Taylor Sheridan’sLandmanis rooted in real-world inspiration, with a broader true story to explore. Billy Bob Thornton plays Tommy Norris in theLandmancast, leading a star-studded ensemble that also includes Jon Hamm, Demi Moore, and Ali Larter. While Tommy Norris may be entirely fictional,the characters in Taylor Sheridan’s TV shows are often amalgams of real-life figures, in this case offering viewers a glimpse at a generalized interpretation of what an authentic oilman might actually look and sound like.
Landman’sfirst two episodes offer a lot to unpackas audiences are thrust into a world of high-stakes Texas oil at multiple levels, from urban CEOs to crisis management to the crews working the patch. As usual, theYellowstonecreator has developed his show with a guarantee of entertainment, but there’s alsoa notable level of candidness to the portrayals that can only come from dense research into the real-life subject. Taylor Sheridan combines his usual slick, fast-paced dialogue with a factual basis, makingLandmana fascinating new series.
Landman Is Based On The Podcast, Boomtown
Boomtown Is Only 12 Episodes & Worth Checking Out
In the modern media world, podcasts are just as viable as a source for adaptation as books, and Christian Wallace’s 12-episode seriesBoomtownis the basis for the new Paramount+ show. The podcast came out in late 2019 andexamines the contemporary oil boom in the Permian Basin, one of the world’s most productive regions for the energy industry. Wallace grew up in Andrews, Texas, and spent a year working as a roughneck in oilfields on drilling rigs, similar to what’s shown in Cooper’s story in the first two episodes ofLandman.
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Boomtownframes the current oil boom from a historical perspective, examining the region’s past and ensuring that the current level of productivity is finite. That’s something that Thornton’s Tommy Norris explains in episode 2 when meeting with local landowners, specifying that when oilmen like him leave the area, so will the money. An oil boom is a volatile game-changer for its region, forcing long-term ranchers and other business owners to reconsider their status in the area. Like the podcast,Landmanexamines the effects of the trillion-dollar oil industry on the humans involved.
When exploring the contents ofBoomtown, it’s abundantly clear whereLandmandraws inspirationfor several ideas. InLandman’sopening episode, Cooper’s entire crew, all of whom are related, are killed in a rig explosion, and episode 2 sees Tommy going to break the news to the family. One of the subjects for the podcast was the Martinez family, who lost three generations of fathers due to one incident. The podcast also examines the local “breastaurants,” which inspired the bikini coffee shop inLandmanepisode 1.
The Real Texas Oil Boom In The Permian Basin Explained
The Permian Basin Is A Historic Region For The Development Of The United States
The Permian Basin became the most profitable oil region in the United States in the early 20th century, originally defined by a period known as the “Texas oil boom.” In 1901, an oil strike near Beaumont, Texas, revealedan oil reserve on an enormous scale that prompted a wave of land development that’s scarcely been rivaled in US history. Texas was a primarily rural landscape prior to the turn of the century, and the oil boom resulted in rapid expansion for cities like Houston, San Antonio, and more.
Much of the state’s landscape and infrastructure, as they’re displayed inLandman, are a result of this historical period.
It can’t go understated how substantial of an event this was,propelling the United States to become the highest-producing oil country in the world, overtaking Russia. Much of the state’s landscape and infrastructure, as they’re displayed inLandman, are a result of this historical period. Given the risk involved in the oil industry, the Permian Basin’s success has ebbed and flowed over the years. Some booms have resulted in companies bringing over such large quantities of workers that the local regions would run out of housing and hotel rooms, and that’s just one of many things that can go wrong.
How Much Oil Is Produced In The Permian Basin Today?
The Permian Basin Has Stabilized Since 2023
A study fromBaker Hughesreported byNPRexamines the number of oil drills active per week in the Permian Basin dating back to 2011. The peak in the past fourteen years was in late 2014, with 568 rigs operating in one week. The data plummeted to 134 in the spring of 2016 and then even lower to 117 in 2020, just after the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s steadily risen back up to decent numbers since then, with348 rigs reported in June 2023. The study explains that, despite not producing as much as in previous years, the oil economy prospers.
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The total number of rigs has stabilized in the low-to-mid 300s since 2023, which is due to several factors. Supply shortages and difficulty finding workers are some of the main causes, but it’s also due to investors expecting cash returns instead of aiming for more oil production. Since Taylor Sheridan’sLandmanseries is contemporary, it can be assumed that this is a similar working ecosystem to what Tommy is dealing with. It will be interesting to see if Sheridan explores the geopolitical aspect of oil production in the Permian Basin.
How Realistic Is Landman?
Landman Presents Dramatized Authenticity
Likeany Taylor Sheridan TV show,Landmanis written in an intelligent enough manner to be believable. He co-created the show alongside Christian Wallace, so many of the subjects and insights fromBoomtowncould be directly contributed to the series straight from the source. That helps to build an authentic world, andthings like the job lingo, work culture, and character archetypes are likely to be directly drawn from the types of people Wallace met in his experiences. With that being said, though, Taylor Sheridan’s shows always have elements of the soap opera genre that probably aren’t particularly realistic.
An oil executive being kidnapped by the cartel and wisecracking his way out might be a bit of Taylor Sheridan’s television flare
For example, there are probably a plethora of Tommy Norris-like figures out there in the real-world oil industry, but on a day-to-day basis, they probably aren’t quite as entertaining or dramatized. As for the events in the series, there’s not too much so far that seems entirely outrageous. The rig explosion definitely appeared to be rooted in fact and based on the aforementioned story of the Martinez family. An oil executive being kidnapped by the cartel and wisecracking his way out might be a bit of Taylor Sheridan’s television flare, but that’s just whatLandmanneeds.
Sources:NPR
Landman
Set in West Texas, this series explores the world of oil rigs and the fortunes they create. It portrays a modern upstairs/downstairs narrative of roughnecks and billionaires, highlighting the profound impact on the climate, economy, and geopolitics in these boomtowns.
