Blood & Oil

Young couple Billy (Chace Crawford) and Cody LeFever (Rebecca Rittenhouse) are trying to cash in on the oil boom in North Dakota with a few washing machines. They crash the truck and lose everything. Billy discovers a deal of a lifetime. With the help of Clifton Lundegren (Barry Corbin), he does a deal with oil tycoon Hap Briggs (Don Johnson) only to be double-crossed and lose it all again. Hap's family includes his equally ruthless trophy wife Darla (Amber Valletta), his black sheep son Wick (Scott Michael Foster) and his golden child Lacey. Jules Jackman (India de Beaufort) is the bar owner at the center of the action. Wick's ill-advised plan to rob his own father goes horribly wrong and sheriff Tip Harrison (Delroy Lindo) investigates.

I'm sure this show was developed back when oil prices were high and it was still the wild, wild west. The show is a little late which is normal operations for the traditional networks. It doesn't really matter if they place the show a few years earlier than present day. No matter what, this is a functional nighttime soap opera for the most part until tonight. This was the 5th episode. The order has been reduced to 10 episode. With its anemic ratings, it's highly doubtful to be renewed.

I'm willing to go along with some unreasonable stuff in this show but Billy is too hard to take. He's whiny and idiotic. He's annoying as hell which is a bad thing for the lead. In the latest episode, he has blackmail material against Hap. For some reason, his morality keeps him from disrupting Hap's marriage. Every move he makes screams "Idiot". Cody is the nagging nice wife and she's only better by comparison. Her workplace gets robbed and she decides to press the alarm right in front of the robber. The funny thing is that the show would be more dramatic if this lead couple actually does smart things or at least normal things.

Don Johnson does exactly what the show needs him to be. He's a cool villain. He's also able to bring multiple dimensions to his character. The son Wick is also a great character. The father son relationship is a Greek tragedy. The Briggs family has real potential. If this show keeps going, it would be advisable to make this the Briggs family show.

This prime time drama isn't a typical soap. People expecting a "Dallas" or "Revenge" glamour with high fashion and mansions won't find it here. It's set in rural oil fields. An ambitious young couple arrive in a town set to boom from oil discovery and tangle with local big wig couple. Quite a bit happens in the pilot with some things that seem a bit over the top to grab your attention like cars going off the road twice in 1 episode.

The main cast is watchable and attractive. Newcomer Rebecca Rittenhouse is pretty enough - not too glam to be unbelievable. Chace Crawford transitions well from Upper East Side to blue collar. Don Johnson has always been quite watchable and hasn't let himself go. Amber Valetta plays the ultimate second wife well. She was great in Revenge and looks to be a scene stealer here.

You want to see what happens hopefully it won't give into irritating clichés - the bad son seems a bit clichéd.

Don't know if today's evening TV viewing audience is ready for another "Dallas" or "Dynasty" type show, but here is comes with "Blood & Oil". Don Johnson (Miami Vice) returns to prime time as oil tycoon Hap Briggs, with a family (Amber Valletta, Scott Michael Foster and Miranda Rae Mayo) full of angst and ready for trouble. Johnson also executive producers with others, and luckily he managers to keep out of his own way while on screen. Playing the innocent card, and ripe for "oil creed picking," are the sexy Chase Crawford (Gossip Girl) and his innocence TV wife Rebecca Rittenhouse (Red Band Society). The writing is on the wall regarding the marriage of these families, so get ready for turmoil. As "Blood & Oil" is nighttime drama, the series writers are moving a mile a minute, tossing out and crossing story lines like there is no tomorrow. At this point, the series concept appears plausible. However, many of the sets are too perfect and sometime incorrect (i.e. the hotel Crawford initially stays in appears run down, yet inside the room is extremely large and the bathroom is spa like). For now I'm sticking around to see what happens next in North Dakota.

Interesting setting - check. Great chemistry between lead actors - check. Solid supporting cast - check. Story moving along briskly - check. Great cinematography - check.

This promises to be just the right kind of slickly done action-soap-opera, a world with modern-day-Wild-West intrigue. This show reminds me of Hell On Wheels, despite the obvious anachronism of being set in modern times.

It is filmed well, the couple who are the main protagonists have genuine chemistry. They don't seem like "actors", "acting to be a couple" - at all.

The characters have believable motivations, and the show has heart.

Heart is something that's been present in many shows of the 90s and earlier, regardless of their objective quality, but in the cynical age of today it has been lost. "Breaking Bad", for example, a great show otherwise, didn't have heart. Many shows of today find it safer to stick to cynicism and negative humor.

"Blood & Oil" is refreshingly earnest - it doesn't twist itself into a pretzel to manipulate the viewer. As result, its emotion is simple and therefore relatable. When you feel for someone in this show, you feel it with them.

Whoever's in charge of this show, has a clarity of vision. Let them never lose it.

"ABC's" new series "Blood and Oil" has all the themes of modern day soap operas which shines at night it has sex, lust, greed, and revenge! Set in North Dakota during the modern day oil boom, a young man named Billy(Chace Crawford)and his wife move to town to start a new life for love and money! Soon upon meeting oil tycoon and business magnet Hap Briggs(glad to see the great Don Johnson working again)Billy strikes it rich with oil gold! However life at the top sure does come with some drama as this series shows everything from murder and greed which blends well with sex as old Hap is a ladies man even having a mistress, and Hap has a hard headed son who's in the way it's all in the family with drama! Overall well done series that has all the elements that make a night time soap a winner check out "Blood and Oil" it's one slick drama!