Return to Landman...With The Word According to Tommy Norris

January 2026

 

We have the Bible...

 

Then we have...

 

The Word According to Tommy Norris...

 

And I do love those words of wisdom from my favorite landman...

 

Tommy ...

 

The king of the self- aware, tell it like it is, cut to the chase, no bs reality check...

Served up on a regular basis in concise two-sentence aphorisms...

Whether you’re in the mood for them or not...

 

Such as...

 

“I don’t have an anger problem. I have an idiot problem.”

 

And “I’ve met smarter fence posts. And at least they know their job.”

 

Now Tommy is the kind of guy who hires a stripper...

To be his depressed father’s physical therapist...

 

And he is in rare form once again in Season Three of Landman...

Which is a real Taylor Sheridan gem...

 

So we have Tommy talking to city folks...

 

“Out here, remote work means no one can hear you scream.”

 

“That handshake tells me you have never lifted anything heavier than a laptop.”

 

And “This land doesn’t care where you went to school.”

 

As well as...

 

“You can be right. Or you can be rich. Pick one.”

 

Because...

 

“If Power Points drilled wells, y’all would be geniuses.”

 “In the city, mistakes get meetings. Out here, they get a funeral.”

 

So once again this season, we get another reminder of how dangerous it is to work on a rig...

 

So Tommy has to school the suits...

 

“A spreadsheet doesn’t stop a blowout.”

 

“Every bad decision in this field starts with ‘It’ll be fine’.”

 

“You dress for the job you want. I dress for the job that might kill me.”

“You measure success in quarters. We measure it by not dying.”

 

And this season, we learn about the danger from hydrogen sulfide leaking from an oil well...

That turned out to be a silent killer of pigs and men...

 

Because Landman...

 

Keeps reminding us that working in an oil field...

Is hot, dirty... and very dangerous...

 

But it can be lucrative for the guys on the line...

If they can survive...

 

So this series shows that there are jobs Americans will do...

You just have to pay them enough...

 

And then there are the Taylor Sheridan women on Landman...

And no one writes women better than that paean to western masculinity...

 

There is that tornado of a wife...

Who is many a man’s fantasy and nightmare all rolled into one...

 

Which is why her ringtone on Tommy’s phone...

Is the theme from a horror movie...

 

The smart as f...ck big city lawyer who will eat you alive while enjoying every minute of it...

But is afraid of flying and has a thing for the geologist with a mullet living in a trailer...

 

Who BTW...

 

Gave an excellent tutorial on the challenges of drilling for natural gas in the Gulf...

 

And the daughter... who, like the wife, is portrayed as a Texas stereotype...

All cotton candy sex kitten and about as deep as a puddle...

But like her mother... can be incredibly kind...

 

When she isn’t out shopping ....

 

But then this teenager takes on the Pronoun People at her college...

 

In what was one of those classic Taylor Sheridan takedowns of a woke shibboleth...

 

And reminiscent of Tommy’s retort to an environmentalist in the first season...

“You flew here on a jet to tell me oil is bad?”

 

So Tommy is surrounded by formidable women...

 

And he is pretty clear-eyed about his relationship with them...

 

So he gives his daughter the following advice...

 

“Relationships aren’t about chemistry. They’re about remembering birthdays while you still want to kill each other.”

 

And tells his son...

 

“You can be right or you can be married. Choose wisely.”

 

And then there is Cami...

 

A botoxed to the max Demi Moore...

Whose face refuses to move...

 

And turns out to be Tommy’s real nemesis this season...

As the widow of his boss at MTex..

Who doesn’t know what she doesn’t know...

Feels like she has something to prove...

While trying to run an oil company on emotion... and nostalgia...

 

And of course, there are still the cartels and the predatory insurance companies....

To contend with...

 

Along with Tommy’s son, Cooper

 

Who is played by Jacob Lofland....

 

And is Sheridan’s only casting mistake...

In a series that has Andy Garcia and Sam Elliot...

 

Because Cooper looks like some Beta Boy from Dartmouth...

Who got lost in Texas on his way to Coachella...

 

But Landman is Billy Bob Thornton’s show...

And he is terrific as Tommy....

 

In a series that is exceptionally well written by Taylor Sheridan...

Full of colorful characters...

And will educate you about the oil industry...

 

And that is why Landman is far better

 

Than many of the Oscar nominees this season...

 

That I will get to soon...

​

​

​

 

​

 

​

 

​

 

​

​

​

​

 

​

 

​

​

 

​

 

​

​

 

​

​​

 

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

​

 

​

​

​

 

​

 

​

​

 

​

 

​

​​

​

 

​

 

​

 

​

 

​​

 

​

​

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​

 

​

 

​

​

​

 

​

 

 

 

 

​

 

​

 

​

​

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​