* Landman: why you need to watch this portrait of Trump’s America
Now president of M-Tex Oil after the death of Monty Miller (Jon Hamm) at the end of the first season, Norris is immediately dragged into the cloud of a silver lining as he attempts to unpick the complex and somewhat shady deals his former boss struck. And while no show is better off without Hamm, his departure allows the previously underused Cami (Demi Moore) to step out of the shadows and morph from grieving widow into ball-busting oil magnate in the time it takes her to walk from her table to the podium at the industry lunch she’s organised. “Enjoy your lunch — I paid for it with your money.” Immediately we’re cooking on gas … or should that be oil?
There’s no let-up for Norris on the personal front either, as his unpredictable wife Angie (Ali Larter) plans to buy an additional five-bedroom house so she can be close to their daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) who, after the most excruciating admission interview in the history of television, looks to be off to college. And while things briefly look up for his son Cooper (Jacob Lofland), nothing is as simple as it appears.
So the scene is set for another ride through the foothills of a world of money, politics and working-class values in red America. While Norris is still arguing with “idiots” on the radio over the effect of oil prices on the economy, the hotshot young lawyer Kayla (Rebecca Savage) has fully embraced her new role within the company and takes great pleasure in running rings round male lawyers twice her age. But lawyers are the least of Norris’s problems as the sceptre of the cartel boss Galino (Andy Garcia) looms large over the oil fields.
There are few television shows in 2025 that would include a scene of a family dinner where the father discusses the mother’s menstrual cycle (“I swear her cycle is reversed. Every 28 days she’s normal”) but, through Thornton’s wonderfully crafted performance, Norris somehow says the unsayable without becoming a villain.
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Perhaps it’s his dedication to his wife and children, which he hides behind gruff words and untamed stubble, or the weight of battle scars and baggage that he struggles to carry through the Texas dust. Whatever it is that makes Norris such a compelling character to many is exactly what also makes him so unpalatable to others.
Those on the fence won’t change their mind about this show after watching another season. However, for roughnecks who have been punching holes waiting for their next dose of Texas tea, the return of Landman once again drills deep into a different perspective on American life.
★★★★☆
Episode one of Landman, season two, is available on Paramount+ on Nov 16, then weekly
