The Paramount+ series has yet to announce a date for its Season 2 premiere, and we’re impatient! If you, too, are jonesing for some intel about what’s ahead for Tommy & Co., enjoy these nuggets from series co-creator/executive producer Christian Wallace.
WHAT WILL TOMMY-AS-CEO LOOK LIKE? | At first, Tommy’s promotion to head of MTex Oil might seem like it would mean a huge shift in his daily work, given how much time we watched him spend in the oil patch in Season 1. Not so fast, Wallace says. “Well, the thing about Tommy is: He likes the guys,” the EP explains. “He likes being involved in the day-to-day operations, at least to an extent. There are some days that I think he wishes he could never look at another pumpjack again. But it’s also part of what’s in his blood and what drives him to get up every day.”
True, but most of what we saw Monty do in the show’s first season involved schmoozing and suits. Wallace allows that now that Tommy is the company’s big boss, his life will include some of that. “In this new role, he clearly will have to spend more time in boardrooms and at fancy dinners,” he says. “I think you can take Tommy out of the patch to an extent, but not fully.”
That echoes what Billy Bob Thornton told us after the Season 1 finale. “Tommy is never going to get the landman out of him. I mean, that’s who he is,” he said. “He does not want to be an executive guy. I don’t think he wants to be in the suit, but I believe he’ll do whatever it takes.”
IS THERE A FUTURE FOR COOPER AND ARIANA? | As Season 1 came to a close, it was clear there was something going on between Tommy’s son, Cooper, and his crewman’s widow, Ariana — but does their romantic relationship have staying power? “That level of ambivalence, it’s not ambivalence due to lack of emotion or connection,” Wallace says. “It’s just, their circumstances are so fraught. There’s obviously a deep love and a deep connection there, for how short of a time these two have known each other.” Still, he adds, “Whether or not they can last, whether or not they can grow beyond those circumstances is still to be seen.”
CAN COOPER’S PLAN SUCCEED? | Speaking of Cooper, his plan to build an oil company from scratch seemed to have some success at the end of the season. But was that just beginner’s luck? Cooper’s “honesty, his straight-shooting, his knowledge of the industry — especially for how young he is — that’s paying him dividends right now,” the EP says. However: “If there’s anything Landman teaches you, it’s that it’s hard out there in the old patch, and so no doubt, there will be some serious challenges thrown Cooper’s way if he continues, even if he continues to have success the way he has so far.”
Might one of those challenges might be the giant oil company now run by Cooper’s dad? “It’s always cutthroat in the world of oil and gas exploration. I remember being on location when I was working in the oil field, and my supervisor would carry a pair of binoculars, and he would get up on his truck and look out to see what other rigs were working around us and what company it was,” Wallace says. Work in the patch is “not super clandestine, but everyone is always kind of keeping tabs on one another, and they’re always looking for the next thing or what these guys might be doing.”
That said, “What Cooper is doing right now, he’s just kind of going door-to-door and looking for these small, little parcels of land, these small leases that even a company the size of MTech — which is a smaller independent compared to the BPs, Exxons, Chevrons of the world — they’re more of a mid-tier, and so they’re not worried about what he’s doing,” Wallace explains. “Yet.”
Sours: https://tvline.com/previews/landman-season-2-spoilers-cooper-ariana-tommy-1235479185/
