Landman's 12 Main Characters, Ranked From Worst To Best

Shows like the Paramount+ oilfield drama "Landman" are laden with personalities as big as the Texas sky, but not every character in this Taylor Sheridan series is destined to be a runaway success. Some of them are terrific — or terrifically villainous. Others are just bland, plain annoying, or exist simply to serve as straw people to be knocked down by the writing team. Any way you slice it, it's a mixed bag of characters who often bring out the best (and the worst) in each other.

This is a typical Taylor Sheridan show, for better and for worse. There's some uneven writing that punishes characters and sometimes changes their entire arc mid-stream. But sometimes the writing lets them bloom into worthwhile people worth adoring. Which of these down-home folks is the most likable, and which is the most awful? Determined by authorial opinion, here's a ranking of the show's main characters.

Angela Norris (Ali Larter) is a woman written by Taylor Sheridan, which unfortunately makes her a perfect candidate for the bottom spot on this list. Sheridan's female characters are often scattershot in quality. For every complicated or fascinating Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly), he serves up a shallow, shrill stereotype. Sometimes, these ladies simply exist to act as examples of the sort of people Sheridan doesn't like — just look at cardboard environmentalist Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo) in "Yellowstone."

Angela falls into that latter category — she's here to be beautiful, decorous, resilient, wear spandex, and do little else. When she's not giving Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) a migraine with her foolish behavior, she can be seen at her job in an old folks' home, leading them through their exercises and encouraging mischief by getting them drunk or checking them out to go gambling. Her outlandish behavior makes her look ridiculous, and her relationship with Tommy makes both characters worse.

The trouble with Angela is that she's so self-indulgent and childish that one doesn't care if she lives, dies, or finally grows up. Her utter obliviousness to social cues and the consequences of her actions causes Tommy and the audience alike nothing but grief, hence why she's propping up this list in bottom place.

Recent character development has kept Ainsley Norris (Michelle Randolph) out of the bottom slot, but just barely. All of the issues present in Angela exist in Ainsley, only they're amplified and made worse because Ainsley is a high school student with no filter and no shame. She's the kind of person who tells her father about her sex life without blinking an eye, leaving viewers squirming in discomfort. Like Angela, Ainsley is used as eye candy, but in her case it's incredibly disquieting because she's underage and mainly glimpsed through the gawking eyes of Tommy's friends.

Her Season 1 storyline mainly revolves around her romance with Ryder Sampson (Mitchell Slaggert), which becomes a nonfactor as Season 2 progresses. As Ainsley stands on the cusp of graduating high school and entering college, she finally begins to deepen and change as a person. Her love of her grandpa, T.L. (Sam Elliott), and her new connection to her nonbinary cheer camp roommate, Paigyn (Bobbi Salvör Menuez), hint at a newfound sensitivity and personal growth that she hasn't displayed before. Hopefully, next season will delve into this side of her more and her stock shall rise in the eyes of "Landman" fans everywhere. 

Walt Joeberg (Mark Collie) is a perfect helper for Tommy — perhaps too perfect. While he stands for law and order, he also personally cleans up many of the Norris clan's messes and even tries to protect them from the aftermath of their actions. But Walt also has to keep serving the people of Texas, and his loyalty to them usually supersedes everything else... emphasis on the word "usually," of course.

He comes in so low on this list because he carries very little of the show's plot. He exists as human grease, a smoothing agent that keeps the storyline running. We don't know enough about him to have a true opinion of what he's like when he's not wearing a badge. He still ranks above annoying characters like Ainsley, but he's below all the genuinely interesting characters by default.

Poor Monty Miller (Jon Hamm). We were just staring to get to know the shadowy oil tycoon properly when he met his maker during the Season 1 finale. Prior to that, he was a wonderful foil for Tommy, and they worked in perfect harmony to get what the company needed. Monty's cerebral and intelligent approach to life contrasts beautifully with Tommy's pure confidence and ego, a plot element that's sorely missing in Season 2 of "Landman."

Of course, Monty also made some extremely unwise decisions, like encouraging his military contacts to hold live fire drills in an area where he knew there had been cartel activity. Did we mention that it's a cartel that M-Tex is already in bed with? And yet Monty fights hard to keep M-Tex's reputation above board, which is what makes the eventual events of Season 1 so deadly for him. Faced with accusations of negligence by Ariana Medina (Paulina Chávez), whose husband died in an accident on the job, Monty negotiates a settlement — and then his heart troubles catch up with him. A pity, because if we knew him well enough to mourn him, he might stand higher on this list.

Dale Bradley (James Jordan) is Tommy's closest friend. He shares a house with the man as well as working with him out in the field, and without his honesty and kindness, Tommy would be a clueless mess. Dale is a nice guy who is very good at his job and fair with the men under his watch. He shows guilt and sadness whenever someone gets hurt or dies thanks to his perceived negligence. This is why Tommy eventually makes him Senior Vice President of CTT Oil and Cattle during the Season 2 finale. 

Tommy doesn't trust many people, but he totally believes in Dale. Yet Dale, too, isn't well defined and desperately needs to have a couple of storylines all to himself before he becomes a worthy member of this list. He lands near the bottom of the pack because his presence isn't offensive and he's got the potential to be interesting, but there's no meat on his bones yet. Perhaps Season 3 will finally round him out.

Ariana Medina is a unique character in the Taylor Sheridan creative pantheon. She's both a stubbornly resilient working class woman who's come up in the oil fields and a bruised victim who needs a lot of guidance from her fiancé Cooper Norris (Jacob Lofland, who played a memorable role in the movie that revived Matthew McConaughey's career). She straddles the line between being strong and independent and dealing with a whole lot of trauma. This sometimes flattens out her personality and makes her bland. Yet she's also pretty compelling at times — certainly more interesting and layered than some of the other ladies on the show.

The past couple of seasons have been tumultuous for Ariana. Her husband, Elvio (Alejandro Akara), dies in an accident in the field, causing her to sue M-Tex for negligence. Cooper encourages her to negotiate with the company for a better settlement even though he's an M-Tex employee. Ariana and Cooper subsequently fall in love and become engaged. But Ariana insists on forging her own financial path for herself and her young son. She's later assaulted at her new job and nearly raped by a pushy customer — a fate that Cooper saves her from, putting his own future in legal jeopardy when the man dies in hospital following their fight. Hopefully, Season 3 will be much less upsetting for her, but don't count on it.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Cooper Norris is your classic wet-behind-the-ears newbie, and his character has enough pluses and minuses to make him middle-of-the-pack fodder. When we first meet him he's abandoned life studying petroleum geology to become a roustabout, working under his own dad in the field. His fellow M-Tex wildcatters put him through the wringer, but he remains steadfast in his plans to follow Tommy's path.

Everything changes for Cooper when he develops an attachment to Ariana which results in him leaving M-Tex. But he ends up ankle deep in the family business anyway, selling the oil wells he snagged to his dad — only to have Tommy cleverly maneuver them out of M-Tex's holdings and under the control of CTT Oil and Cattle, his new company.

It's clear that Cooper is a determined and kindhearted young man. He's also smart — arguably too smart for his own good at times. He's in a state of rebellion, one fostered by his hope of a new life with the woman he has fallen in love with, and that makes him a guy worth rooting for. He's got lots of potential, though he's not quite top five material.

Danny "Gallino" Morrell is played by movie star Andy Garcia, who is fantastic as the smooth and smart cartel member. He has Tommy's number, which is what makes him so terribly special to watch. Though viewers haven't spent as much time with him as they have with the other main characters, he has the right amount of grit and wit to make a huge impact during his screen time. He might just become one of the show's best characters in time.

Gallino wants to legitimize his cartel business and step into the light, and Tommy is key to that. When he takes Tommy hostage and lets him go in the Season 1 finale, it definitely comes with a condition — to transform Gallino's cartel into a legit outfit. He and his wife present themselves as power players to Cami (Demi Moore), and when the company gets into financial trouble, he offers up his money, an offer Cami resists. When Cami fires Tommy and Tommy creates his own company with Gallino's financial backing, it's with the understanding that if Tommy screws up, Gallino will ruin his life — and those of all of the people closest to him. That alone makes us want to see so much more of him.

Rebecca Falcone (Kayla Wallace) initially comes off as an iron-willed shark of a lawyer. Tommy first meets her while she's acting as a causation lawyer at Shepherd-Hastings, trying to get to the bottom of a tanker accident involving a hauler for a rival company that killed many M-Tex employees on the ground. She soon works her way into becoming in-house counsel for M-Tex, and Tommy subsequently poaches her for CTT Oil and Cattle. 

Rebecca is higher up on this list because she proves to have some depth and complexity that makes her really unique. She's had her fair share of failed romances (including one that almost leads to a complicated legal situation at work when she unknowingly sleeps with a colleague), which add more layers to her character. She's formidable, but she also displays insecurity and vulnerability, making her a noteworthy face among the girls who populate the drama.

It's not usually a good sign when your main character is the third best on his own show, but we're giving Tommy a little room to grow by putting him in this slot. He earns his place by being fascinating, complex, imperfect — and also too infallibly right and not precisely likable. He's a grumbly cowboy who thinks the old ways are always the best ones. In other words, he's your typical Taylor Sheridan protagonist. 

Tommy's personal and professional lives are fraught with drama — he's tangled up with his ex-wife, his son and daughter are in rebellion, his closest friends are also his most bitter rivals, and he's got an extremely delicate and anger-laced connection to his dad. He's a master negotiator, sure, but he's also foolish enough to get involved in drug cartel wars.

He's also got enough hubris to throw his own company together on a wing and a prayer (and plenty of drug money) when Cami fires him from M-Tex. All of that is why Tommy's such a mixed bag of a guy. Not completely unlovable, but unbelievably lucky. Perhaps he'll earn the keys to the penthouse as the show goes on, but for now, there are two characters above him.

The biggest problem with Cami is that she's been frustratingly underutilized. She's something of a background character during Season 1, but when she's allowed to have the spotlight she's brilliant. She's still grieving Monty heading into Season 2, but she becomes determined to be a good if ruthless owner of M-Tex once he's gone. She also fearlessly calls Tommy out over his shortcomings when the company continues to financially flounder, and she reacts sensibly to the disaster she's been thrust into, making her seem raw and real as well as capable. 

Of course, like everyone in "Landman," Cami isn't totally perfect. That she's shortsighted enough to fire Tommy due to his cautious behavior at the negotiating table makes her flawed and human. It's not a wise business decision, though, as viewers, we can't help but admire her for going with her gut. It's clear that all she truly wants is to keep M-Tex alive. The only real problem with Cami as a character at this moment is that we need to see more of her to properly judge her. That we're dying to see more of her is the highest compliment we can give her.

T.L. Norris has only been a part of the "Landman" cast for a single season, and yet he's definitely the most widely appealing personality the show has to offer. A classic grumbly cowboy who tries to cover up his hurt with brusque behavior, he has an extra layer of vulnerability and sincerity that makes him eminently enjoyable as a character. In fact, he's got more layers than most of the other characters, and he's shown a willingness to learn, to grow, and to bond with others. That makes him the best character on Landman.

Sure, he lashes out at Tommy sometimes, and he's clearly struggling with the fact that he's getting older and is now a widower. He gets in fist fights — though, it should be noted, not without good cause. But he ends up being a great sounding board for Tommy. And, with T.L. officially a part of his son's new company, his best days clearly lie ahead, in spite of what he keeps telling everyone around him. We can't wait to see more of him as the "Landman" story unfolds. If you're curious about how "Landman" itself stacks up, check out Looper's ranking of every Taylor Sheridan show.