Blood and Oil

I don't normally write reviews of a BBC television dramas unless I feel particularly provoked one way or the other. Unfortunately it was because of my in-credulousness of how poor this program was. I actually found it hard to watch and certainly impossible to take seriously. The plot centres around a PR woman travelling to Nigeria to work for an oil company who's employees are regularly kidnapped or worse. Perhaps this could have been an interesting scenario. It wasn't.

Everyone is a caricature. In the opening scene the oil workers storm through a village in their Land Rovers knocking over people's property on the way- like cartoon villains. I was watching this scene with a guy who's worked for many years for a blue chip company in Nigeria who scoffed loudly at this. No foreign company acts in this disrespectful, provocative way.

Linking into this is the acting- it was atrocious- like watching actors who speak their lines like extras in a school play- seriously it was that unnatural. The kidnapped oil worker's wife spends her entire screen time crying at full volume and generally acting pathetically. Whilst our PR heroine gives almost a smug performance- acting incredibly inappropriately in certain scenes. For example instead of comforting the , albeit OTT-ly, distraught wife- she casually remarks along the lines of 'kinapping happens all the time here, don't worry' and then proceeds to sip a cocktail by the pool and make pleasantries with the hotel manager. The whole thing seemed staggeringly unnatural as did many other scenes- including the actor who plays 'Johnson' from Peep Show sporting a ridiculous American accent which was almost as funny as the, intentionally hilarious, boss he plays in Peep Show.

The disappointing thing is that there was clearly a big budget for this. But how any of this- the script, acting and direction could have been green lighted is a mystery. In a nutshell- if you want to look at Africa through the lens of a shallow soap opera production then this will be your thing. For a well acted and directed conspiracy drama set in the continent check out 'The Constant Gardner' instead.

Wonderful movie.Political thriller with some fact based issues being explored about corruption and greed and how the west is partly responsible. The backdrop is authentic. The story is based in Nigeria and it looks close to being filmed on location. The caste is very good. Names that I haven't heard of before. I didn't notice the the time go by even though it's a 4 hour miniseries.The plot keeps the viewer guessing. It was hard to tell who the good and bad guys were.I guess that's because the storyline was quite complex.Yet, it does not lose or confuse the viewer.Highly recommended. I wish they made more movies like this instead of the predictable garbage that's churned out by Hollywood each year.

I almost did not bother watching this after reading the first two reviews on here, so thanks to jegpad for persuading me to give it a go. This was top notch both as a political thriller and a human drama, with fine performances from both the two female leads, Naomi Harris and Jodhi May. The script was constructed tightly, with twists and intrigues enough to hold the viewer's attention, yet filmed to allow the performances room to breathe, so the full emotional impact was felt.

The film also provided an enlightening insight into the politics of a part of the world our mass media largely shy away from, an issue touched on in the drama. We would rather not know. (A theme cleverly mirrored in the discoveries the two protagonists make about the men in their lives.) And while the crushing institutionalised corruption and exploitation were exposed, and with it our complicity as western consumers, there was sufficient sense of humanity to spare the film from utter bleakness.

Oh and to the poster who thought it too neat that "the one person who knows something and is willing to let her know is the kindly gardener she had met earlier", she had met him because he worked on the grounds of her husbands apartment, which was also the reason he knew of the comings and goings.

Another classic tale of made-for-White-audience movie. First of all, Writers and producers needs to get more insight knowledge about the country before they can make such a movie.

Good story, wonderful cast but there's too much focus on poverty, I guess this is what you find in all movies and documentaries made about Africa. What foreign oil company PR/Executives rides around town on bikes and canoes anyway? What about 1970s Jeep been driven around if they make billions of Dollars everyday? Extras acting like a robot as if they scared to speak? Do you know how many educated and wonderful actors and actresses in Nigeria who could play those roles better? Oil company and police almost ran people over on the street? There are many scenes that could have been done better? This is what they want the world to see about Africa.

Though, it portrays the corruption and government conspiracy, no doubt but why is there no response from the Government? Is Tunde Tayo the spokesperson for the government? That is totally ridiculous? Since when does Russian mafia started "oil bunkering"? NO! It is the British and Americans oil companies corrupting the nation and stealing billions barrels of oil from the Nigeria everyday to enrich their own country. Next time BBC wants to make another stupid documentary, get the facts, expose the truth behind the non-ending corruption and chaos their government is profiting from.

Where is the point of closure? Does the writer forgot the major parts in writing a story? Totally incomplete movie or documentary or whatever BBC calls it.

Many conspiracy thrillers feature as their hero an initially cynical journalist, keen to get the story but not actually caring. 'Blood and Oil' perhaps shows us why by featuring two heroines who do not fit this template: the earnestly emoting wife of a murdered oil worker, and a glamorous PR consultant who may be repeating her employers' lines, but who genuinely believes them to be true. The plot, set in the region of the Niger delta, predictably exposes their illusions; but the characters are too pure for the story, in a world where everyone in power is corrupt there's something wholly predictable about the basic narrative arc, and too much seems just too neat, and consequently shallow. To give one example, when it seems that no-one can help the widow as she tries to track down her husband's mistress, it turns out that the one person who knows something and is willing to let her know is the kindly gardener she had met earlier; there's a definite feeling of scriptwriting by numbers here. The acting is mediocre and lacking in subtlety (I've rarely seen a drama where internal feelings are so universally telegraphed on the actors' faces); while the final conclusion, where the PR person finds redemption by working for a good cause, is also glib and questionable (because she can afford to do so; and because some might say that a better world needs less PR, rather than a redistribution of resources). In any case, she still looks as glamorous dressed in quasi-ethnic garb as she had done earlier in a business suit. 'Blood and Oil' deserves credit for tackling a difficult and weighty subject; but it's not truly serious drama.