Landman, much like Taylor Sheridan‘s other shows, features a few key elements: struggles between men with varying levels of power and influence, backstabbing of the literal and figurative variety, and a vast terrain where it all takes place. In Landman‘s case, it’s the oil fields of Texas — specifically, the Permian Basin.
According to the Boomtown podcast that Landman is based on, the Permian Basin is “reshaping the world’s climate, economy — even our geopolitics.” Surely, that means a “landman,” an oil worker like Billy Bob Thornton‘s Tommy Norris, is pulling down the big bucks, right?
Not exactly. In Landman‘s season premiere, Norris outright admits that he’s deep in debt, and in the second episode, “Dreamers and Losers,” a heated exchange with lawyer Rebecca Falcone (Kayla Wallace) has Norris claiming that the men who passed away in a fiery explosion were making $180,000 per year. But that’s a little far from the truth, as landmen’s salaries tend to vary in real life.
‘Landman’ Overestimates How Much Real-Life Landmen Actually Make
Image via Paramount+
The exact salary of a landman is hard to pin down, since the amount varies online. Indeed lists a landman’s salary as $101,989 per year, while ZipRecruiterposts a slightly higher amount of $103,583 per year. Obviously, neither of those amounts is remotely close to the one Norris lists in “Dreamers and Losers,” but that could be due to experience. Petroleum landmen could pull down $118,000 a year, while those working for Chevron — one of the biggest oil companies in the world – make a staggering $194,584 per year! Overall, a landman’s salary depends on the level of work they do or the company they sign on with, as well as the hours they put in. Norris mentions that a landman’s typical shift is 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, which is grueling work but can result in a six-figure paycheck.
In the case of Norris, his job isn’t exactly the one you’d put on your resume. Norris is a “crisis executive,” meaning that he handles some unsavory tasks. A plane crashes? He knows the name of a good lawyer; he also tries to pressure a police officer into filing a fraudulent report. Even the opening of Landman‘s first episode features Norris literally talking his way out of being killed by a drug cartel, and signing over their rights to a prime piece of land. “Babysit the owners, babysit the crews. Then manage the police and the press when the babies refuse to be sat,” he says in between gulps of beer. It’s clear that the stress of Norris’ job is getting to him, and could even explain his debt, as he’s shown taking a number of presumably pricey medications.
‘Landman’ Mixes Real-Life Drama With Taylor Sheridan Flair
The fact that Landman stretches some of its facts shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s watched Taylor Sheridan’s shows. Whether it’s Yellowstone or its various spinoffs, Lioness or Tulsa King, Sheridan’s shows feature big personalities and even bigger conflicts. But Landman does have roots in real-life events, thanks to co-creator Christian Wallace. Wallace was the creator and host of the Boomtown podcast that inspired the show, and worked with Sheridan to bring a sense of authenticity to the series.
“Some of the storylines involving — I don’t want to give too much away — some of the characters they meet there, there are definitely some heightened drama of their conflicts,” he told Collider. “But as far as the work and the dangers on the rig, risking life and limb, that’s all very, very real.”
Those dangers are highlighted in a scene featuring Norris’s son, Cooper (Jacob Lofland). On his very first day working as a landman, Cooper not only deals with heckling from his co-workers, but he has a near-fatal fall;that’s only eclipsed by the closing moments of Landman‘s premiere, which sees an oil well go up in a massive conflagration, leaving Cooper as the sole survivor. While Landman may not be entirely on point with how much money a landman makes, it does capture the danger of working in the oil field, and judging from the critical reception, its’s been a major draw for the series.
