candles). Like with much of his writing, Landman glamourises gritty men (and some women!) doing gritty jobs: Whether they're petroleum engineers risking life and limb or boardroom cowboys wrangling deal flow, the work is nasty and necessary, and therefore noble.