'Landman's' Finale Finally Introduced The Character We've Been Waiting For, But Totally Dropped The Ball With Another Underused Actor

2025-02-04 51

Major spoilers below for the Season 1 finale of Taylor Sheridan’s "Landman," so tread carefully if you haven’t yet streamed the ep with a Paramount+ subscription.

With its first two episodes, "Landman" set up Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris as a lead character who won some fans over more than "Yellowstone’s" John Dutton had, and the streaming drama’s first season ended with the oil-focused patriarch suffering more than a few wounds at the hands (and hammered nails) of the Mexican cartel. All while Ali Larter’s Angela and Michelle Randolph’s Ainsley provided good vibes a-plenty while exploiting Mitchell Slaggert’s Ryder for his stripping skills.

Arguably most exciting was the arrival of a character whose introduction was set up by a long-ago casting report, but we're not altogether sold on how successful the ep was on the whole, considering the Season 1 conclusion committed the same sin as the rest of the season by under-utilizing co-star Demi Moore. But we’ll get into that a bit lower down.