More Aaron Spelling than David Chase, Yes?

I'm enjoying Landman so far because I enjoy watching Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Hamm as star actors, acting. The plot is OK, the background data on the Texas oli industry(this was based on a documentary series?) helpful.

I'm kind of new to the Taylor Sheridan universe, but having stuck out Landman for all epsiodes thus far -- and having seen SOME episodes of Sheridan's Yellowstone in full, and clips of Yellowstone on YouTube..its seems pretty clear:

Internet critics trying to "analyze" Landman or Yellowstone as if they were The Sopranos, or Mad Men, or Breaking Bad...are out of luck.

Because these shows are really Dallas and Dynasty. Or Falcon Crest. Or Knots Landing.

All of which were successful in their time(and Dallas did oil, yes?) but more "entertainment for the masses" than possessing any "high falutin'" concepts. I guess Aaron Spelling was only really responsible for Dynasty, but...his empire was built on other shows with a "masses" bent. And that's OK.

I"ve read a critic or two complaining about the scenes where Billy Bob's supple 17 year old daughter parades around in a bikini or underwear driving Billy Bob's fellow middle aged roomates nuts. Terrible thing, they say. Well for the critics, I guess. And then there is Billy Bob's estranged golddigging sexpot ex, who rocks a bikini with more to fill it than her daughter.

I give you: The Love Boat. A lot of bikinis there. And --back to the Dynasty analogy -- we shall soon see is the ex-wife is more a Linda Evans character or a Joan Collins character. And if she's not Joan -- who WILL be?

One doesn't want to be snobbish about these things. Yellowstone was a huge hit(driving spinoffs I have not seen.) Landman MIGHT become b big hit. And Dallas and Dynasty are the templates -- just sexed up and with more murder on the mind(on Yellowstone, from what I've seen.)

And with hot, sometimes blowsy(Beth on Yellowstone) sometimes preppy(the lawyer on Landman) chicks who are out to out man any man. I liked how the lady lawyer told Billy Bob (30 years her senior and not interested in her THAT way) that he couldn't compete with her vibrator. (I do find it amusing that women have the 'stylish romantic device" of the vibrator while men are consigned to ..their hands?)

I have not watched the Yellowstone spinoffs -- in which big names like Harrison Ford(who does EVERYTHING these days), Helen Mirren, and Sam Elliott signed up for big bucks slumming.

I sampled the Taylor Sheridan show with Sly Stallone as a Mafia man exiled to Tulsa Oklahoma - another mid-America location for the Sheridan product -- and killed it after the first epsiode. Why? Because Sly -- unlike Tony Soprano -- moved immediately on taking over a business run by innocents. I'm don't like watching the celebration of predatory behavior with unequal combatants.

But Landman looks like it may play out well. Billy Bob, Jon Hamm, Demi Moore(doing SOMETHING on the show eventually, I'm sure; she's doing nothing now.). Bikinis. This one may be a winner in the Dallas tradition.