TAYLOR SHERIDAN’S Texas oil field drama Landman (above) comes to M-Net from Monday, 2 June at 9pm for 10 episodes, featuring a cast as explosive as the world it’s set in: Billy-Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, Jon Hamm and Ali Larter.
Landman is led by Thornton as Tommy Norris, the overseer of an oil-drilling operation in west Texas. He does the daily dirty work of managing crews in the world’s largest oil field, fending off cartel competition and basically doing the bidding of his boss, Monty (Hamm).
It’s a world where roughnecks and wildcat billionaires are fuelling a boom so big it’s reshaping the climate, the economy and the geopolitics of the region.
The series is written by Sheridan and Christian Wallace, inspired by the podcast Boomtown, which Wallace hosted and based on his own experience working in the modern-day, fortune-seeking world of oil rigs. It retains Sheridan’s signature western swagger but incorporates serious doses of dark humour and challenging family dynamics.
Variety reviewer Alison Herman wrote that “Landman is strongest when using Thornton’s always-compelling screen presence to guide the viewer through the vagaries of the oil and gas industry, including potential alternatives and the looming threat of climate change”, while Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall describes the series as “a slick Eighties primetime soap opera dressed up in the trappings of a contemporary antihero drama — Dallas with cursing, more violence, and nudity.”
Reviewing Landman for NPR, Eric Deggans writes that “on the surface, it’s another of Sheridan’s many drama series triumphs, harnessing Thornton’s on-screen charisma to fuel a gutsy story about a modern-day oil boomtown. Like so many of his shows, it portrays a working man’s culture from an area of life rarely highlighted in Hollywood, educating viewers on its subtleties while highlighting the stuff that binds us all.”
Don’t miss Landman on M-Net (DStv Channel 101) from 2 June at 9pm. For more, visit the M-Net Website and join the conversation on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
MORE HIGHLIGHTS ON M-NET IN JUNE
Laid | S1 | Comedy/Romance | 4 June, 10pm
Stephanie Hsu plays Ruby Yao, a 33-year-old single woman who is searching for love, but finds herself at the centre of a mystery. After one of her ex-boyfriends passes away, others begin suffering the same fate – mysteriously dying in the order she slept with them. As the body count rises, she is forced to confront her romantic past to figure out what is happening and how to stop the murder spree.
Survivor USA | S47 | Reality Competition | Mondays-Fridays from 5 June, 6pm
Contestants on a remote island compete to survive the island and face challenging tasks to win the grand prize money.
NCIS: Origins | S1 | Action | 5 June, 8pm
NCIS: Origins follows a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs in 1991, years prior to the events of NCIS. In the series, Gibbs starts his career as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling NCIS Camp Pendleton office where he forges his place on a gritty, ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks.
Doc | S1 | Medical Drama | 9 June, 7pm
After a brain injury erases the last eight years of Dr Amy Larsen’s (Molly Parker) life. She must navigate an unfamiliar world where she has no recollection of patients she’s treated, colleagues she’s crossed, the soulmate she divorced, the man she now loves or the tragedy that caused her to push everyone away. She can rely only on her estranged 17-year-old daughter, whom she remembers as a 9-year-old, and a handful of devoted friends, as she struggles to continue practicing medicine, despite having lost nearly a decade of knowledge and experience.
Hightown | S3 | Drama/Suspense | 10 June, 10pm
Set in the world of beautiful but bleak Cape Cod, one woman’s journey to sobriety is overshadowed by a murder investigation dragging her into its fold.
Ten Pound Poms | S2 | Drama | 18 June, 8pm
Created by Danny Brocklehurst, a drama based on the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme, one of the largest planned migrations of the 20th Century.
MasterChef Australia Dessert Masters | S2 | Reality | 22 June, 6pm
Dessert Masters returns with hosts Melissa Leong and Amaury Guichon. Joined by 10 of Australia’s most talented pastry chefs set to battle for the title of Dessert Master to win the grand prize.
MasterChef Australia | S17 | Reality | Mondays-Fridays from 30 June, 6pm
The series features 24 contestants from previous seasons returning for a chance to win the title.
