Landman Is Switching Genres In Season 3
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
In its first two seasons, Landman was an interesting mix of genres. It’s a modern-day There Will Be Blood, set on the oil fields of Texas, but it also has the eccentric Southern family dynamics of King of the Hill, the corporate drama of Succession and Industry, the explosions of a Michael Bay movie, and, of course, the desert landscapes and high-stakes showdowns of a neo-western like Yellowstone. But in season 3, it’s adding yet another genre feather to its cap.
At the end of Landman season 2, after getting squeezed out of his current job, Tommy decided to start from scratch with a new business. Funded by Gallino, CTT Oil Exploration and Cattle will work the new wells and get some more drilling operations going. But that’s not the exciting part; the exciting part is that Tommy has filled out his staff and his board of directors with all his friends and family. He appoints his go-getter son Cooper as the president, his trusty pal Nate as the treasurer, and his uptight attorney Rebecca as COO and Chief Counsel, and fills out his crew with Ariana, Dale, Boss, and T.L.
So, going into season 3, Landman’s sprawling ensemble will all be working at the same place, with the same goals. In seasons 1 and 2, the cast was all over the place: Angela was on vacation, Ainsley went off to a cheerleading summer camp, Cooper and Ariana were busy fighting the power, and Tommy, Nate, Rebecca, and the rest of the top brass at M-Tex were all working remotely.
But now, they’re all under one roof, on the same payroll, so Landman could become a workplace show in season 3. The King of the Hill-style family sitcom could become more of a Bob’s Burgers-style show about a family-run business.
Season 3 Could Be Landman's Best Season Yet
After Landman aired its season 2 finale, co-creator Christian Wallace spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about plans for season 3 and beyond. Wallace said that the third season would be a “reset” for the series, since the season 2 finale drastically readjusted the status quo. Now that all our main characters are working together, they’ll start spending a lot more time with each other.
So far, Landman has felt like a bunch of different shows rolled into one. Tommy’s illicit dealings in the oil industry play like a gritty, Breaking Bad-style crime thriller, but his home life, where his scantily clad teenage daughter distracts his middle-aged friends, feels more like a lascivious sitcom from the ‘70s. Cooper’s whirlwind romance with the widow Medina is a (highly improbable) love story. Angela and Ainsley’s charitable efforts to give old people the time of their lives is a feel-good dramedy like Grace and Frankie. We’ve been all over the map.
Going into Landman season 3, Tommy, Cooper, and T.L. are all working at the same company, and that company isn’t attached to the puppet-strings of some larger corporation; it’s completely independent and family-run. It’s the Bob’s Burgers of the oil industry. This storyline is a great opportunity to expand on underutilized character dynamics from the previous seasons. It’s always fun to see Tommy and Ariana in a room together — she’s one of the only people who can match his biting wit — but it happened so rarely in seasons 1 and 2 (mainly because Cooper was still avoiding his family at all costs back then, and it’s hard to blame him when you see the blatant favoritism towards his sister).
Landman’s first two seasons had their fair share of flaws, not the least of which being disinformation about renewable energy, but they were solid entertainment — carried mostly by Billy Bob Thornton’s irresistible swagger. But, with this workplace setting bringing the ensemble together, season 3 is primed to be the best season yet.
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