I haven't watched Landman, but it continues to produce moments that go viral on the internet, and always for social-political reasons.
Taylor Sheridan, the writer of Landman and the writer popularly known for shows like Yellowstone and movies like Wind River, has made room for social commentary in parts of his shows that don't exactly have the left pleased, and it's kind of refreshing to see.
One recent clip came out of Landman that especially has the left raging on the internet and even attacking the actress within said scene. If you haven't seen the scene yourself yet, I'll post it here. It's the character Ainsley Norris (Michelle Randolph) meeting her college roommate for the first time. The roommate, named "Paygin," is a perfect representation of a Gen Z leftist, complete with a focus on proper pronoun usage and passive-aggressive demands on obedience to their emotional and physical requirements backed by a self-aggrandized sense of moral currency.
However, instead of immediately backing down and submitting, Norris politely and even cheerfully holds her ground, even though it's clear her realism is offending the roommate.
The interesting thing isn't just Norris' behavior, it's her look. She's a blond, pretty girl who smiles and is cheerful and polite despite the obvious icy behavior being thrown her way, while the roommate is perfectly represented by your standard self-induced sexless uglification look and an attitude that's equal parts prickly and smug.
Paramount’s Landman OBLITERATES the pronouns argument after the show introduced a non-binary character as Ainsley Norris’s TCU roommate.
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) January 13, 2026
Non-binary roommate: “So what are your pronouns?”
Ainsley Norris: “My pronouns? I’d hope that was pretty clear?”
Non-binary roommate:… pic.twitter.com/faGDMrmTa9
Non-binary roommate: “Yeah, I don’t make assumptions. You could identify as a sunflower… I use ‘they/them.’”
Ainsley Norris: “You know I’ve always been curious. Why ‘they/them’? Because there’s just one of you, and those are plural pronouns. I just never really understood the hoopla with pronouns.”
What strikes me about this is that Norris seems to have written intentionally to be a stand-in for the audience with her normalcy. You could even say we, the traditional normie American, are being "represented" here.
And I probably don't need to tell you that this has enraged the people represented by the roommate, according to the Daily Mail:
One disappointed viewer asked bluntly, ‘Damnit. Do I have to stop watching this show?’
On Reddit, some accused the show of leaning too hard into caricature.
‘Paygin [Ainsley's roommate' was just some sort of lib-bashing caricature that they dreamed up for no real reason. I went to art school and maybe some people exist who have some of those traits but no one who has all of them on steroids,’ one user wrote.
Another agreed, calling the scene ‘Pure rage bait’ and adding, ‘Good lord. The way Ainsley’s roommate is portrayed is just ridiculous.’
But hang on a minute... I thought representation in media was a good thing. I thought you needed to see yourself in a story to connect with it.
Here we see both sides represented accurately. Reddit may not like seeing themselves mirrored in the show accurately, but that's them when you take away the contrived storylines that always put the leftists into an artificial position of moral or social superiority. When you write them honestly, they look exactly as they should, like insufferable scolds.
They are being represented, and they don't like it.
Moreover, Sheridan actually wrote the common person into the scene, behaving as many normal people would. Polite, kind, a little more patient than we probably should be, but not putting up with the nonsense, and with that representation, you can see the moral superiority these "Paygins" typically see themselves with whither in light of accurate framing.
So, I think it's safe to say that "representation" was never really something they wanted. What they wanted was an aggrandizement of what they see as their best traits. They wanted a representation of how they see themselves, not an actual one-to-one character, because that character isn't exactly complimentary to their image.
But that is them, and now we know that what they really meant when they say "representation" isn't representation. What they really mean is the depiction of a faultless demigod whom everyone loves, defers to, and is always superior in wit, intelligence, and virtue.
A "Paygin-Sue," if you will.
If this is what actual representation looks like, then I'm all for it.
