What is Landman based on? Taylor Sheridan found the story in an unlikely place
Landman premiered on Paramount+ on November 17, 2024, and quickly became the platform's most-watched original series ever, with Billy Bob Thornton's Tommy Norris navigating the daily chaos of the West Texas oil patch. But the show didn't start with Sheridan, or with a novel, or even with a script.
It started with a podcast.
The short answer
Landman is based on Boomtown, a 12-episode documentary podcast from Texas Monthly and Imperative Entertainment that debuted on December 10, 2019. It was reported, written, and hosted by journalist Christian Wallace, and grew out of his June 2019 Texas Monthly cover story about the human cost of the Permian Basin oil boom.
The podcast topped Apple's documentary chart and racked up more than 4.8 million downloads — enough to catch Taylor Sheridan's attention.
He optioned it for the screen in 2020 and co-created the series with Wallace, who also serves as executive producer.
Why Wallace was the right storyteller
He didn't parachute in. Wallace grew up in Andrews, Texas, in a family of cotton farmers, oil field hands, and working cowboys — and he worked as a roughneck himself before becoming a staff writer at Texas Monthly. Boomtown traced how the biggest oil boom in American history transformed his hometown region, through field interviews with the people living it.
That personal connection bleeds directly into the show.
"There's definitely some surreal moments when you have Billy Bob Thornton speaking lines of dialogue that came directly from your uncle, for instance," Wallace told UPI in 2025.
So is Landman a true story?
Not exactly — it's fiction built on documentary bones. Tommy Norris, the Norris family, and M-Tex Oil are invented. But the world around them is real:
- The dangers — rig accidents and the daily risks of oil work come straight from Boomtown's reporting.
- The economics — the boomtown gold-rush chaos of the Permian Basin is the podcast's central subject.
- The details — even the bikini-clad drive-through baristas are real, something Wallace has said he witnessed in West Texas and had to defend to disbelieving viewers.
Where the show stands now
Season 2 — which added Sam Elliott to a cast already featuring Demi Moore, Ali Larter, Jon Hamm, and Andy Garcia — premiered on November 16, 2025, and Paramount+ renewed the series for a third season in December 2025.
For the record: if you want the source material, Boomtown is still streaming free wherever you get podcasts. All 12 episodes. No subscription required.