Landman Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Cracks Continue to Show Without Key Character

Landman Season 2, Episode 8 Review: Paramount+’s #1 Hit Series Is Fading Fast

Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris in Landman episode 8, season 2

Greg is a leading TV writer and reviewer at Screen Rant who also covers movies and music. He has published over 2,500 articles on SR, including weekly binge guides and dozens of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. He previously worked in development at ABC Television and Lawrence Bender Productions.

Greg majored in film production at Dodge College at Chapman University. Greg also has years of television production experience at major networks such as NBC, TNT and ESPN. He currently lives in Greater Boston.

WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Landman season 2, episode 8.

Landman Season 2, Episode 8, “Handsome Touched,” Might Be an Improvement on Last Week’s Filler episode 7but there still doesn’t seem to be much direction for this once-promising series from Taylor Sheridan.

With its different musical releases and its jerky editing style, the latter Landman The episode felt like a feel-good comedy film out of the 2000s, making it light entertainment at best. The second half of Landman season 2 insisted on taking scenic routes and detours around the main Tommy Streets and M-Tex Storybut it’s starting to feel like the series has completely lost its way.

Landman Season 2 Has a Major Identity Crisis

Landman Season 2 became an entirely different series than Season 1 in its overall tone, shifting from a dramatic thriller to a feel-good soap opera, but somehow things generally stayed the same. Between the forced dinners and the occasional legal drama, Landman starts to feel like you’re playing the same song over and over again.

Landman’s her previous strengths — her long, sprawling episodes, her sharp genre mashups, her signature character traits — prove to be her downfall in the latter stages of Season 2. Angela is still reduced to showing the local nursing home residents a good time, a joke that grew old before Season 1 even ended, and Ainsley’s character has somehow regressed beyond her one-dimensional Season 1 makeup.

As for the new characters, namely Sam Elliott’s TL, it’s almost safe to say that his focus, or lack thereof, in the series has been disappointing for the most part. It was initially heartbreaking and fascinating to learn of his tortured relationship with his ex-wife, Dorothy. By the time we watch TL sobbing in the pool, unable to stop himself from getting back up in episode 8, the emotional punch of the poor guy’s pity is still present, but withered and exhausted.

Cami, on the other hand, is so determined to prove that she can run her husband’s business that she is blinded by truth or reason. I was hoping that Demi Moore’s upgraded role in Season 2 would add more depth to Cami, especially after that powerful opening speech in the Season 2 premiere. Unfortunately, she only proved that she couldn’t make business decisions without emotion, which is a disappointing missed opportunity for her character development.

Landman Season 2 Suffers Without Jon Hamm’s Monty

Jon Hamm looks out the window thoughtfully in a scene from season 1 of Landman.

Consider what was happening in Landman season 1 during its eighth episode: Cooper helped Ariana with the M-Tex settlement, which caused Monty’s heart rate to explode and hospitalized him. The US military began training in the unoccupied Monty oil fields to repel the cartel, and Ainsley went on a date with Ryder, who has since disappeared from the series.

The episode ended with an explosive scene in which a U.S. Army helicopter unknowingly blew up a cartel van during a training exercise, killing several people and setting up the final two episodes of the season. Fast forward to Season 2, Episode 8, and we end on TL floating like a child in Tommy’s pool with the help of a stripper turned physical therapist.

This comparison reveals three main problems with Landman season 2. First, he completely abandoned his main antagonistic force, the cartel, which is hard to believe since Gallino, a leader of the cartel, plays a huge role in season 2. Second, Ainsley was a key character with his own storyline in season 1 and has mostly been in the background of Angela’s moments, including her very unlikely wins at the roulette table. Finally, and most importantly, Jon Hamm’s Monty is missing, whose absence is greatly felt at this stage of Landman.

New casting additions and expanded roles in Landman season 2 felt like the series could continue without Jon Hamm’s Monty without missing a beat. With only two episodes left in Season 2, maybe it’s time to admit that killing Monty in Season 1 was the worst thing to ever happen to this series.

While it was quite enjoyable, if repetitive, to learn more about Tommy’s relationship with his father, I would trade just about any Tommy & TL scene from season 2 for another Monty and Tommy scene. In retrospect, it was the best source of momentum and fuel to keep Landman season 1 in progress. Without this, Landman has become blurred, less tense and has perhaps officially lost its luster.