Landman Finally Redeemed A Regular Taylor Sheridan Actor's Awful Yellowstone & 1883 Characters

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for 1883, Yellowstone, and Landman.Taylor Sheridan’s Landman series for Paramount+ redeemed these two awful characters of an actor who regularly features in his shows. The network of Sheridan's neo-Western shows continues to expand thanks to the writer's deal with Paramount+, which contracts Sheridan to write for the network until 2028. Landman debuted in tandem with the Yellowstone season 5, part 2 premiere, introducing Bill Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, a “landman” and fixer for a Midland, Texas-based oil company called M-Tex. John Hamm plays Monty Miller in the Landman cast, the head of M-Tex and Tommy’s longtime working partner.

Landman builds on the gritty, neo-Western themes of Yellowstone and its offshoots. Sheridan produced two series that serve as prequels to the story of John Dutton’s (Kevin Costner) family in Paradise Valley, Montana. 1883 and 1923 tell the stories of early Dutton family members who lived and worked on the Dutton Ranch before John was born. Several actors play different characters throughout Sheridan’s series. For instance, Dawn Olivieri plays Claire Dutton in 1883 and Sarah Atwood in Yellowstone.Another actor has played repetitively sinister characters in the franchise, but Sheridan fully redeemed him in his Landman story.

James Jordan's Yellowstone & 1883 Characters Are Both Hard To Like

James Jordan is another actor who plays multiple characters in the Yellowstone franchise. In the flagship, Jordan plays a Montana Livestock Association agent, Steve Hendon. Agent Hendon is blatantly problematic, abusing his power on multiple occasions with fatal consequences. In Yellowstone season 2, Steve draws his weapon on a teenager while arresting a local man for killing cattle. While the teenager is armed, Kayce (Luke Grimes) is trying to deescalate the situation when Hendon shoots and kills the kid. Then, in season 3, Hendon kills two horse thieves in a civilian’s horse trailer when tasked with roughing them up.

Cookie is a brazen 1883 character, even by the prequel’s standards, and he makes a mistake that gets James’ daughter, Elsa (Isabel May), killed.

Jordan also appears in 1883 as “Cookie,” the cook Shea Brennan (Sam Elliott) hires in Abilene, Kansas, for their wagon train. Shea and Thomas (LaMonica Garrett) lead a wagon train with James Dutton (Tim McGraw) in the Yellowstone prequel, which follows the earliest Dutton family’s journey to Montana along the Oregon Trail. Cookie is a brazen 1883 character, even by the prequel’s standards, and he makes a mistake that gets James’ daughter, Elsa (Isabel May), killed. After James makes a plan to keep the party safe from Lakota warriors, the cook changes course, and Elsa gets attacked as a result.

Dale In Landman Redeems James Jordan's Yellowstone & 1883 Characters

James Jordan Plays Dale In Landman

Jordan’s characters in Yellowstone and 1883 are universally impossible to like. While Jordan’s 1883 character has some funny moments that make his character fun to watch at first, he is ultimately a liability to the whole party, ruining any good moments he has upon further reflection of the series. Likewise, Agent Hendon is ignorant and puts others in harm’s way due to his impulses. However, Jordan’s role as Dale Bradley in Landman redeems his mean streak in Yellowstone. In Landman, Jordan plays an M-Tex petroleum engineer. He is Tommy’s longtime friend and also his roommate.

James Jordan also portrays characters in Taylor Sheridan's Mayor of Kingstown and Lioness.

Dale has the same personality traits and overall demeanor as his Yellowstone counterparts. However, Jordan’s Landman character is more lovable and genuinely good. Dale respects Tommy’s daughter, Ainsley (Michelle Randolph), and wife, Angela (Ali Larter), when they move in, despite Angela constantly picking on Dale’s food choices. When things hit the fan with Tommy’s family, Dale politely discusses the matter with his longtime friend rather than adding to the melodrama. He is overall amiable, which is a complete change in pace from his Yellowstone characters, whom you want to like at first but ultimately cannot.

The 1 Quality Taylor Sheridan Needed To Change About Dale To Fully Redeem Jordan

Jordan's Landman Character Isn't Fatally Reckless

Sheridan changed just one quality about James Jordan’s Landman character to make Dale more likable than his Yellowstone counterparts. While Cookie and Agent Hendon act on their worst impulses in 1883 and Yellowstone, respectively, Dale is less reckless in Landman. Instead of reacting to Tommy’s situations with Ainsley and Angela and making a bad time worse, Dale thinks things through.

The petroleum engineer’s ability to think before speaking and acting is part of his humor, with Dale making up some of Landman’s best moments. Plus, Dale's clean record in the patch in Landman season 1 proves he's a careful engineer. Still, Jordan maintains a glimmer of recklessness in Landman, which gives Dale the same gritty and chaotic energy as his Yellowstone characters.

Monty Miller (Jon Hamm) and Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) in front of an oil patch in Landman season 1

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In Landman episode 1, “Landman,” Tommy chides Dale for heating a can of beans in the microwave. The landman remarks that his roommate burns up a microwave a week and encourages Dale to pour his beans (which are his breakfast) into a bowl, but the engineer claims they taste different out of the can. Still, despite his roommate antics, Dale is a far cry from Jordan’s Yellowstone characters, who were impossible to root for.