Landman has surpassed Yellowstone as a compelling and satisfying family drama because the Norris clan have one important element the Duttons lacked. Landman season 2 has delved deeper into Tommy Norris’ (Billy Bob Thornton) tragic past with his deceased drug addict mother and his invalid father, T.L. Norris (Sam Elliott).

Landman‘s A stories revolve around Tommy Norris juggling his dual role as President of M-Tex Oil and a landman. Tommy refuses to delegate either job, so the landman ends up driving hundreds of miles around West Texas dealing with crises in the Patch and the fallout from the corporate crimes of M-Tex’s late owner, Monty Miller (Jon Hamm).

Tommy’s family tends to compound his daily chaos instead of offering relief. The rented Midland, Texas house Tommy shares with Nate (Colm Feore) and Dale Bradley (James Jordan) is now bursting at the seams after Tommy’s daughter, wife, and father moved in. But Landman putting the Norris clan under one roof also highlights the oil drama’s unexpected advantage over Yellowstone.

Ali Larter’s Angela Is The Secret of Why Landman Is Better Than Yellowstone

Tommy’s ex-wife, Angela (Ali Larter), is the crucial element that makes Landman a better family drama than Yellowstone. Angela and her daughter, Ainsley (Michelle Randolph), often have outrageous storylines that make it seem like executive producer Taylor Sheridan doesn’t know what to do with the Norris women.

Yet Landman season 2, episode 5 ended with a remarkable and heartwarming sight when the “Pirate Dinner” Angela hosted brought the Norris family, plus Dale, Nate, Rebecca Falcone (Kayla Wallace), and their neighbor, Shelby (Audrey McGraw), was a smashing success that left everyone happy and smiling, including viewers.

A successful family gathering like Landman‘s “Pirate Dinner” was inconceivable in Yellowstone, which never had a family meal that didn’t end with Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) angrily storming off and John Dutton III (Kevin Costner) miserable. This is because Yellowstone lacked a caring and compassionate matriarch, and had no equivalent to Landman‘s Angela.

Landman Proves Taylor Sheridan Doesn’t Need Tragedy To Tell Good Family Drama

With Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan modernized the Western for the 21st century, creating a new paradigm that proved incredibly successful and spawned Sheridan’s TV empire. Taylor re-writes his own rules with Landman. Sometimes, Hollywood’s most successful TV producer copies what worked in Yellowstone, but Sheridan also does what Yellowstone couldn’t with Landman.

Instead, the Norris clan is a source of comedy and reassurance that a nuclear family can still be happy and thriving in 21st century Texas. Tommy may be exasperated by Angela and Ainsley, but he loves them, and they unabashedly adore him. Prodigal son Cooper (Jacob Lofland) also reveres his father and turns to him for advice and help.

Unlike John Dutton’s children in Yellowstone, Tommy’s ex-wife and children harbor no resentment towards their father, and that’s because they have a nurturing mother figure in Angela who sets an example. Landman is a surprisingly touching and rewarding family drama in ways Yellowstone could never be.