Sam Elliott’s T.L. Norris Divides Viewers in Season 2: Fans Debate Underused Role

When Paramount+ added Sam Elliott to Landman for Season 2, it landed like a statement. Elliott is a screen veteran with a distinct presence. He also has recent Taylor Sheridan credibility after 1883. So when the news broke that Elliott would join Landman as a series regular, plenty of viewers assumed the show was about to widen its scope.

Instead, Season 2 has often used Elliott in smaller, more intimate doses. His character, T.L. Norris, is not a new oilfield operator. He is not a fixer inside the M-Tex world. He’s mostly an aging father, wrestling with loss and physical decline. That choice has landed strongly for some viewers. It has frustrated others, especially online.

As Season 2 rolls toward its finale on January 18, 2026, the reaction has become a recurring debate: did Landman bring in Sam Elliott to move the story, or to add texture around it?

Season 2’s timing matters because fans are reacting in real time

Landman premiered on Paramount+ on November 17, 2024. Season 1 ended on January 12, 2025. Those dates matter because they set the show’s viewing rhythm. This is a weekly conversation show, not a binge drop where reactions settle quietly.

Paramount+ renewed Landman for Season 2 in March 2025. Season 2 then premiered on November 16, 2025. According to Primetimer, the season runs 10 episodes, releasing on Sundays through January 18, 2026.

That weekly rollout has shaped the Elliott conversation. Fans are not reacting to the full arc at once. They are reacting episode by episode. In practice, that means an episode that feels “thin” on Elliott can spark a louder response than it would in a binge.

The casting announcement set expectations high

The Wrap reported that Sam Elliott joined Landman Season 2 as a series regular. That phrasing does real work in fan expectations. People hear “series regular” and anticipate a steady presence, not a guest spot.

The Wrap also noted that Elliott’s casting reunited him with Taylor Sheridan after 1883. That connection matters, too. It primes a certain audience to expect an Elliott role with weight, grit, and narrative consequence.

However, by the time Season 2 arrived, the character the show introduced was not the kind of “power player” some viewers assumed was coming.

Who Elliott plays: T.L. Norris, Tommy’s father, arriving in grief

Elliott plays T.L. Norris, the father of Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton). Entertainment Weekly spelled out the basic relationship and described the father-son dynamic as “very heavy,” rooted in unresolved pain.

The show brings T.L. into the story immediately in the Season 2 premiere, “Death and a Sunset.” Still, the introduction is not set at a rig. It is not set at a board table. It begins in a much quieter place.

PEOPLE reported that T.L. appears in an assisted living facility in Texas. He is shown as physically frail and using a wheelchair in his early scenes. He is also a man with routines. He watches the sunset. He exchanges blunt, dark humor with staff.

Then the episode moves from routine to loss. Yahoo’s entertainment coverage describes T.L. learning that Dorothy has died after his afternoon nap, at a memory care facility in Amarillo. PEOPLE’s recap also confirms Dorothy was Tommy’s mother.

The writing gives Elliott a few lines that reviewers immediately quoted because they land like classic Elliott bluntness, but turned inward. In a line widely repeated in coverage, T.L. says, “I recommend you find a way to die quick.” In another moment, he answers the reassurance that he will see Dorothy again with, “If I do, that means I’m in hell, too.”

Those lines tell viewers what kind of role this is. T.L. is not introduced as an oil patch legend returning to work. He is introduced as an old man confronting death, with bitterness and dark humor as coping tools.

What the show actually does with him, and why that’s dividing viewers

As Season 2 unfolds, two widely covered story beats define how Landman uses Elliott.

The first is serious and reflective. The second is broad and comedic. The combination has been a flashpoint for audience reaction.

Episode 8: the emotional centerpiece about aging and losing control

PEOPLE highlighted a major scene in Season 2, Episode 8 in which T.L. breaks down in tears. The report frames it as a monologue about growing old, and about the gap between what the mind wants and what the body can still do.

The scene follows an incident in a pool. After that moment, T.L. tells Tommy that his body is failing him. The emotional thrust is clear: T.L. is frightened by dependence, and ashamed by weakness, even as he tries to keep dignity intact.

PEOPLE describes the scene as part of the reconciliation arc between father and son. It ends with Tommy helping T.L. and the two sharing a hug.

For fans who wanted a grounded, human counterpoint to the oilfield chaos, this is exactly the kind of Elliott material they were hoping to see. It is also the kind of scene that can make viewers wish the show gave him more of the season.

The same episode: the “stripper physical therapist” choice that changed the tone

Then there’s the tonal swerve that many viewers latched onto.

In the same Episode 8, PEOPLE reported that Tommy hires Cheyenne, who dances at Rick’s Cabaret in Odessa, to motivate T.L.’s therapy. Decider identified Cheyenne as played by Francesca Xuereb and described her as a “self-taught physical therapist.”

The setup is easy to see on paper. Tommy wants his father moving again. Tommy uses a tactic he believes will work. The show plays that premise partly for laughs and partly for discomfort.

Still, this is where the “how are they using Sam Elliott?” question gets sharper. Some fans came for Elliott expecting Sheridan-style gravitas. Episode 8 gives them gravitas, then undercuts it with a plot device that reads like a separate show.

The result is not a single unified audience response. It is a split. Some viewers accept the tonal mixture. Others feel it reduces Elliott to a punchline orbiting around more sensational material.

The core fan complaint: “You brought in Sam Elliott for this?”

Fan reaction is not measured by a single official metric in public view. There is no Paramount+ audience poll on Elliott’s screen time. There are no verified minute-by-minute breakdowns in the reporting cited here. What we can verify is that fans have been voicing frustration in visible online threads, and the criticisms tend to rhyme.

On Reddit, for example, the complaints often land in three buckets: underuse, mismatch, and writing.

In r/television, a thread titled “Landman season 2 is so boring!” includes a commenter calling Elliott “a waste of a talent.” That is not subtle language. It is also consistent with the broader tone of that thread, which expresses dissatisfaction with Season 2’s momentum.

Over in r/LandmanSeries, the expectation mismatch shows up even more clearly. One commenter says they expected Elliott to be “like a consultant or lawyer to MTex.” Instead, they say he is mostly “staring off into the sunset… old man wisdom.”

Another commenter goes further, saying Elliott’s character “seems like a sad, washed up old man.” They add that he gets “a couple funny quips each episode,” then “stares at the sunset or waxes on about the past.”

In a Season 2 comparison thread, another commenter asks, “Why bring the legendary Sam Elliot in for a small role?” That question captures the emotional core of the backlash. The frustration is less about Elliott’s performance and more about the perceived scale of the assignment.

A different thread offers a blunt verdict: “Sam Elliot’s character is boring.” Another commenter in the season comparison discussion says his character is “poorly written.”

None of that proves a majority view. It does, however, confirm a pattern. A portion of the online audience believes the show is not deploying Elliott in a way that matches his stature, or what they thought his addition signaled.

Not everyone hates it. Some fans call Elliott the “grounded” center.

The Elliott discourse is not one-note, and it would be misleading to pretend it is.

On r/LandmanSeries, one thread is titled: “Sam Elliott’s role in Landman is one of the most grounded parts of the whole show.” The original post praises him as a “moral anchor.” That poster also notes he had “two scenes” at the time, which is telling in itself. It suggests even some supporters wish there were more.

Even in that positive thread, at least one reply calls the role “boring.” That push and pull has become the defining feature of the fan discussion. Viewers may agree Elliott is good. They disagree about whether the show is giving him enough, and whether the material fits the show’s main engine.

Why the “underused” critique keeps sticking, even when Elliott gets big scenes

The frustration isn’t only about screen time. It’s about story function.

In many dramas, adding a series regular signals a new storyline that changes the main plot. Yet Season 2 introduces T.L. in a way that mostly adds depth to Tommy’s personal life. That is not a small thing. It changes how viewers understand Tommy. It gives Thornton someone to play off in a different register.

Still, the oil patch setting of Landman also trains viewers to expect the biggest characters to sit close to the machinery of power. When Elliott shows up in assisted living, the show is making a statement: the story is widening emotionally, not operationally.

Entertainment Weekly framed the father-son material as “very heavy,” and the early scenes reinforce that promise. However, the audience that came for more rig politics and corporate maneuvering sometimes treats the T.L. plot as a detour. That complaint shows up repeatedly in the Reddit comments cited above.

Episode 8 complicates it further. PEOPLE positions Elliott’s monologue as a key emotional event, and it is. Yet the same episode also gives viewers the Odessa cabaret therapy scenario, which some fans read as a tonal downgrade around a respected actor.

In other words, even when Elliott gets a showcase, the surrounding choices can still fuel the “they’re not using him right” feeling.

The show’s direction is clear: T.L. is about aging, regret, and family damage

If you line up the verified on-screen facts and the coverage, the intent becomes hard to miss.

• T.L. enters the show through assisted living, illness, and routine.
• He confronts Dorothy’s death at a memory care facility in Amarillo.
• He speaks in bleak, memorable one-liners about dying quickly and hell.
• He later breaks down about physical decline and dependence.
• He becomes the target of Tommy’s desperate, sometimes inappropriate attempts to keep him moving.

Those are not the beats of a plot-driving oilfield fixer. They are the beats of a late-life reckoning character. That creative decision may still pay off for some fans by the time Season 2 ends on January 18, 2026.

For other fans, though, the issue is not whether the material is “good.” The issue is whether it matches why they tuned in when they heard “Sam Elliott is joining Landman.”

What happens next: the finale window is here, and Season 3 is already coming

As of January 2026, viewers are still watching Season 2 unfold week to week, with the season scheduled to run through January 18, 2026. That matters because some complaints may soften if the final episodes expand T.L.’s role or tie him more tightly to the core story.

The show’s future also looks secure. Wikipedia’s series summary notes Landman was renewed for Season 3 in December 2025, and PEOPLE reported the renewal came about two weeks after Season 2 debuted.

That renewal sets up the next key question for Elliott fans: does Season 3 keep T.L. in the “grounded” family lane, or does it move him closer to the show’s oil patch power structure?

For now, the facts show this much. Elliott is delivering the kind of hard-edged, human work he’s known for. A loud slice of the online fanbase just wants more of it, and in a different shape.