I'm an actual Landman; here’s what the TV show gets right and wrong

Being kidnapped and tortured by the drug cartel and living to tell – or keep quiet – about it. Putting out a raging fire from a blown out oil well that killed some of the rig crew. And dealing with an ex-wife who drives him crazy – in more ways than one. It’s all in a day’s work for Landman’s Tommy Norris, played to perfection by Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton. (Really, could anyone else have been cast in the part? Not according to Taylor Sheridan, creator of Landman, Yellowstone, 1883, and 1923, among others.)

As a landman (not a career change, but a detour that came about when I was 50 and eventually led to my becoming an energy writer), I, along with many other friends and colleagues in the energy industry, eagerly awaited the debut of the Paramount+ series, Landman. No doubt we helped drive the numbers that made season 1 the most-watched original streaming series on Paramount+ with 35 million global viewers tuning in for the premiere episode. (With those numbers, it’s obvious there are a lot of people watching who have no connection whatsoever to the energy industry – aside from being consumers). The Season 2 finale aired last night.

It’s been called wild, rollicking, and risqué, but what does it get right?

One of the main, although not the only, jobs of a landman is to determine mineral ownership (who owns the rights to the “minerals” – typically oil and gas – that the exploration company is drilling for). I often describe it as a cross between a genealogist and a detective. One fellow landman says it’s our job to find the missing pieces to the puzzle. As exotic as Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris makes it look, before most “instruments” (documents such as deeds) were digitized and could be accessed online, you would find landmen in the county courthouse, digging through dusty, old ledgers, “running title.” Much like Norris, landmen do encounter the occasional rattlesnake in real life, particularly in parts of Texas. Landman Fidel Garza, cofounder and CEO of Lyssy Energy Enterprises, has been known to wear protective boot covers to prevent a bite when on the job.

Landman Fidel Garza onsite in West Texas; photo courtesy of Garza

For an industry that has a reputation as a good ole boys’ club, being a landman is actually one of the more equitable roles. My first landman job was for a female “crew chief” (the head of the project) and we were both working for the female owner of a land services company. When I interviewed Billy Bob Thornton last year during season 1, he was surprised to discover that I am a landman and that there are quite a lot of female landmen. He said the people that approach him when he’s out on the town in Fort Worth (where most of Landman is shot, although the story is set in West Texas) are typically men, wanting to talk about their work as landmen.

Interestingly, the last two presidents of the nationally recognized landman organization, the American Association of Professional Landmen (AAPL), have been women.

Senior land manager for Expand Energy in Edmond, Oklahoma, Julie Woodard, CPL, is the incoming president of AAPL. Referring to what she calls “the “Paramount Phenomenon,” she says Landman “offers a dramatized portrayal of the landman profession, highlighting both its realities and exaggerating certain aspects.”

She reassures readers that scenarios like emergency situations and extreme negotiations, such as interactions with a drug cartel, depicted in Landman, “are not typical in a landman’s daily life.”

Instead, Woodard says, “Their role focuses on negotiating complex deals with landowners and addressing site-specific issues in collaboration with surface owners. The profession often involves navigating morally ambiguous situations, balancing business interests with social responsibility. Although the energy industry prides itself on stringent environmental and safety regulations, the show falls short of accurately reflecting this commitment.”

Calling the landman profession “the [tip of the] spear of supporting energy dominance and solving world energy challenges,” Woodard points out that every energy project needs landmen and she believes that all landmen should be members of AAPL, which requires a strong code of ethics and standards of practice, along with offering certification. “When anyone engages with an AAPL landman,” Woodard says, “they can be confident they are working with a landman who operates professionally and ethically.” (This would lead one to question whether Tommy Norris is a member of AAPL.)

Immediate past president of AAPL Nancy McCaskell, CPL, and president of Masonboro Energy, LLC, says, “People say it’s Hollywood, but much of Landman is real where it matters most: energy independence, grit, and standing by our word. We don’t meet with cartels, but we do encounter stories stranger than fiction, and we solve problems every single day. Nothing about this work is abstract. We sit across from families – real people – talking about their land, their legacy, and stewardship of the future. Lives and the relationships we build depend on how well we do our work. The real landman story isn’t about spectacle; it’s about responsibility.”

‘Landman’ Creator Taylor Sheridan (left) and Billy Bob Thornton; photo by Emerson Miller/Paramount+.

As someone who works in the industry, I would say take Landman for what it is – a highly dramatized and sensationalized piece of entertainment – although, if you talk to someone who has worked in the field long enough, they might say Tommy Norris is not just a figment of Taylor Sheridan’s imagination. Larger than life characters really do exist in this industry. Co-creator Christian Wallace, whose Boomtown podcast is the basis for Landman, has said Norris’ character was inspired, in part, by his uncle, who has worked in the West Texas oil fields for 30+ years.

Landman, which is obviously pro the oil and gas industry and specifically American “energy independence,” can get a little preachy at times, but Thornton’s earnest delivery as Tommy Norris makes it just another facet of his character’s personality. (Stay tuned; maybe his next role will be playing a southern-style gospel preacher?)

For anyone truly curious about the accuracy of the show, they may want to take on one of the jobs of a landman and conduct their due diligence – verify it and then verify it again. Otherwise, just enjoy Landman for what it is: a wildly entertaining TV series very loosely based on a real profession.

After all, it’s Taylor Sheridan’s world and we’re just along for the ride.

Landman can be seen on Paramount+ on Sunday nights. Paramount+ announced in December 2025 that Landman has been renewed for season 3.