Long before he traversed the Texas plains as Tommy Norris in “Landman,” Billy Bob Thornton played an even more ruthless role for an oil company. 1994’s “On Deadly Ground” featured the actor in a small part as a mercenary hired by an oil firm to put down a firefighter turned oil worker played by Steven Seagal. It wasn’t good, but luckily for Thornton he’s not in it for very long — though that didn’t stop him from sustaining a serious injury while filming.

In “Landman,” Thornton is as sharp as ever. The now 70-year-old doles out wry West Texas witticisms with ease in a show that seemed destined to have middle America enraptured.