Blood & Oil Has More Soap Than Either

Written by PTC | Published September 13, 2015

An ‘80s-style nighttime soap opera story of blood ties, big business, and betrayal. With the rise of “fracking,” North Dakota has become the new Wild West – a place of fortunes made and lost as quickly. With skill, luck, and hard work, newlyweds Billy and Cody Lefever impress oil tycoon Hap Briggs and his scheming wife Darla, and become their partners in a huge new oil deal…a fact certain to stir the resentment of Briggs’ disowned son and heir Wick, who has vowed to get control the business by any means necessary. This return to Dallas-style programming hits all the expected stock characters: the poor-but-honest, hard-working blue-collar couple, down on their luck, who hit the big time but still have problems (like Cody’s impending pregnancy); the tough, grizzled tycoon who takes the honest Billy under his wing, while disowning his own son; the hissably slimy and manipulative tycoon’s second wife; the ne’er-do-well tycoon’s son, who plots to get control of the business; and several other hackneyed tropes as well. The series also provides unintentional humor, at least for viewers from the Midwest. (Note to ABC: there are no beautiful, snow-capped mountains in North Dakota.) In terms of content, there are multiple uses of language like “son of a bitch,” a few fistfights, and several scenes of passionate young lovers stripping and exposing underwear prior to having sex; but nothing too extreme appeared in the first episode, which was more concerned with establishing characters and premises. If Blood & Oil continues in this vein, it will not be appropriate for children…but then, likely few children would be interested in watching it. Blood & Oil premieres Sunday, September 27^th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on ABC.