Has anyone been watching this? I’ve not seen yet, but before I do, I’d like to get some sense of whether it’s somewhat realistic, or just a bunch of sensationalism for TV. I’d appreciate hearing especially from industry professionals.
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Laugh. I just watched episode 5 last night, it’s entertaining. That’s the main thing, it seems a pretty decent show. I’d say part realistic, part sensationalist.
The main character is not a “Landman”, he’s the field ops and drilling superintendent all wrapped into one. Maybe just the “fixer”. Landman are driving a spreadsheet or a RangeRover for drinks with their bros, not some pickup or a 45 year old ex-stripper wife.
I love how the “engineer” is out there gauging tanks and looking at pressure gauges on pumping wells to determine whether or not we hit a good pocket of oil. Whatever that actually means. Pro tip, if the well is on a pumpjack it’s not just sitting there waiting to blow up the whole world if you open a valve.
People die in the oil business, but IRL the whole industry is uber safety obsessed, if one person dies in a year on your properties it’s a terrible terrible year. Guys like John Hamm and Billy Bob most definitely exist. There certainly is a whole lot of money floating around to spackle over problems, and incentivize folks to keep the big machine running. I just don’t think the problems are quite this big/frequent. At the tip of the spear there are some very rough dudes earning $100k a year living in man camps making stuff work. I mean if you walk into a bar or Walmart in Williston, ND in 2014 you are going to think you walked into the prison yard. Head on a swivel. I like all the pro O&G speeches. Shocker. I’d guess in real life not every woman is uber slutty or else an ice queen. But I know zero about women so who knows.
I’m sure it’s like Yellowstone, some of it seems realistic and then on the other hand you sorta know that native Americans, developers, truckers, and competing landowners aren’t killing each other at a record pace out in Wyoming.
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Yep, 40 years in O&G and that certainly doesn’t depict the landman’s job description. I guess field foreman or superintendent just didn’t sound right for Hollywood.
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The show is filled with Hollywood stereotypes of the Texas oil industry. I watched about 20 minutes of the first episode and turned it off. Billy Bob always creates an interesting character, but the show is just too much of a farce for me to watch it.
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There is a blend of Hollywood drama/sensationalism and some reality. Each field and operator do have roles that take on different aspects of the characters.
The AAPL is producing a Landman Now podcast series (Landman Now — Podcasting the Profession Podcast - Apple Podcasts) to address specific questions about each episode.
The tv show it’s not my flavor of either entertainment or information. If you watch, the same rule applies to tv/entertainment like this as it does to buying property, buyer beware.
Bottom line: interesting & amusing, lots of west Texas scenery, but not worth paying to watch by streaming subscription. Hollywood over-dramatizes & every character uses the F-word & profanities in literally every sentence. 1st episode commences with the only true landman task, protagonist Tommy (BillyBobThornton) negotiates a lease from a drug lord who never heard of mineral rights, Tommy is hooded & trussed to a chair, drug lord shoots his subordinate in the head for no apparent reason then consents to lease. Drug cartel steals company plane, culminating in fiery crash. Tommy’s wife & daughter are profane bimbos who prance around his colleagues in their underwear. And, why does a well paid mid-level executive have roommates? One episode exploits a real life fatal accident that killed roughnecks a few years ago. I watched 3 episodes when visiting family at Thanksgiving, will watch other episodes when I visit at Christmas, will not spend money on Paramount subscription. BTW, I’m not an industry professional.
I roughnecked in WY back in 1981/82. The F-word & profanities in literally every sentence was very true. I only watched the free clips on Youtube. It’s kind of like the Amazon Ring of Power series. Good actors without proper details. I enjoyed the truth about wind power.
My Dad and three other guys bought two rigs in the mid 70’s. They needed them because it was hard to find rigs to drill their wells. I worked on one of them during the summer of 77 before college. In 82, they were drilling a well. During a drill stem test the well caught fire. Two guys ran into the dog house. The didn’t make it. Another guy got blow off the floor and lived. The derrick hand got burnt and died a few days later. I could have been on that crew. But I instead took a higher paying job in Rock Springs WY. I didn’t like swallow wells and moving the rig every 7 to 10 days. 7 to 8 weeks per move was nicer. And often you were on days off during the move. I’ll think about watching it in a few years.