Premiering September 27th, Blood and Oil centers on Billy and Cody Lefever as they dream of a new life beyond their working class roots. They decide to move to “The Bakken” in North Dakota, booming after the biggest oil discovery in American history has been made there. Upon arrival, they find themselves homeless and without jobs. They are soon pitted against a ruthless tycoon who forces them to bet big and put everything they have on the line, including their marriage.
Chace Crawford stars in this soapy drama as Billy Lefever, a man with a dream of opening up a launderette business in North Dakota. When his family and friends invest in his business with their hard earned money with a promise of a return of 10x the amount they gave him, Billy wants to succeed for them. But, whilst on the road travelling to North Dakota with Cody, things take an unfortunate turn of events that leaves them stranded in the middle of nowhere with their machines all broken beyond repair.
Don Johnson also stars as Hap Briggs, a ruthless tycoon who owns the biggest oil business in the country. He's a risk taker and takes a liking to Billy when he see's something in him that he wished his son had, potential. Also on the cast we have Rebecca Rittenhouse and Amber Valletta. Both were excellent throughout the pilot, especially Rebecca who shined as Cody.
Scott Michael Foster also co-stars as Wick Briggs, a selfish and lazy man who expects his father to hand him over the keys to their families oil business without even earning it first. And when Billy comes along and impresses Wick's father, as you can imagine, he becomes jealous. Wick takes things into his own hands, and if his father won't willingly hand him the business, he'll have to take it. The show might depend heavily on how much you can tolerate Scott Michael Foster's character. I found him to be irritating and very immature.
Blood and Oil wasn't a bad pilot, it just wasn't a great one either. It's one of them shows that will take a few episodes for you to get into, but it has an interesting concept and the characters were likable enough to keep me watching for a few more episodes at least. There's also the fact that the pilot ended on a reasonably big cliffhanger that is bound to make you return for at least the second episode.
Summary
Blood and Oil has an interesting concept and I found myself enjoying it more as the episode progressed. The cast were great; Rebecca Rittenhouse shined as Cody and is easily the show's best actor along with the other lead, Chace Crawford. The show also shared a lot of similarities to Dallas in terms of the concept, and that the show focuses heavily on the characters and their desire for power. It was a different take on the American dream, but it could become a decent show, but just don't expect to be completely sold on the pilot alone, it will probably take a few episodes to really get into it. 7/10
As always, thank you for reading! You can catch the premiere of Blood and Oil September 27th at 9pm on ABC.
