Reviewer Rating: 4.5/5.0
4.5
Taylor Sheridan has done it again. His new series “Randleman,” airing on Paramount+, takes viewers into the rugged, dangerous world of Texas oil as only Sheridan can.
To be clear, critics won’t like this show. Just as they ignore Sheridan’s other works, such as “Yellowstone” and “The King of Tulsa,” they also downplay Randleman’s entertainment value and its message. Don’t let it stop you from taking this ride.
In the first two episodes, we meet Tommy, played by Billy Bob Thornton. Tommy knows everything about the oil industry and isn’t afraid to use that knowledge to get what he wants.
Randleman Season 1 Episode 1 jumps right into the action. Tommy deals with everything from drug dealers to family drama. This is a world where money and power rule; Landman reveals the cost of getting to the top.
From the start, Tommy was in trouble. He was kidnapped and held captive by a group of men, but instead of panicking, he remained calm, rattling off facts about the oil industry and using names like Halliburton to intimidate his kidnappers.
That scene may not have disturbed him, but it did to me. That’s what makes the way he goes about it so interesting.
He has courage and knows how to use his words to keep himself safe. Later, he negotiates with a rancher to solve the problem by offering a solar lease, showing that he is a man of few words and a man who gets to the point.
It’s clear that this is just another day at work for Tommy Norris, which helps us immediately understand his world and how he operates within it. It also emphasizes that this is no one person’s job. It earned the respect of the driller upper echelons.
Tommy’s quick thinking and no-nonsense attitude show how tough and smart he is in this industry, which provides a great starting point for us to understand the man.
More conservative Jon Hamm plays Monty Miller, who seems to represent the conservative wing of the oil industry. However, His calm demeanor shouldn’t fool you.
His majesty doesn’t necessarily mean he’s indifferent to the actual struggles of people like Tommy. Trust fund or not, boss or employee, Monty and Tommy are old friends.
In one scene, Monty orders Tommy around with an air of entitlement, which is interesting considering their long history. What happened during the years they were in business together?
This power dynamic creates tension that intensifies their interactions, highlighting the disparity between those who are born with power and those who strive for it.
Monty’s home life also reflects his cold, calculating side. While he focused on business, his family seemed to stay out of it, unaware of the risks and challenges he faced in keeping his empire intact.
At the end of the second episode of Randleman’s first season, he made it clear that he will do whatever it takes to protect his legacy, even if it means keeping it a secret from those closest to him.
This dynamic gives viewers a glimpse of the price of privilege—Monty has wealth and power, but he is isolated and relies on control rather than connection.
It will be interesting to see if Monty’s family will be more involved, or if his focus on the legacy will prevent him from forming a real relationship with them.
Five episodes into this series, I can tell you that Demi Moore is criminally underused. She’s as much the face of Randleman as she is the face of Hamm, and it’s devastating.
My initial thoughts about Tommy and Monty, though, is that their relationship isn’t quite what it seems. Only time will tell if this is their reality. Tommy wouldn’t let anyone talk to him like Monty did.
One of Tommy’s best relationships is with his daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph). Despite all the chaos, Tommy found time to be a father to Ainsley. Their relationship is a combination of tough love and honesty that feels both relatable and unique.
When Ainsley talks to him about her boyfriend Dakota, Tommy reacts like any protective father. Like any father, what she says shouldn’t fall on his ears, but he listens and tries to keep it true.
He is a father who knows exactly what it means to have a daughter as beautiful as Ainsley. But he’s also susceptible to her charms, as we see when he throws away french fries just because she wants to. He would do anything to make her happy.
There’s a touching scene where Tommy holds Ainsley while she’s upset and says, “Why am I always right? Because I’ve been wrong my whole life.
This is a great line that shows that he has learned a lot from his mistakes and will do everything in his power to ensure that his daughter learns from hers as well.
The talented Ali Larter stars as Tommy’s ex-wife Angela, and their relationship promises to bring even more layers of drama and excitement to the show.
Angela and Tommy’s history is clearly filled with love and tension. Angela makes no secret of missing Tommy, and despite being married, she still wants to hold on to him.
This is on full display when she dresses up during a video call just to remind him of what he’s missing, teasing him with a playful yet edged attitude.
There’s still a subtle connection between them, but it’s entangled with years of conflict and unspoken feelings.
Their conversation left no doubt that they were both stubborn. They also remind us that although they are no longer together, they still understand each other in a way that can only come from a shared history. Tommy has complicated feelings for Angela.
He loved her, but he knew there was something tragic about their being together. He laughs and admits to Ainsley that he would marry her again if her mother “stopped talking,” suggesting that their deep bond has been frayed by time and differences but remains unbroken and perhaps unstable.
Their scenes together are the perfect balance of humor and sexual tension, reminding us that sometimes love doesn’t die, even when the relationship itself has ended. When she finally shows up in Midland, expect sparks to fly.
The oil business is not just about money; This is a dangerous job. We see this firsthand when an oil rig explosion nearly kills Tommy and Angela’s son Cooper.
Cooper’s inability to find the right tools for the job actually saved him, but it also opened his eyes to how risky the job could be. What’s particularly striking about this scene is how much time Sheridan invested in the character before erasing him from the screen.
It’s a shocking scene that perfectly illustrates the reality of working in the “patch”, where workers risk their lives for good pay.
Heartbreaking scenes like this place you in the reality of this unknown world that is fully integrated into our daily lives. It’s a very hard job considering the impact it has on our society, and Landman makes that clear in a very real way.
It also shows, in a roundabout way, Tommy and Angela’s deep affection for their children. They try to guide them in the right direction, but they also allow them to make their own decisions. It’s not easy knowing that Cooper puts his life on the line every day.
Tommy warns that Cooper’s rocky start, which resulted in the deaths of three beloved crew members, won’t endear him to the rest of the crew, which seems like an understatement.
At Landman, wealth and success are not just given—people strive for them.
The differences between characters like Tommy and Monty are clear, with Cooper’s ambition to get to the top by learning the business from the ground up. His wish may come at a price.
Tommy is quick to remind Cooper (Jacob Loveland) that it takes more than just a dream to make it happen. This requires courage and sacrifice. Different backgrounds shape everyone’s path in the world of oil, and one misstep can have significant consequences.
Cooper has a lot of work to do if he wants to be Monty — if the rest of the staff is willing to accept his presence.
Tommy’s job forces him to make tough choices. The answer is not always right or wrong, black or white. Instead, there are gray and murky waters to navigate.
After the oil rig exploded, Tommy immediately thought of how to support the families of the victims. This shows his strong sense of responsibility to the people he manages, but it’s also a move to prevent tragedy from causing legal problems for his M-Tex.
Tommy is like a corporate human resources department, a balancing act between those who support the organization and those who run it. This is not an easy task.
Tommy’s moral compass is more practical than principled. He knows that survival in his job depends on compromise.
Tommy is more than just a tough guy in the oil industry, but sometimes toughness is all he has to stand up for.
I predict Randleman will be another hit piece for Taylor Sheridan.
It fits perfectly into Taylor Sheridan’s world, where family loyalties and the pursuit of power are as important as the land itself, but often just as dangerous.
Like “Yellowstone” and “1883,” Landman tells the story of people’s gritty, high-stakes lives that are intimately tied to their jobs and the landscape around them.
Tommy’s complicated relationship with Ainsley echoes Sheridan’s recurring theme: family bonds tested by ambition, pride, and personal mistakes.
It’s not hard to imagine John Dutton having the same conversation when Beth was a teenager, even if life forced Beth to grow up much faster than Ainsley .
The conflict between a self-made striver like Tommy and a wealthy figure like Monty fuels Sheridan’s fascination with the power dynamics that shape not just families, but entire communities.
Through these characters, Landman offers a raw exploration of survival and legacy in a cruel world, and the lengths people will go to protect what’s theirs, or take what’s not theirs.
This rawness is tempered by a comedic touch we’ve seen in Sheridan’s other shows, but never to this degree. The harsher the climate, the more you need to rely on humor to get you through the day.
Rather than taking us away from these characters, humanity’s response to the Dark Ages only adds to their authenticity. They work hard, make mistakes, and sometimes pay a high price for success, but they don’t let it stop them from moving forward.
This view of power, family, and survival doesn’t sugarcoat the cost of living in an oil-fueled world, but it doesn’t drown us in it either.
Finally, the cast is spot on. I can’t think of a single show where Sheridan made even one casting mistake, which is a huge compliment to those around him. Choosing the right actors can spark our interest and, like the oil industry depicted in the show, completely immerse us in the characters’ lives.
What did you think of the Randleman series premiere? Do you recognize the familiar Sheridan theme? Share your thoughts on this introduction to this world in the comments below!
Watch Randleman online
