Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Landman’ Arrives With Better Reviews Than Yellowstone’s Debut

Taylor Sheridan, also known as the hardest working man in crime-based media, just launched a new show last week, Landman, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Ali Larter. Here’s the synopsis:

“In the heart of Texas, roughnecks and billionaires try to get rich quick in the oil industry; Tommy Norris, a struggling executive, tries to take his company to the top during the fuel boom.”

So, not ranching this time, rather the oil industry, which of course is ripe for exploration of corruption and all manner of other crimes. Probably murder, at some point, if I had to guess, given Sheridan’s history.

Interestingly, the show is reviewing better than the debut of Yellowstone season 1 back in 2018. Critics were not on board back then, as that only had a 58% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Landman has instead arrived with a 74% on release here. That is, however, lower than the other four seasons of Yellowstone that have currently been released. It has a generally lower 66% audience score, but that is at least higher than the 40% that Yellowstone season 5 currently has, as fans are not on board with its current direction in its Kevin Costner-less final episodes here.

Sheridan has created or produced an astonishing amount of content for Paramount at this point, including Yellowstone, which remains one of the most popular shows in America, especially performing well on linear TV in an age when that rarely happens. But besides Yellowstone and a few of its spin-offs, he’s also behind series like Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown and Lioness. And now, Landman. In all, I think he’s up to a dozen or so shows in the last few years, where he’s been involved in some way or another.

One thing to note here is that all of these shows are on Paramount Plus besides Yellowstone, as that show is locked into a deal with NBC and Peacock until 2025. But Paramount has now built up a massive pile of mostly very solid Taylor Sheridan content where it’s the bulk of its successful programing on the service. It’s hard to really recall anything that has been an outright bomb from him, as even if everything isn’t a new Yellowstone, most of these series are generally well-received by critics and fans and have been renewed for multiple seasons.

Landman nabbing Billy Bob Thornton is a huge get, as he’s such a talented actor and would slide right in to this kind of storyline. I’ll be checking it out when I get a chance.

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