Landman Season 2 TV Review: Taylor Sheridan’s series is back and even more fun

Plot: As oil rises from the earth, so do secrets – and Tommy Norris’s breaking point may be closer than he realizes. Facing mounting pressure from M-Tex Oil, Cami Miller, and the shadow of his kin, survival in West Texas isn’t noble – it’s brutal. And sooner or later something’s got to break.

Review: Everyone has a favorite Taylor Sheridan series. Those who are invested in the Yellowstone creator’s distinct brand of Americana programming have a favorite. With the flagship series off the air, Paramount has plenty of options to choose from. For all the fun offered by the range of series from the prolific showrunner, Landman is the one that feels closest in tone and scope to the Montana-set drama that started it all. After a solid first season, Landman is back for a second season with Billy Bob Thornton and Ali Larter leading the West Texas ensemble with new additions Andy Garcia and Sam Elliott. Boasting an expanded role for Demi Moore, Landman is as good as it was in the first season, as it balances family melodrama with the intense world of oil and gas drilling and the toll it takes on everyone from the frontline workers to the C-suite executives.

At the end of the first season, Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) found himself promoted to Vice President at M-Tex Oil as owner Monty Miller (Jon Hamm) suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving the company in the hands of his widow, Cami (Demi Moore). Tommy also found himself at odds with a drug dealer named Gallino (Andy Garcia), who controls the border between Texas and Mexico, where transport of his product takes place. Season two opens mere weeks after the first season finale and finds Tommy and Cami in the midst of a tumultuous transition of power as the old friends try to navigate running M-Tex without Monty. While only the first three episodes of the season were made available for this review, the story jumps right into things and carries the momentum from last season without missing a beat. The aftershocks of Monty’s death mean many are circling the land rights of M-Tex, which also means that secrets are revealed that could alter the company’s path unless Tommy and Cami can figure out how to stabilize it.

Landman balances the main arc of M-Tex and Tommy’s involvement with his family members. Tommy’s ex-wife Angela (Ali Larter) is still a force to be reckoned with, shifting from sexually voracious to on the verge of murdering Tommy, sometimes within the same scene. Daughter Aisnley (Michelle Randolph) is preparing for college as everyone still lives within a single house alongside M-Tex attorney Nathan (Colm Feore) and engineer Dale Bradley (James Jordan). We also see Tommy’s son, Cooper (Jacob Lofland), continuing his relationship with Ariana (Paulina Chavez), the widow of Cooper’s former engineering mentor. Cooper gets to finally explore his own aspirations as a landman at the start of the season, which comes with its own challenges, something he turns to Tommy to help him navigate. This season also introduces Tommy’s estranged father, T.L., played by 1883 actor Sam Elliott. Elliott is a perfect fit for this series, and his on-screen relationship with Billy Bob Thornton makes for compelling television. The entire Norris clan undergoes extensive exploration in these early episodes, and audiences are treated to multiple dramatic dinner sequences featuring face-offs between Tommy and Angela.

What has consistently engaged me about Landman, compared to some other Taylor Sheridan series, is the balance of humor alongside the drama and occasional action. The first season peppered in numerous events at various pumps and sites, ranging from accidents to crimes, and this season sees some unique events that caught me off guard. The series also provides every supporting player with a three-dimensional world to inhabit, revealing the daily lives of these characters, including attorney Rebecca Falcone (Kayla Wallace), Sheriff Walt Joeberg (Mark Collie), crew leader Boss Ramone (Mustafa Speaks), and others. With Jon Hamm gone this season, Demi Moore’s minor role is expanded to a significant part of the series, with Andy Garcia’s character also playing a key part in Landman‘s sophomore run. In just the first three episodes, I was hooked by the expansive amount of story in each hour-long episode and was more engaged than the last two seasons of Yellowstone combined.

As he did with the first season, Taylor Sheridan wrote all eight episodes of Landman’s sophomore run. The first three episodes of season two are directed by Stephen Kay, who helmed six episodes of the first season. The new season sees the return of Andrew Lockington to compose the score. The episodes I have seen expand on the characters and their backstories while continuing threads from the first season, notably the introduction of Gallino, as well as the relationship between Cooper and Ariana. The short time jump between the first and second seasons gives Landman an organic flow from the first episodes to this new batch, which also stems from the fact that production on season two began not long after the first season wrapped. Taylor Sheridan’s commitment to writing Landman comes through in the dialogue and plotting, which is the strongest work he has done on any of his series since the first season of Yellowstone. The entire cast is committed to this story and has just as much fun as they do digging into the serious elements of the narrative.

With so much in the first three episodes of season two, I cannot wait to find out where this series will go next. Learning more about Tommy’s relationship with his parents and how that shaped him, coupled with the onslaught of stress he endures from work and his family, feels central to what keeps Landman a fascinating watch. Combine that with exceptional turns from Demi Moore and Andy Garcia in expanded roles and the reliable members of the entire ensemble, and you have a series that is as fun to watch as anything on television. Landman leans into all of the things that made it a hit in season one without changing anything for the worse. Billy Bob Thornton has found a role that is more dynamic than what Kevin Costner, Sylvester Stallone, or any of the other leads of the Taylor Sheridan series have gotten to work with, and the consistency between the first season and this new run shows that this series could stay on the air for many seasons to come.

Landman premieres on November 16th on Paramount+.