Is Hollywood Becoming Politically Incorrect?

Recently, I started watching a program that was recommended to me by a carpenter who was doing some work in my house. The series is called Landman, and it is available on Paramount Plus. The series piqued my curiosity because it is set in West Texas, where I have spent quite a bit of time chasing storms.

The series' theme concerns the oil industry in the Midland-Odessa area of Texas. It is, at times, a brutal, bawdy, hard-hitting show with lots of F-bombs, and it portrays the sexes distinctly. Men are men, and women are women in the oil industry. The women are portrayed as highly sexual and scantily clad, which is hardly how Hollywood portrays sexuality in this age. There is no hint of transgenderism in this program. This is not a politically correct show.

The main character in the series is Tommy Norris, played by Billy Bob Thornton, a rough-around-the-edges landman in the oil industry. The show delves into his journey as he faces moral dilemmas, personal battles, and the complications of working in a volatile, often corrupt industry. The world of land deals and oil leases becomes a backdrop for exploring complex human relationships, power struggles, and the costs of success in a world driven by corporate interests and environmental consequences. It is a dangerous industry, as portrayed in the program.

The setting in West Texas with the oil rigs adds gritty realism, with violence and death just waiting to happen. The characters are quite flawed, both likeable and unlikeable.

In one segment, a big-city female lawyer comes out to try to subvert lawsuits. While there, she is given a lesson about alternative energy sources. Norris drives her to an area filled with wind turbines, and the lawyer remarks, "They use clean energy to power the oil wells?" Norris' answer to her is, "They use alternative energy. There's nothing clean about this."

Norris then proceeds to burst her bubble about clean energy and the oil industry, giving her an education. He tells her how much energy it takes for all the concrete in the foundations of the wind turbines, plus the steel manufacturing. Then he explains how there is no infrastructure for a future of non-fossil fuel, not to mention all the products in our lives that depend on fossil fuels.

Here is a short clip from the program.

It makes you wonder how this was made because it's contrary to the left-wing climate change and global warming activists in the film industry. Perhaps political correctness had nothing to do with the making of the series. Perhaps it was about telling a story without any politicization and just playing it as people in the oil industry feel about fossil fuels and the place of alternative energy sources.

Regardless, it's excellent viewing if you can handle the expletives.