What I'm Watching: Landman

On the recommendation of someone, I forget who, I watched the first two episodes on Landman, which (at least for me) requires a "free" subscription to Paramount Plus. (I can cancel it for free if I do it within five days.)

This is a series set in the oilfields of Midland, Texas, about a landman, which is a guy who gets leases and solves problems for an immense oil company. Billy Bob Thornton stars, and Jon Hamm plays the owner of the oil company.

There's a lot to like here -- Billy Bob and Jon not least of all -- but wow, the sexual politics. 

The main point, at least so far, is that the oil business is a high-stakes and very dangerous game (the getting and selling of oil). It's hard on the bodies and the lives of the men who work the "patch," as the oil fields are called. The pay is good because the job is so dangerous. That part is making a good point. 

And the huge amounts of money involved -- the show, so far, does a good job of showing that and showing why the people who own and profit off the oilfields are not going down without a fight. The show explicitly compares the oil business to cocaine/heroine smugglers, which is a nice touch.

The show also does a good job of showing contrast between the oil company owner's life, and his family who lives on the profits of the oil company, and the lives of the workers on the oil patch, without ever calling attention to it. There's a nice scene where Billy Bob's son says, "The difference between you and [Jon Hamm] is that you quit and he didn't," and Billy Bob snaps back, "The difference is he has a trust fund and I didn't."

The macho posturing and dominance games are pretty well done too.

And there's some nice writing.

But much of the show is aimed at convincing us that the idea that oil companies are destroying the planet is just silly, and the oil production must continue, no matter the cost, in any definition of "cost."

Also, women in this show are either sexual possessions, and shown as such by the show (Billy Bog's nubile 17 year old daughter parades about a house filled with men in her lacy undies and a crop-top sweatshirt; the girl who works at the all-night coffee stand has her tits hanging out; Jon Hamm's wife spends her time lolling in a pool or in the sun); or they are ignorant upstarts who don't understand how the real world works (a lawyer for the evil law firm which protects the oil company). We also have a waitress, who stays out of the way when the men are talking. (I'm not the only one to notice the terrible job this show does with women characters.)

I get that this is probably part of the culture. But the show also shows all these big tough men as good guys, deep down, (Jon Hamm suffers when the oil patch workers die). And of course women exist to flash their tits and ass at men. Why else would men keep them around?

I might give it another episode or two, because the pacing and the writing are pretty good. But it's propaganda for the oil companies and for toxic masculinity, at least so far.