Taylor Sheridan Admits He Deliberately Trolls Critics With Landman Storylines

There’s a certain breed of creator who doesn’t just ignore their critics—they weaponize their own storytelling against them. Taylor Sheridan, the 56-year-old mastermind behind Landman, recently pulled back the curtain on The Bill Simmons Podcast to reveal something refreshingly honest: he intentionally crafted story arcs designed to provoke, anger, and ultimately vindicate themselves.

Take Demi Moore’s arc in season one. Sheridan deliberately sidelined her for seven episodes as an extra, fully aware the critical establishment would come swinging.“I told her, when I met with Demi about that, I said,‘Look, here’s the thing. You’re gonna be an extra in this show. For seven episodes, you’re going to be an extra, and the critics are going to come after me,'”Sheridan recalled. The payoff? Her character becomes the oil company’s new leader after her husband is killed, forcing audiences who’d written her off to watch her prove herself capable in ways they couldn’t have anticipated. It’s storytelling as a calculated middle finger—and it works.

Sheridan owns the strategy without apology.“The critics and me, I don’t care what they think, and it annoys the s**t out of them that I don’t care,”he said.“And I’ll be the first to tell you that there are things that I do that rage-bait them a bit, and this is one of them.”He even withheld screeners for key episodes addressing Moore’s expanded role, essentially telling critics to take a hike while he proved his point on his own terms.

The pattern extends beyond Moore’s storyline. The tension between Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) and her nonbinary college roommate Paigyn (Bobby Salvor Menuez) drew similar heat from networks and actors who wanted the conflict resolved faster. Sheridan held firm, stretching the storyline intentionally to spark discomfort—only to resolve it in the next episode with a friendship arc that recontextualized the entire conflict.“I want to piss you off a little, and then, how dare I? and then you watch the next week and go,‘Oh you got me,'”he explained.

This isn’t arrogance masquerading as artistry—it’s a calculated confidence that audiences will follow the complete narrative arc, even if critics jump to conclusions early. Meanwhile, Ali Larter, who plays Tommy’s wife Angela, has praised how Sheridan writes dynamic female characters across his sprawling empire (Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, Lioness). The difference between his approach and typical network television? He refuses to be bullied by the hot take cycle.

Whether you see it as bold creative integrity or sophisticated trolling probably depends on which side of the critical divide you landed on. Either way, Sheridan’s working the long game—and he seems to be winning it.