‘Landman‘ has become one of Paramount+’s biggest dramas, and a lot of fans keep coming back for the same reason; it feels way too relevant. The oil field politics, the pressure, and the people caught in the middle all feel too true to be just a fiction.
So the big question is, what is ‘Landman‘ actually based on? The answer takes you straight into the real West Texas oil boom and into the work of journalist Christian Wallace, who investigated it long before the show ever existed.
The Real West Texas Oil Boom Is The Heart Of ‘Landman’
‘Landman‘ is loosely inspired by Boomtown, a Texas Monthly podcast hosted by journalist Christian Wallace. Since Wallace grew up in West Texas, he wasn’t looking at the oil boom as an outsider. Instead, he understood the place, the people, and the pace of life there long before the cameras ever rolled.
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Then, when the latest boom took off in 2019, Wallace even worked on an oil rig for a while. That time out in the field made him curious about the bigger picture, so he started digging into what was really happening in the Permian Basin, not just the money, but the cost behind it.
Soon after, Wallace turned those questions into a Texas Monthly article titled “The Permian Basin Is Booming With Oil. But at What Cost to West Texans?” Readers connected with it quickly, and that response pushed the story even further. Before long, it expanded into Boomtown, a podcast that brings listeners right into the middle of the West Texas oil boom.
How Boomtown Inspired Landman’s Story And Setting
Boomtown didn’t only talk about executives and powerful people cashing in, and that’s a big reason it stood out. Wallace also spoke to people living through the boom every day, which made the story feel raw and real. For example, he interviewed rig workers risking their lives, ranchers breathing toxic gases, and teachers trying to manage classrooms that had suddenly doubled in size.
That pressure is exactly the same feeling Landman brings to the screen, even though the characters themselves are fictional. At the same time, Landman places viewers in modern-day West Texas during a massive oil boom that is “reshaping the climate, the economy, and geopolitics,” according to the series synopsis. Tommy Norris, a veteran fixer for M-Tex Oil, suddenly ends up running the company after founder Monty Miller dies.
Even though Landman is still a drama, Christian Wallace has said the show stays closer to real events than people might expect. In January 2025, he told Deadline, “A lot of it is very accurate”. He also admitted they had to squeeze certain events together so the story made sense for their characters.
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Once Boomtown started getting Hollywood attention, Wallace reached out to Taylor Sheridan to help bring it to TV. Wallace explained that Sheridan felt like the right choice because he could tell a West Texas story honestly.
“I reached out to Taylor because I knew that out of everyone working in that space, Taylor’s voice is the most authentic to the American West,” Wallace recalled. He also said their ideas matched when it came to telling stories about that region.
Even then, Wallace described Boomtown as “a launching point”. Sheridan already had characters and story ideas in mind. So they just blended in all the elements from the podcast into a series that could work on screen.
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