Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris Husbandman.

Emerson Miller/Paramount+

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Emerson Miller/Paramount+

There’s no one who plays the world-weary working man in a white-collar job quite like Billy Bob Thornton.

About Paramount+’s captivating new drama series: HusbandmanHis pissy, cynic-with-a-heart-of-gold character is Tommy Norris, a crisis manager at the fictional M-Tex Oil company. Tommy’s job is to troubleshoot problems with M-Tex’s crews of rough pump workers, and secure leases from landowners that will allow the company to pump oil from abandoned areas in the Permian Basin – an area in West Texas and the Southeast of New Mexico which is considered the highest producing oil field in the US.

That means Tommy does everything from negotiating a lease with members of a Mexican drug cartel — while blindfolded and tied up like a prize turkey — to accidentally crushing the tip of his little finger while turning off a valve to light a burning keep pump fire at bay.

If only there was a female character drawn like Tommy in this series, Husbandman would transform from an entertaining TV drama to a compelling classic.

Letting us take care of a money-grubbing oil company

Tommy is the profane, chain-smoking glue that sticks Husbandman‘s compelling story together. Admittedly, he doesn’t really look like a white-collar man here, shuttling between crisis points in a menacing pickup truck with a cowboy hat and a knowing look.

He’s also a self-admitted non-drinking alcoholic (not counting the occasional Michelob Ultra) who strolls through a disastrous day with an exhausted, self-conscious confidence. When his adult daughter marvels at his wisdom of the earth, he tells her, “I’ve been wrong all my life. I never forget the lessons.’

This is a masterful piece of storytelling magic from co-creator and writer Taylor Sheridan – the child prodigy who co-created the hit show Yellowstone and numerous other testosterone-filled series. Based on Husbandman the hit by co-creator Christian Wallace podcast Boomtownthe show manages a unique magic trick: making us care about a profit-obsessed oil company that Tommy admits is sending roughnecks to dangerous wells that couldn’t meet federal labor standards, ending the first episode Sunday with an accident involving three people died. of them.

As Tommy tells it, the oil industry is a dirty but necessary business that fuels everything from our cars to the clothes we wear and the medicines that keep us healthy. And the only part of it that Tommy isn’t cold about is the part that involves his family – including a wild daughter, an even wilder ex-wife and a grown son determined to learn the trade by working one of the most dangerous jobs. to have. like a newbie roughneck.

On the surface, it’s another of Sheridan’s many triumphs in the drama series, harnessing Thornton’s on-screen charisma to fuel a brave story about a modern oil boomtown. Like so many of his shows, it portrays a working man’s culture from an area of ​​life rarely highlighted in Hollywood, educating viewers on its subtleties while highlighting the things that unite us all.

But it – like most of his other shows – is also a very masculine culture. That’s true Husbandman misses the target by a mile.

Too many of Landman’s women are caricatures and male fantasies

The stark contrast between the way working men are humanized Husbandman‘s first episodes and how it is not made difficult for women to enjoy the many parts of this that work so well.

In the first two episodes, which debuted Sunday, the female characters are largely empty caricatures. Heroes alum Ali Larter plays Tommy’s volatile ex-wife Angela, who must debate whether to leave a vacation with her now wealthy husband to see their son when he is caught in the aforementioned explosion. Demi Moore is Cami Miller, the wife of Jon Hamm’s oil company owner Monty Miller. In the first episodes we mainly see her swimming in a pool and lounging during gala dinners. Michelle Randolph is Tommy and Angela’s adult daughter, Ainsley, who is beautiful and self-centered and often unaware of how her sex appeal affects the men around her.

Jon Hamm as Monty Miller and Demi Moore as his wife Cami Miller.

Emerson Miller/Paramount+

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Just about the only female character working in the first few episodes – besides waitresses at local bars and coffee shops – is Kayla Wallace’s Rebecca Savage, a high-powered lawyer sent to represent M-Tex. With razor sharp suits and a no BS attitude, she dominates by bringing more masculine energy than the men around her.

Sheridan is one of the most successful showrunners on TV today. He has currently created or co-created four series, all airing new episodes simultaneously, mostly on Paramount+ – Husbandman, Tulsa King, Lioness And Yellowstone (which is his only series on the Paramount Network cable channel, but on Peacock streaming).

When star Kevin Costner argued with Sheridan over conflicts between shots Yellowstone and Costner’s passion project western Horizon at the same time, Guess who was written out of the show? This is real Hollywood power.

It’s hard to imagine drafting actresses as great as Moore and Larter and then having them play caricatures and male fantasies. So I hope Sheridan takes up the challenge of creating female characters who exist outside of the male gaze – beyond empty tropes, over-emotionalism and calculated reflections of male energy.

Because once he realizes that, his series can be just as strong creatively as it is commercially.