I haven’t watched Landman yet, but I was considering it. However, regardless of whether I decide to watch the buzzy Taylor Sheridan series once football season wraps up in a few weeks, I already know a key plot point from the season finale. This is thanks to Sunday night’s episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, where the Sports Guy casually dropped a major spoiler from the first season’s 10th and final episode, just a week after it premiered.
The spoiler warning above is far more substantial than what Simmons offered during his weekly “Guess the Lines” episode with “Cousin” Sal Iacono. While discussing their annual fantasy football league get-together at Shakey’s Pizza in Los Angeles, Simmons revealed an important plot detail regarding Jon Hamm’s character, who is a member of that league. “I wasn’t gonna go,” Cousin Sal said about the banquet, to which Simmons interjected with a major spoiler: “And he just died in Landman.”
What?! Jon Hamm’s character dies?! This revelation caught me off guard. I don’t know much about Hamm’s character or Landman, apart from the fact that Jerry Jones makes a cameo at some point. Yet now, if I ever get the chance to watch it, I’ll go in knowing that Hamm’s character meets his end in the 10th episode. “Oh, you son of a bitch,” Iacono replied, clearly expressing his frustration on behalf of the audience, asking, “Why would you do that?”
Simmons tried to justify his actions by claiming a week is a reasonable time to share spoilers without warning. However, Iacono and the podcast’s live YouTube audience quickly called him out, prompting him to apologize for the blunder. “I guess I spoiled, sorry. The YouTube guys agree. My bad. My bad, everybody,” he conceded, admitting, “I Jared Goff’d the podcast.” Astonishingly, Simmons left his spoil-laden comment in the podcast version, thus exposing millions of additional listeners to what should have been an easily avoidable spoiler.
For someone who has built his career on the intersection of sports and pop culture, it’s surprising that Simmons thought a week was an acceptable window before sharing a spoiler, especially for a series that many may only watch because of his previous recommendations.
