Yellowstone fans have a decision to make about Season 2 of Landman. The space between the two Taylor Sheridan shows is growing thin with repeated plot lines, episode titles and actors.
How you feel about that is going to shape how you feel about the rest of Season 2. I absolutely love it.
Actors In Landman and Yellowstone
The most obvious way that Landman and Yellowstone are alike is in casting. If you widen Yellowstone to include its prequels, you find at least four actors playing multiple parts: Sam Elliott, Billy Bob Thornton, Michelle Randolph and James Jordan.
Related: 11 Shocking Landman Facts Including the Truth About Jerry Jones
Others have crossed the Taylor Sheridan universe with equal ease. Dawn Olivieri, for example, has starred in 1883, Yellowstone and Lioness. Hugh Dillon has appeared in Yellowstone and Mayor of Kingstown, among others.
Sheridan likes working with familiar actors, and honestly, I like that he does. It brings an instant sense of familiarity to any new show.
Where he may draw criticism is in the similar plot lines — but I’m going to defend that, too.
Is Landman Using a Central Yellowstone Plot Line?
Season 2, Episode 2 of Landman was titled “Sins of the Father.” That’s the same name given to Season 2, Episode 10 of Yellowstone, which surely wasn’t accidental.
Like Season 2 (and really all) of Yellowstone, this season of Landman has explored the main character’s complicated relationship with his father. Tommy (Thornton) is brought back to his father after the death of his mother, wife to TL (Elliott).
The similarities keep going. Both shows refer to an off screen mother who’s life was rocked by the death of a baby (John Dutton’s brother, Tommy Norris’ sister). Neither mom recovered to become anything but a shell of her old self, although the consequences were much more dire on this new show.
You could even compare Kayce Dutton and his wife Monica on Yellowstone to Cooper Norris and his girlfriend Ariana on Landman. Both relationships were rushed and rocky. In both shows the man tried to learn a culture unfamiliar to him as well.
Landman VS Yellowstone, Which Show Is Better?
There are also key differences between the shows. Landman doesn’t have a Beth or Rip (Rebecca the lawyer maybe?) and that’s probably for the best. These similarities feel like little hat-tips to longtime fans of the Taylor Sheridan universe but there’s certainly a boundary between tribute and theft.
Right now, Landman is on the right side of that line. Every week I’m searching for little easter eggs to remind me of a great show that ended too soon. Through two seasons, the OG Sheridan show is much better than Landman, but that’s not criticism.
Season 1 and Season 2 of Yellowstone were complex and dramatic and full of mystery. Later, the show would unravel into something of an evening soap opera, but great characters drove the first 20 episodes in ways Sheridan has not repeated (Lioness comes close). Keep the hat-tips coming until a Landman version of Summer Higgins comes along. At that point you’ll know the show has crossed that boundary.
17 Most Stunning Yellowstone Franchise Deaths
Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes
34 ‘Yellowstone’ Facts You Probably Didn’t Know
The real-life marriage? Who has the most kills? Who told Taylor Sheridan “No”? These have all been added before Season 5 of Yellowstone resumes on Nov. 10.
John’s kids? Beth’s accent? Rainwater’s guitar playing? Tate’s spoilers? They’re also included on this list of 34 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Yellowstone.
Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes
