Taylor Sheridan, the most powerful writer in TV, has yet another series out, Landman

It’s Taylor Sheridan’s world now, and we’re all just watching it.

The bit-part actor turned writing superstar Sheridan has another new series out this week, the clunkily named Landman. Or maybe it’s a genius moniker because it’s the two things that Sheridan fans love – land (and the defence of it) and men (and the defence of their old-school values).

Landman, Sheridan’s sixth in current production, may not roll off the tongue but it’s certainly declarative. Set in one of Sheridan’s favourite hunting grounds, West Texas, it stars Billy Bob Thornton as a crisis manager for an oil company. It’s drill, baby, drill and the folks diddling around with renewables are nothing more than objects of derision.

It might sound like a certain type of show for certain types of audiences, but the thing with any Sheridan joint is it will find its fans and they will be legion. There is also more than one way to read his shows, which also includes Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown and Tulsa King.

His stories may appeal to traditional sensibilities of masculinity, power and libertarianism, but there is a nuance to Sheridan’s writing that makes it hard to reduce his works to just fodder for conservative audiences.

Many of his characters are the underdogs, fighting against a corrupt system and rich arseholes, even if they don’t realise that to those in the social strata beneath them, they are the same.

There’s also a solid anti-establishment streak, a belief in the individual that justifies some brutal actions. In theory, that actually goes against the collectivism of many religion-based conservative communities, but it is a very American marriage of individual liberty with Christianity.

Sheridan started his entertainment career as an actor, booking forgettable roles in single episodes of Party of Five, Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and Walker, Texas Ranger. He had a small recurring role in Veronica Mars and a bigger one in Sons of Anarchy.

He wasn’t a success. But when he put pen to paper, all that changed. The first script he wrote was Sicario, a drama about bringing down a drug cartel, starring Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin and directed by Denis Villeneuve.

It was his second screenplay that really gained him attention. Hell or High Water starred Chris Pine and Ben Foster as two brothers on a bank robbing spree across the barren landscapes of West Texas, chased by two marshals including one played by Jeff Bridges.

Directed by David Mackenzie, it was a heist thriller but had this beating heart about injustice, slowly revealed as it emerged why the brothers were doing what they were doing. Sheridan was nominated for an Oscar for his script.

The critical success earned him enough cache to jump in the director’s chair on his next effort, Wind River, and not long after that, Sheridan created what has been his most commercially successful work to date, Yellowstone.

The Kevin Costner drama about a pugilist rancher “protecting” what’s his from outsiders and sometimes from within his own tent, Yellowstone became the most-watched program on American TV outside of sport.

It also made Sheridan incredibly powerful. He commanded the kind of control few are ever allowed, including writing and directing every episode of the series. A network-mandated writers room was convened for season two but the experiment never made it past the year.

As the series became more popular with audiences drawn to its soap opera melodrama and penchant for violent showdowns, Yellowstone’s studio, Paramount, wanted more from Sheridan. If something’s working, more like it, please.

Mayor of Kingstown, a Jeremy Renner fronted drama about the politics of incarceration (more strong men and violence), came next, followed by two Yellowstone prequels, 1883 and 1923.

Sheridan’s dominion over a vast audience as well as the high-end budgets that produce great-looking TV attracted big names, which in turn, gave them an air of prestige. Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren signed up for 1923, Faith Hill for 1883, Nicole Kidman and Zoe Saldana for Lioness, and Sylvester Stallone for Tulsa King.

Now Thornton for Landman, which also boasts Andy Garcia, Michael Pena, Demi Moore and Jon Hamm in its ensemble.

There are two more Yellowstone spin-offs in the works too – The Madison with Michelle Pfeiffer and another prequel called 1944.

Everyone wants to work with Sheridan. Actors want to work with Sheridan because people watch his shows and studios want to work with Sheridan because he makes them money.

However, a 2022 profile in The Atlantic suggested other writers and producers have less of a fun time working with Sheridan, the quote from an unnamed person was, “It’s tough to work for that guy, he drives everyone crazy”.

The feeling was for someone who hates to be controlled, he loves to be controlling.

Sheridan’s shows and the philosophy he channels through them – a disdain for “coastal elites and their flippery – is not to everyone’s tastes.

But he has certainly captured a large swathe of viewers who prefer their TV dramas, or at least some of them, to be in a world where men are men, and land and liberty are sacrosanct. You’re allowed to be vulnerable, but it better be over something “worthy”.

Landman, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lioness, 1883, 1923 and Sicario are on Paramount+, Yellowstone and Wind River are on Stan, Hell or High Water is on Netflix