Before he moved to the small screen and became more of a quantity-over-quality guy (a la Ryan Murphy), Taylor Sheridan penned some of the greatest films of the 21st century: Sicario, Hell or High Water, Wind River (he even directed that last one). So, when he came to television, his reputation preceded him. When he created Yellowstone, Sheridan secured one of the enduring legends of the western genre — one of the last living movie stars — to play widowed fifth-generation patriarch John Dutton III.
After Yellowstone became a smash hit and resurrected Kevin Costner’s career (until Horizon: An American Saga came along and killed it again), every star in Hollywood was lining up for their own Taylor Sheridan vehicle. He made Mayor of Kingstown with Jeremy Renner, Lawmen: Bass Reeves with David Oyelowo, and 1923 with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. He turned Sylvester Stallone into a mafioso in Tulsa King, he turned Zoe Saldaña into a CIA badass in Lioness, and he gave Michelle Pfeiffer her meatiest role in years in The Madison.
All of those shows have great casts, with lots of great actors in them, but none of them are Sheridan’s greatest ensemble. That title is reserved for Landman, a show combining the irresistible swagger of Billy Bob Thornton, the electrifying charms of Ali Larter, the effortless suaveness of Jon Hamm, and the enchanting screen presence of Demi Moore.
Every Taylor Sheridan show boasts a lot of star power. He’s cast actors as iconic as Kurt Russell and Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris and Annette Bening to play some relatively minor roles. But Landman has the most eclectic, most balanced ensemble of the bunch. The cast of Landman are so good, they paper over some of the flaws in Sheridan’s writing. The tone fluctuates between soapy melodrama and sitcom silliness, and these actors are such masters of their craft that they make it work.
Landman’s Cast Gets Even Better Each Season
When it first premiered, Landman already had one of the most star-studded casts on television, but it’s only gotten better and better with each subsequent season. Season 2 lost Hamm, because his character suffered an untimely demise in the season 1 finale, but it made up for it by adding Sam Elliott in a recurring role, bumping guest star Andy Garcia up to the main cast, and giving Moore a much bigger role as she took over her late husband’s business.
Elliott joined the ensemble as Thornton’s estranged father, who he reluctantly invites to live with him in an attempt to reconnect before it’s too late. This father-son bonding ended up being the sweetest storyline in the series, and Elliott and Thornton brought real pathos and authenticity to these two grumpy old men reckoning with their emotions. Garcia brings the same smoldering intensity that salvaged The Godfather Part III in an uneasy business partnership with Thornton’s character, and seeing those two powerhouse performers lock horns on-screen never gets old.
It was just announced that Michael Kelly will be joining the cast of Landman in season 3, so the ensemble will be even stronger when the series returns (unless Sheridan fancies killing off another heavy-hitter). You’ll recognize Kelly as everyone from Doug Stamper in House of Cards to Mike November in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan — he’s exactly the kind of character actor that thrives in the slightly heightened world of Landman.
Landman’s cast are so good, they make up for Sheridan’s shaky writing. There are some great scenes and storylines in Landman, but there’s a lot of not-so-great stuff, too (the whole thing is essentially propaganda for Big Oil). But even in those less-than-stellar moments, actors like Billy Bob Thornton and Ali Larter and Demi Moore and Andy Garcia keep it more than watchable.
