Warning: This story contains spoilers from the season finale of “Landman.”

Billy Bob Thornton had a hunch that his latest series, “Landman,” would strike a chord with viewers. Like the blockbuster hit “Yellowstone,” the Western-flavored drama about a fixer for a Texas oil company fits comfortably in the Taylor Sheridan universe, anchored by the writer-producer’s distinctive flair for crusty, no-nonsense heroes and stories juiced by plenty of country music, sex and violence.

But even Thornton, who plays chain-smoking crisis manager Tommy Norris in the series, is overwhelmed by the impressive ratings of “Landman,” which aired its Season 1 finale on Sunday. After premiering in November, the series attracted 14.9 million households in its first four weeks, becoming the most popular original project on the Paramount+ streaming service.

“I’ve been in some iconic movies over the years where the response has been pretty big,” Thornton told The Times during a recent video call. “But I’ve never seen anything like this. I have people coming up to me every day, everywhere I go, reciting lines. We’re blown away by it, in other words.”

Although a decision on whether “Landman” will return has not been announced, Thornton said he was pleased with how the freshman season wrapped up.

The whirlwind finale features an onslaught of major developments. Monty Miller, the president of the M-Tex oil company played by Jon Hamm, dies of complications from a heart attack, but not before handing over the reins of the corporation to Norris. Miller’s widow, Cami (Golden Globe winner Demi Moore), who has been mostly on the sidelines, becomes more involved with the company. A gang of cartel thugs captures and tortures Norris. The episode also introduced Andy Garcia as Galino, a powerful and cunning cartel boss.

During the interview, Thornton, who continues to perform with his rock band, the Boxmasters, addressed the season and the finale, working with Sheridan and his thoughts about a possible second season.

Are you surprised at the reception of “Landman”?

We knew we were making something really special. We thought people would like it. But the response has been so much beyond what we thought. Traditionally, Taylor’s stuff is more of a middle-of-the-country kind of thing. But with this, it’s the middle of the country, the coasts and other countries, too. We’re humbled by that. When people come up and want to talk about it, it means a lot. There’s something very genuine about it. You can tell they’re not just handing a bill of goods because they’re in front of you.

What do you feel viewers are connecting to?

Taylor wrote a guy who has so much pressure on him. He’s got the world on his shoulders every day. Peace is not something that exists in his life. And Tommy is driven to succeed. He doesn’t to want to be seen as a failure for his boss, who ultimately passes. He is handed the torch. I don’t think he wants to be in that position but he knows he has to be, and he’s probably the right guy to do it.

Also, people have never had a peek behind the curtain of the oil business. Not since “Giant” have you ever seen a lot about the oil business. That movie really struck me, and I think people wanted to see the daily life of how this stuff works. I told someone the other day that “Landman” is “Giant” with cursing.

And they seem to enjoy your performance.

I’ve always believed in being natural and organic in a part, no matter what it is. Taylor wrote great dialogue. Every once in a while, I’ll throw one of mine in. My roles in “Goliath” and “Landman” I would call the right pair of shoes. They fit in the same world. I try to put myself in every character I play. If you’re playing yourself, it’s going to be a stronger performance. I feel very fortunate that Taylor thought of me.

There’s a lot to unpack in the finale.

I think Taylor wrapped up the season very nicely, while giving the show the possibility of carrying on. The greatest thing about the finale, in terms of my part in it, is that Tommy is facing the rest of his life. He is facing very serious reflection and having to examine his philosophical beliefs, who he is and how he fits into this world. He also introduced Andy Garcia’s character. It’s the calm before the storm, and there’s already been the storm.

What would you like to see if the show continued?

I would certainly hope that the family dynamic continues and deepens. I would also hope that we explore the weird position that Tommy is in with Andy’s character. Is he going home at night feeling guilty and wondering, “Am I in cahoots with criminals? I guess I am.” How is this going to work out? Tommy isn’t dealing with henchmen anymore. He knew how to deal with them. But now he’s got a smart guy on the opposite side of the law who is his equal. We’re in a chess match, and I hope that’s explored.

Balakrishna in ‘Daaku Maharaaj’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Balakrishna’s resurgence in recent films such as Akhanda and Bhagawant Kesari can be attributed to filmmakers Boyapati Sreenu and Anil Ravipudi making the star more relatable to the masses beyond his larger-than-life quirks. While the ethos of a typical Balakrishna film has not changed drastically, the fresh narrative styles have breathed a new lease of life into time-tested templates.

In Daaku Maharaaj, it is evident that director Bobby Kolli was keen on a new visual aesthetic to a star-led vehicle. The action is stylised and slick; there is a genuine effort at charismatic world-building and the ‘punch lines’ are minimal (going by the standards of popular Telugu masala potboilers). Hero worship is woven into the narrative rather than appearing forced.

Despite these merits the film falls short, owing to its lack of conviction in the execution. It neither plays to the galleries nor embraces the new dictum wholeheartedly. A handful of sequences draw attention and can be termed paisa vasool, but the film on the whole is not satisfying.

Set in a hill station near Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, the film takes its time to establish the context for the messiah’s arrival. A girl named Vaishnavi, the granddaughter of an influential man, is under threat from a local gangster duo. A convict on the run — ‘Daaku’ Maharaaj — assumes the identity of a driver, Nanaji, to guard the family. What connects Maharaaj’s violent past to the goons and the girl?

The film impressively does away with an ego-boosting intro song to announce the hero’s entry. S Thaman’s over-enthusiastic music score and the crisp dialogues between the action sequences do the job of offering a glimpse into the hero’s aura. Much like in Balakrishna’s earlier films (Jai Simha, Narasimha Naidu and Bhagawant Kesari), a young girl serves as the emotional link for the star to unleash his fury. 

When the proceedings get too heavy, there is silliness in the garb of humour for some comic relief (Satya is wasted) and romance, where Urvashi Rautela gets spanked by Balakrishna in a song named after his trademark phrase ‘Dabidi Dibidi.’ In between all the gore and insipid lighter moments, the child’s character brings some innocence (though caricaturish at times) to the mix.

However, the masala-laden proceedings soon become superficial. There are too many inconsequential characters that do not threaten the protagonist; the villainy lacks meat and the narrative beats around the bush for too long. The restlessness partly subsides with the flashback episode, in which a government officer transforms into a dacoit. 

Some of the tropes are reminiscent of films of the 90s and 2000s. A lion-hearted hero stands up for people of an arid land insulated from development and builds dams for them; every second girl in the region calls him ‘maamayya’ or ‘annayya’. Within this predictable framework, the equation between Maharaaj and the collector, Nandini (Shraddha Srinath), is a silver lining. 

The entire subplot woven around water supply to a village and the link between marble quarries and a drug racket is rushed and devoid of authenticity. Once the film returns to the present-day timeline, the rest is pretty much a formality. Surprisingly, Balakrishna’s restraint holds the weaker stretches together, helped by the racy action choreography and the raw visuals.

Cinematographer Vijay Kartik Kannan’s penchant for visuals comes to the fore in the flashback segments set in Chambal, transporting viewers into an anarchic world devoid of hope. In particular, the imagery of a dacoit leader’s headless statue merging with Balakrishna’s face stays with you long after the film. The gore is never vulgar or indulgent and the technical finesse adds to the experience.

The film also has its share of references to animals in the jungle. Maharaaj’s towering presence is visually compared to an injured snow leopard in the interval episode. The dialogues add some vigour too — ‘When you shout, you bark… when I shout… (referring to roar)..,’ ‘I hold a masters in murders,’ ‘When a lion and a deer confront, it is not a fight… it is a hunt’.

There is a noticeable gap between what Daaku Maharaaj aims to be and its final result. The craftiness of the visuals and the myth-making are often overpowered by the director’s conventional choices. Beyond Balakrishna and Shraddha Srinath’s Nandini, other characters (including the antagonist — Balwant Singh Thakur played by Bobby Deol) do not make a strong impression. 

It is disappointing to see capable actors such as Ravi Kishan, Shine Tom Chacko, Rishi, Chandini Chowdary and Sachin Khedekar wasted in insignificant parts. Shraddha Srinath is elegant in her portrayal of a vulnerable government official while Bobby Deol is reduced to a typical Mumbai-import villain who gives bombastic warnings to the hero without doing much. Pragya Jaiswal and Urvashi Rautela lack agency in their roles and merely serve as glam dolls. Sandeep Raj’s role begins well but adds little value to the film.

Bobby Kolli’s attempt to dish out a ‘different-looking’ Balakrishna film is a mixed bag. Apart from Balakrishna and Shraddha Srinath’s performances, the action choreography, cinematography and the music salvages it to an extent.

Jacob Soboroff, a national correspondent for NBC News with deep roots in the community, showed viewers the remains of his family’s former home on Frontera Drive in Pacific Palisades.

This week, Soboroff visited the site of a nearby playground where he romped as a child. His father, longtime civic leader Steve Soboroff, had led the effort to renovate the recreation facility after it fell into disrepair. It was gone. The home of his pregnant sister’s in-laws, where she was staying during her own home’s renovation, was also leveled.

Soboroff no longer lives in Pacific Palisades. But he knows its now-unrecognizable streets as well as if he had a Google map in his head, he told The Times.

“The pictures don’t match the muscle memories,” he said. “I grew up here and we’d do … drills in school for an earthquake. It looks like what the city would look like after the Big One, not after a wildfire.”

Those feelings are now all too familiar. The world watched as large parts of the Los Angeles area burned this week, giving ample TV time to the national correspondents based in the city.

The stunning devastation that engulfed Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other neighborhoods entered the national consciousness through wall-to-wall TV news coverage, overshadowing major news events such as the funeral of former President Carter and the sentencing of Donald Trump in his New York hush money case. The unprecedented inferno filled screens with shocking images since Tuesday.

Often the biggest challenge for the L.A.-based journalists, who worked around the clock since the blazes broke out, was coping with their own emotions, fears and feelings of loss as they reported on their home city’s transformation into scenes that resembled war zones.

Fox News correspondent Jonathan Hunt reported on the flames that encroached Palisades Charter High School, where his 17-year-old daughter is a student. While informing viewers about the threat, he privately worried she would be back to remote learning after losing a year in the classroom during the pandemic.

Hunt was relieved that the school “was largely OK,” but local landmarks where he spent time with his children were wiped out.

“I was just wandering around the village area just now and much of the retail is gone,” he said. “The Starbucks we used to stop at so many days after school is just gone.”

Longtime CNN correspondent Nick Watt told viewers on Wednesday how after he finished his reporting he was headed to his home in Santa Monica to hose it down, hoping it would deter embers from starting a blaze.

“It’s extraordinary to cover something like this in your own community,” he said. “I’ve been covering fires for a long time. You have sympathy for people. Now I have empathy.”

Correspondents said they were deluged by West Coast-based colleagues, friends and strangers asking them to check if their homes were still standing.

Soboroff noted that having his reports stream on NBC News Now and social media sites such as TikTok brought in requests from around the world. In some cases, he didn’t have to check, knowing that whole blocks in Pacific Palisades were in ruins.

Hunt received inquiries as well, and went a step further for Kennedy, a former MTV host who is now a contributor at Fox News.

Kennedy, who was in New York, asked Hunt to enter her Palisades home, located less than 100 yards from structures that were gutted by the flames. She wanted him to gather certain framed family photographs and drawings made by her children. Hunt entered the undamaged structure, where he also retrieved a sword one of Kennedy’s relatives saved from World War I.

“I was dreading the idea of going to this friend’s house and having to send a photo of rubble,” Hunt said. “Thank God that I didn’t.”

Nancy Loo, a veteran Los Angeles-based reporter for NewsNation, was on the case Tuesday morning as she and her camera operator Nathan Fiery had covered numerous wildfires along the West Coast since she joined the network in 2020. They started traveling toward the blaze when they saw smoke in the direction of Culver City.

NewsNation’s Nancy Loo covering the wildfires in Pacific Palisades.

(NewsNation)

Loo joined NewsNation so she could be closer to family members, who she said were spared from the danger and destruction. But Fiery had been evacuated from his Hollywood Hills home and worked with the fear that it would be gone. (It was spared.)

Loo made her bones as a local New York anchor who reported for eight hours straight during the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. She moved on to become a reporter on Chicago’s WGN, where she frequently started her day covering a homicide that occurred overnight.

The destruction of Pacific Palisades is yet another traumatic scene she has to process, one of many over a long career.

“I’ve learned to compartmentalize because it does take an emotional toll,” Loo said.