While Landman might be receiving mixed reviews from critics and audiences, the premiere episode has scored record ratings.
The show, streaming on Paramount+, is the latest offering from Taylor Sheridan, the man behind Yellowstone and its prequel series, 1883 and 1923. It is based on the documentary podcast Boomtown, which told the story of the West Texan oil boom. It stars Billy Bob Thornton, who has been praised for his role as Tommy Norris, an oil crisis executive. The cast also includes Demi Moore, Jon Hamm, Michelle Randolph, Ali Larter and Jacob Lofland.
The show’s debut episode, released on November 17, scored 14.6 million viewers during its first seven days across its streaming service and linear premiere, The Taste of Country reported, making it the biggest global premiere week for a Paramount+ original show.
Newsweek emailed spokespeople for Paramount+ and Sheridan for comment on Friday.
According to the publication, which cites a press release from Paramount, the numbers are strengthening as the show gains popularity. Landman Week 2, Day 1 reached 2.4 million households in the U.S, an impressive 60 percent increase over Week 1, Day 1, which reached 1.5 million.
The show is currently four episodes into its 10-episode season, with the fifth episode scheduled to debut on December 8. At the time of writing, Landman had not been renewed for a second season, but Thornton has stated that he is committed to the show for its whole run.
“I’m signed up for it. Ten years ago, it wouldn’t have been fun for me. But there’s a different perception now. All the actors want to be in streaming now. That’s where you get to develop a character. What director or writer or actor doesn’t want to be able to do a movie that they don’t cut to an hour and a half?” he previously told The Wrap.
“It’s a director’s dream to do 10 hours of movie. An episode can be 48 minutes long or it can be an hour and two minutes long. Unless you’re doing Marvel movies and stuff like that, the movie business is not really the place anymore.”
Describing her role in Landman at a talk at the American Pavilion during the Cannes Film Festival in May, Moore said: “I play an oil tycoon’s wife … lots of nice clothes. The substance of it is really exploring the issues around oil, petroleum, on all sides … and then of course there’s—as Taylor does so well—there’s delicious drama within, and family dynamics.”
Four episodes have aired so far, with reviews being mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes, the program had an average Tomatometer score of 78 percent at the time of writing, which is based on the collective opinions of film and television critics. A movie or show is considered “Fresh” if at least 60 percent of critic reviews are positive, and “Rotten” if less than 60 percent are positive. The Popcornmeter rating, which captures audience sentiment, is 67 percent.
Some Landman viewers have noticed similarities between the new show and Sheridan’s hit series Yellowstone. After the fourth episode aired, one person posted a thread to Reddit with the headline: “Reusing lines from Yellowstone in Landman.”
They wrote: “When the Lawyer says ‘I’ll hang your f****** law degrees above my toilet’ it’s almost word for word what Beth said to Willa in Season 3 ‘I’ll hang your diploma above my f****** toilet’.. Damn i like this show but that was lazy af [sic].”
People took to the comments to discuss the topic, with some people agreeing.
“I caught this too and was going to post something about it but you hit the nail on the head,” one person commented.
“I caught that too. Kinda off putting. Like you were so proud of that line in Yellowstone that you just HAD to use it again. I don’t mind that Sheridan has multiple shows running at the same time, but if it’s just recycled writing … kinda lame …” said another.
However, others disagreed, with one person writing: “It’s a line used by lawyers well before the shows.”
“How exactly is that lazy writing? Do you think that this is the first time a line was used in two different shows?” someone else asked.
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