This article contains bad language

The success of “Landman,” how it will lead to conservative propaganda in the film industry, and why that's bad for art

Disclaimer: I’ve only watched the first three episodes so far.

“Landman” came out November 17th and it’s already shaking up cages. If you don’t believe me, just read a few negative reviews you can find online. People have opinions about it, and they all sound strangely familiar.

I believe it will continue to make headlines as a show that panders to conservatives, or MAGA as everyone calls them nowadays. And it will be a successful show because of this, it’s high time conservatives had a show they could flock to that tells them they’re right. They have been waiting for it.

What I Love

I have to give Landman a 7.9/10. It’s great. Why not an 8? I’ll explain later.

Here’s what I loved:

• Billy Bob Thornton carries the whole show on his back. Casting guaranteed a successful show with that pick. Killer job. The rest of the cast is also well-picked, the actors seem competent, and I enjoyed the familiar faces among the guest stars who all portray their characters with unique and believable flavor.

• The Characters are engrossing, dynamic, and unpredictable. They’re original. You never know for sure what they’ll do next.

• The writing is captivating, the scenes are interesting, and the dialogue gives the actors the material they need to thrive in their characters.

• The aesthetic of the show leaves the viewer dusty, grimy, and sunburnt. It’s easy to jump inside each scene as I watch, there’s sand in my eyes and a hole in my boot and if the pay weren’t so damn good I’d go the hell home. I can connect with characters through those themes.

• Lastly, the first episode hit it so far out of the park that I have to watch the whole show now. It knocked my socks off, it blew me away (I don’t know if that counts as a spoiler).

I can reasonably give the show a 7.9/10 because shows these days set the bar pretty low. But from what I’ve just said, you might have expected a higher rating—let me get into why I’m not giving it an 8/10 or higher.

What I Don’t Like

I will watch all of Landman season 1. I will.

And I’ll be annoyed during any scene in which they talk politics, the characters turn back into actors, and I realize once again that I’m watching a made-up story written by people with opinions they want me to hear, or opinions they think I want to hear. The story’s illusion will shatter, and I’ll sigh as I try to get back into the story.

Holy hell is the political content frustrating.

Like I said at the top of the article, I get where they’re coming from. TV studios are businesses, and they need to make money to operate. So somebody finally realized there’s a giant hole in the market for the kind of media that conservatives can connect with. Good for them. Big gold star. Somebody managed to pierce the impenetrable bubble-world that is Hollywood with a new idea and make something new…ish?

I guess the woke corporate ethos gets dropped when someone points out that a different ideology brings in more money. Did the big studios ever really care about progressive issues in the first place, or did they just think aligning with mainstream opinions generates the most capital? Probably the latter. Definitely the latter. How shocking.

I’m sick of the political shit, man.

I hate politics. I wish the show was worse. Yeah, I’m petty enough to say that. Because if it was worse I could slap it with a 5/10, toss it back on the pile of garbage endlessly leaking out of the film industry, and vent my frustration.

So I’ll settle for a compromise: 7.9/10, but I’m still gonna vent my frustration.

If Landman was only decent, If it wasn’t good, I wouldn’t have to feel like they fucked it up (sorry I said fuck it just slipped out). If you’re gonna ruin art, please ruin art that isn’t good. Please.

I want to give Landman a 5/10 because I’m sick of the political buzzwords in every show and the “look how relevant we are” material injected into what feels like every other scene.

I wish I could give Landman a 5/10 in protest. I don’t want to hear more canned political slop that’s been reiterated about 10,000 times in what feels like every piece of media I’ve seen since 2016. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT.

Tapping into a Conservative Audience

It feels like they made this show to be an appeal to conservatives who haven’t gotten to see their own canned and mass-produced buzzwords and talking points on a mainstream show for the last several years. As a conservative-leaning person, it’s cathartic, and the worst parts of me giggle at the shock and dismay of the people who live in bubble-world. Yes, MAGA will love this show.

I appreciate that they took Landman in a different direction. They created (seemingly) conservative-minded characters that run roughly in the category of protagonist. They wrote dialogue to express conservative viewpoints and addressed the many-layered grey areas that span the hot-topic landscape of the energy industry. I get it. I got it. How fun. A different political ideology from the norm you see in shows.

But I’m sick of it. Why does it have to matter who I voted for to enjoy a show? Does the industry think we are all children who clap when someone says something we agree with and cry when someone says something we can’t immediately identify as red or blue?

I’m tired of overt politics in everything and it’s so disappointing to see another show that should be excellent tarnished by the same ever-looping conversations that saturate our every waking moment as Americans. The only difference this time is that it’s written for conservatives.

I came to Landman the way I come to any show, I came to escape. I came to hear an interesting story and feel something new. Otherwise, I would have just booted up Twitter (or X or whatever).

This series sets a new precedent. Pandering to conservatives instead of liberals in your shows can lead to an economically successful project. Who knew? Besides literally half the country? It’s a risk-free way to make a show. It’s a profitable way to make a show. They’ll keep doing it after this. And I’ll keep hating it, until I become so drained and apathetic that I just clap or boo along with everyone else in the little world of binary politics. I’m not above watching the shadows dance on the wall. I’m just a guy. Being close-minded is emotional bliss. I don’t know how long I can resist it.

Anyway, I got way off-topic there.

You may ask, “Michael, how can you expect a show about the politics of the oil industry to be apolitical?”

I don’t expect that, and it’s easy to get mired down in the language here. I don’t want a show that isn’t political, I want a show that doesn’t tell me it’s political. I want a show that doesn’t scold me, or congratulate me for being on the correct side of the good guys’ politics.

I hope what I’m saying makes some kind of sense.

Here’s my brilliant idea: let’s stop pandering to anyone with our stories. We’ve managed it before. We have made great art before.

Great Art

I hate the idea of being that writer who answers his own questions, but here goes.

Do I want a show that’s stripped of current political and cultural themes?

Not at all. I only want the opportunity to navigate these waters for myself, not be treated like a child and dumped in the 2ft deep kitty pool for the 10,000th time.

Consider a show like Breaking Bad. How could it not be political? It’s about the war on drugs, race relations, poverty, crime, policing, the justice system, marriage, sexuality, people with disabilities, and the list goes on.

But not ONCE, not even ONE TIME, did I feel like I was being lectured to or given a political speech about who’s right and who’s wrong during the entire show. If it did happen, it was well-written and necessary for the scene, never breaking the illusion of the art.

Another show that comes to mind is The Wire, my favorite show of all time. If the writers of The Wire wanted, they could use every character in every scene to lecture the viewer on a political or social topic that is directly relevant to that scene. But they don’t, not ever as far as I can remember. But they must have, right? If they did I didn’t notice. And that’s the key, that’s what a good story can do.

I can’t help but be moved by The Wire, that is the power of a good story. I can’t help but feel more sympathy for criminals and drug addicts. I can’t help but feel more sympathy for the police, people who work in government, and the blue-collar class in unions or otherwise. I can’t help but feel sympathy for women who try to succeed in a male-dominated environment. I feel these things not because I was asked to or told to, but because I couldn’t help it. The story’s that good. It makes me reconsider my perspective in every scene. Because I’m an adult. I’m capable of thinking on my own without being told what to think. The Wire takes black-and-white, red-and-blue ideas, and delves into the tangled nest of their strange applications until you can no longer claim to be sure of any one solution to fix a problem. The world of The Wire is messy. It’s complicated. There are good guys and bad guys on every side and nothing does what you think it will. That’s reflective of the real world. Though it may be fiction, that’s a true story. You can watch it 100 times and feel something different each time.

The Wire trusts the viewer as an adult, to think for themselves and reach their own conclusions on political topics. The Wire shows you something, it doesn’t tell you something. And that’s why I love it. GO WATCH IT NOW.

Propaganda vs. Art

I think I’m trying to differentiate between propaganda and art. I think that’s the difference I’m trying to define.

The best I can come up with is that propaganda tells you what to think and art asks you what you think. Interpreting art can lead to many different conclusions, but propaganda screams just one conclusion.

Is Landman propaganda? No, probably not. But it sure feels like it at times. Too bad, it has the capacity for artistic greatness. there’s a fine line between a truly politically opinionated character and a character who seems to have been built to deliver a political message to the viewer.

I don’t claim to be representative of any group of people. However, I hope there are people like me who are sick of picking the politics out of their art like picking rotten lettuce out of a salad. If you’re one of those people, and you think I said something interesting, share this article, leave a comment, or sign up for my newsletter.

And if you think I’m full of shit let me know what I got wrong in the comments. I quite possibly failed to express what I was trying to say here.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you for reading. It means the world to me.

To my knowledge all Images in this Article are Copyright of by Emerson Miller/Paramount+