Hell Has A Front Yard – As the third episode of Landman begins, Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) and Ainsley Norris (Michelle Randolph) pick up Angela (Ali Larter) at the airport. Once Angela gets off the plane, Ainsley begins telling her about her split from her boyfriend. Angela wants to go to the country club using Monty’s membership. She doesn’t have any luggage because she plans on leaving tonight. Buck (Jim Hanna) catches up with Monty Miller (Jon Hamm) at the golf course. Monty refuses to let Buck and Billy play with him. He tells them they’re going to have to wait. Monty asks Clay Chandler (Kristoffer Polaha) about the head hunter he sent out. Clay reminds him he has an employee who failed to report the theft of an asset worth $7 million dollars. The asset was used to move illegal drugs and it landed illegally on the roadway. Clay goes through Monty’s other issues.

If something happens again, Monty will be held liable because he didn’t take action against Tommy. Monty explains why they can’t report such activity and how it would turn every yard into a crime scene. He says every company has a version of Tommy and they cannot function without one. When Monty receives a call from Tommy, he asks when he’s going to meet with the reps from TTP. Tommy says it got pushed to Tuesday. He tells him that Ainsley and Angela are going to crash at the country club but he’ll pay him back. Monty is worried about more than a restaurant bill. Cooper Norris (Jacob Lofland) is attacked at one of the man camps. When he puts one of them in a rear-naked choke, the other pulls a gun on him. Cooper puts the man to sleep and tells the other to put the gun down.

Then, he attacks the other man and takes the gun. The man explains that the victims were their cousins and were their whole crew. Cooper tells them what happened. He asks if they’re good because he doesn’t want to keep looking over his shoulder. He’s told they don’t have any problem with them. After the men leave, Cooper tells Boss (Mustafa Speaks) that he used to wrestle. Boss invites Cooper to join his crew which includes the men he just fought. Tommy hangs out with Ainsley and Angela. Ainsley wants to make Dakota jealous so Angela agrees to help her take a picture of herself. Tommy tells Angela she’s embarrassing herself, but she claims they’re envious of her. Rebecca Falcone (Kayla Wallace) calls Tommy to say she needs to see the crash site. Tommy says he’ll pick her up at the hotel. He tells Angela and Ainsley he’s leaving. On the way, Tommy speaks to Nathan (Colm Feore) on the phone.

Nathan warns him that young snakes have the most venom. He also explains that they sent someone who specialized in the causation of liability. Nathan says they’re looking for someone to blame and it won’t be Monty. He urges Tommy to get the attorney on his side. Tommy picks up Rebecca and talks to her about her age and career. He seems to make matters worse though. Ainsley and Angela continue hanging out. Ainsley gets upset when she learns that Dakota is with Madison now. Angela orders two more margaritas from the waiter (Lucas Hale). Cooper visits Manuel (JR Villarreal) and Antonio (Octavio Rodriguez) with flowers. He asks if there is anything he can do. Manuel tells him he doesn’t have the right to be there. Cooper speaks to Luis’s wife and explains that Luis and the others were good to him. He makes him come inside for food. Manuel ends up making him come inside. Cooper sits down next to a young woman with a baby.

She laughs at him when he struggles with the spicy food. Cooper finds out that she’s Ariana (Paulina Chavez). She begins crying and asking Cooper to make her laugh. He eats another bite to try. Ariana gets her something else to eat. When she begins breastfeeding the baby, Cooper tries to leave. Ariana asks him not to. She says this is the longest she’s gone without thinking about Elvio. Tommy and Rebecca arrive at the crash site. Rebecca thinks it’d be difficult to steal a plane. Tommy doubts it as long as you know how to fly one. He says it’s hard to hide unless you hide it in Mexico. Rebecca asks how common thefts like this are. Tommy says things go missing and find their way back. He claims the thieves return the items. Tommy says the cartels only mess with the independent companies. He confirms he reported the plane to the FAA. Rebecca asks about the wind turbines. Tommy wants to show her something.

He drives her closer to the turbines and tells her more about them. Tommy explains the concrete foundation covers a third of an acre and goes down in the ground twelve feet. Oil companies use them to power the wells. Tommy says there’s nothing clean about this. Rebecca asks how the wind is bad for the environment. Tommy begins telling her about the manufacturing process and how it requires a lot of diesel and steel. He also claims it would take 30 years to build the transmission lines to get the electricity to the cities. Tommy goes on and on about petroleum being found in everything, including tennis rackets and lipstick. He suggests they’re going to run out of it before they find a replacement. Rebecca says it’s the thing that is going to kill them all. Tommy says running out before they have an alternative is going to kill them. Rebecca gets scared when she sees a rattlesnake. Tommy yells at her not to touch it.

Tommy ends up killing it. Rebecca eventually makes it back to the truck. Tommy returns to the Midland View Country Club. He complains about the waiter giving the women more alcohol. Tommy tells the waiter he’s going to have to help him now. He throws Angela into the pool. Tommy returns home and learns Dale (James Jordan) had a fight with his old lady. Dale agrees to help him with Angela who is passed out in the truck. Ainsley tells Tommy that she wants to stay with him. Tommy says that will break Angela’s heart. Later, Angela tries to flirt with Tommy. He ruins the mood by telling her that Ainsley asked to stay with him until she leaves for college. Angela says she can’t run away from home every time she breaks up with a boy. Tommy suggests Ainsley wants to know him. Angela doesn’t like the idea of being all alone in that giant house. She claims they messed up their lives with no way of fixing it. Angela can’t be second again. With Tommy, she’s always second.

Ainsley hears them. Cooper joins Boss and the others for work. They go to Babes N Brew and everyone blows their horns at them. Boss gets out and yells at them until they stop. Manuel puts a knife to Cooper’s side. He warns him not to put his arm around his cousin’s widow again. Tommy speaks to Dale because the flow has been reduced at one of the sites. Dale suggests the perforations may have scaled up a bit. Tommy tells Monty that the whole thing needs to be worked on. Monty doesn’t like reworking the wells when oil is in a dip. Tommy says the tip is temporary with summer coming. He confirms the deposition is Tuesday morning. Monty agrees to let him kill the well. Cooper and the crew arrive at the well. After the call, Cami Norris (Demi Moore) tells Monty to take a pill because he’s not fine. Tommy turns over the rig to Boss.

He tells Cooper to do what he says. Boss tells him to move like a boxer on this one. Cooper admits he has no idea what he’s talking about. Boss believes he’ll figure it out quickly. They work on the rig until the episode ends.

 

Landman Review

The third episode of Landman was pretty much more of the same, near nudity, drawn-out scenes, idiotic moments, and a lot to do about nothing. The series has a glacial pace where nothing really happens in any of the episodes. At the minimum, the story may inch forward every 25 minutes and even that’s rare.

The story is shallow to the point that there really isn’t much of a story. It’s just a collage of scenes spliced together for whatever reason. The scenes with Angela and Ainsley are beyond obnoxious and really add zilch to the core story. The same can be said about the scenes where the workers pick up coffee each morning.

Initially, Rebecca was established as a powerful force who could potentially hurt Monty and Tommy. However, that changed in this episode and she was portrayed as being very childish and weak. First, she didn’t seem to know a thing about wind turbines even though they’re featured in about every show and movie imaginable now.

Tommy had to tell her everything about petroleum and its various uses. Even worse was the way she handled seeing a rattlesnake. Her behavior would’ve made the situation far worse and she might’ve been killed as a result. Cooper’s story was interesting initially, but it’s written immaturely and unbelievably at this point. It’s silly to believe he’d be attacked just because he was at the scene of the explosion and survived.

It’s questionable whether he’d even be back at work or out of the hospital. With such a glacial pace, the series should not be released weekly. With such a poor script though, nothing is really going to help. Be warned that watching Landman will result in lost brain cells. Recaps of Landman can be found on Reel Mockery here.

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