Landman

Texas melodrama for people who like a charming talker more than a tight plot, and who can put up with soap at home. Tommy delivers blunt, sarcastic monologues the way other leads throw punches, and Billy Bob Thornton gives them a chain-smoking weariness. In one scene he drives a lawyer to an accident site, where she suspects him and a rattlesnake does not help.

The early episodes are unhurried and drift between several storylines, and the third is a laidback hour before the drama arrives.