Taylor Sheridan’s super successful “Yellowstone” has been compared to “Dallas,” the grandaddy of primetime soap operas, often enough. So why wouldn’t Sheridan take a stab at his own Texas-set, oil industry melodrama?
“Landman” is that. And what’s pleasantly surprising about this Permian Basin blend of big business brinkmanship, family conflict and horrific on-the-job accidents is that it’s so damn funny.
Most of the laughs are intentional, too. A rich deposit of them should be credited to star Billy Bob Thornton, who can deliver astute lessons in petrochemical economics one minute then tell a bartender “I quit drinkin’, I’ll stick with beer” the next.