Not
Much Blood And Little Oil, This Show Ain't No Dynasty Or Dallas
#BloodAndOil #3WeekRoundUp #PremiereWeek
I knew
the season had to deliver it at some point. Just as my earlier
article about Rosewood gave an unexpected high of this early fall
season, ABC's Blood And Oil (#BloodAndOil) has delivered the first
big disappointment. Don't worry though, it still has some redeeming
qualities to it.
As I
say with all of these posts, click the #Premiere Week button up top
and scroll down to ABC's section at the very bottom to read my
initial anticipation for this show and see if I thought it'd be good
or not. But for those who don't wish to do that, I'll give a quick
recap of if I looked forward to this show. The answer to that
question is yes, I highly looked forward to this show. In fact, it
along with Quantico (review to follow soon) and Minority Report, was
my most anticipated show of the season. I really, really wanted to
see this show, and looked forward to the soap opera-esque drama of it
all. I thought it might be another drama in the way of the two great
80s dramas Dynasty and Dallas. While I think it is a little more
similar to Dallas than Dynasty, I would have preferred Dynasty. FOX's
Empire is Dynasty. This? Well, this doesn't quite have the
flamboyancy and character of a must-see, appointment viewing kind of
show. Let's dive in shall we.
The
show feeds off of two main plots each of which weave together almost
from the start. With around a total of six big players, we start out
following the story of a young up-and-coming couple with a familiar
face. Chace Crawford plays the husband. He and his wife Cody decide
to move from the Florida Panhandle up to North Dakota in order to
take advantage of the state's recent oil boom. But they aren't going
initially to be part of the oil business. No, they believe their
fortune lies within the confines of a wash and dry business. With a
truck filled with washers and dryers, they plan to open a laundromat.
It's pretty genius when you think about it. A town full of roughnecks
with the filthiest of clothes that would need constant washing. Can't
fault them for that plan. It's a very good plan. Their stupidity
kicks in when Chace decides to purchase three more washers to stuff
into the back of their truck instead of buying insurance for the ones
they already had. Within the opening minutes of the show, they get
spooked by a big rig and fly off the road, totaling not only their
pickup but the washers and dryers too--and that's before they even
get to North Dakota. They were on the border, the border!
Out of
money and low on luck, they hitch a ride to the town they were going
to anyway and find that as most boom towns go, this one is filled
with so many people that there's not a place for all of them to stay.
Many stay out on the street in a tent camp on the edge of the center
of town. Lo and Behold their exit from the bar where they learned
this fact and their journey into tent city was what gave me my first
surprise concerning this show. All of the advertisements showed only
the main cast, even trimming it down to the oil baron, his wife, his
son, and the young couple in many of the commercials. Hence, I
thought the show would be lily white (check my thoughts back in
premiere week post and you'll see I wrote those words exactly). Yet,
here I find that not only is the sheriff black played by industry old
head Delroy Lindo (the father in Romeo Must Die; that's all I
can remember him from but he was definitely in other stuff). Then,
they also meet a black couple in the tent camp they later help but I
don't want to jump too far ahead.
 |
| Being Rich Makes Me Happy |
Meanwhile,
the oil baron played by another industry old head and the biggest
draw to the show for me, Nash Bridges himself Don Johnson is looking
to expand his ever-growing oil empire but has to deal with his
petulant son Wick. Wick is a little all over the place
character-wise. First he respects (not loves) his father and just
wants a piece of what he believes is his rightful claim of the pie.
He sticks out as a young punk who really doesn't give two shakes
about the oil business but wants all that money that goes with it
minus the work to get it. When his father punishes him for causing
trouble with the local Native Americans after shooting a white spirit
animal moose, he refuses to cooperate with his punishment of mud
raking and gets fired by his father. The scoundrel he is, he concocts
a plan to instead steal the oil from his father and sell it on his
own with a buddy of his.
There's
some business with his new mother-in-law, Don Johnson's current wife,
thinking he's sneaky but so far they really haven't utilized her
character as much as I would have liked or thought they would.
Frankly, they should use her a lot because I think Amber Valletta
(Transporter 2, Hitch, Dead Silence) is a pretty good actress who
hasn't been given that one amazing role for her to do something with.
Here, not only does she not play as big of a part as the commercial
insinuated she would, she's nearly a shadow fading into the
rustic-wealthy background of the North Dakota mansion where she and
her husband reside. While I understand that it may be considered too
weak of a character for modern TV, I would have liked--still
would--if she played a role similar to Krystle on Dynasty. Krystle
was light, fluffy, gentle, meek, and totally in love with her man.
This woman not only seems completely opposite of that but doesn't
exude the sinister power that should come from a person who
supposedly only married this man as a "business merger."
She's neither exceptionally cold and calculating nor working class
princess-like. She's just... there, and only sometimes.
She
had some tension with his daughter who is becoming a bigger character
but who also has yet to make a real mark on the show as she just
arrived back from California to potentially become part of the
business. It has been implied that her mother was either a mistress
that was also part of the help staff at some point (she looks like
she may be Latina or Hispanic) that her father cast off (she said as
much) or she came from a brief fling he had after a divorce or before
a marriage. In any case, she doesn't speak often with her father as
she hates how he treated her mother as a side project rather than a
woman. Funny enough, the show kind of does the same thing to many of
its female characters outside of Chace's wife.
And
we're back to the young couple. After losing everything, both of them
get to think about how they could get back on their feet. Scooping up
gainful employment like it was nothing in an overcrowded town, Cody
finds work at a drug store. There she overhears one of the oil men
talking to his boss on the phone about some sure-thing piece of land
with massive oil reserves underneath it. So long as they buy the land
from the old man living in a shack at the center of it, they'll be
rich by billions. She tells her husband and they strike a deal with
the old man to purchase some of the land (enough for drilling) for a
mere $100,000 and 25% stake in whatever deal they'll make going
forward. They then flip the drilling rights for the next three years
and sell those to Don Johnson's character for 1 million dollars (mentally insert Dr. Evil picture here). This only after taking a loan out from
the barkeep who moonlights as a real estate agent, and wheeling and
dealing their way to that measly 100,000.
The
son escapes with the oil and sets up the sheriff to go on a hunt for
the 18-wheeler which ends in the third episode as the accomplice gets
caught. But this also leads to Chace carrying favor with Don because
he saved his life. Knowing the boy is interested in making more
money, he offers him another deal where he believes he can make ten
times the amount of money if he flips it in a few years, but the
buy-in is half a million dollars. Chace turns him down, opting
instead to follow his newly pregnant wife's idea to purchase a house
after less than a week of being in town. Don doesn't wait and flips
the business a week later but only makes triple what he paid for it,
leaving Chace to miss out on a million dollars profit. He definitely
wants in on the next deal but doesn't have enough to buy in. He makes
a deal to give over his percentage of that land he bought from the
old man plus another 250,000 for the possible sure thing right now.
The sure thing turns out to be a dud and he loses all of it. Shrewd
and conniving, Johnson plays the deal superbly, ending up with
everything he wanted in the first place.
Meanwhile,
he lets his son back into his life after the little death scare but
doesn't know it was him who gave him the death scare at the end of
the barrel of a gun. What he also didn't know was that his son has
taken to sleeping with the bar owner/real estate lady who is quite a
good businesswoman herself. As it turns out, she might have picked up
a few tricks from her old boyfriend who just so happens to be Don.
His son doesn't know that he's living in a real-life rendition of the
O'Jays classic "She Used To Be My Girl" but apparently she
still loves her older beau and he's still down for a few rolls in the
sheets as evidenced by the third episode.
There's
another side story that has only now showed signs of developing with
the black couple who want to open a restaurant but currently have a
food truck with another chef from L.A. This other chef is a serious
flirt and might try to start something with the wife but Cody has
already warned him about such activity as she has invested in the
business. There's also another tertiary plot with one of the men who
works for Don having an affair with his daughter and doing some
corporate spying maybe for blackmailing purposes but that hasn't
given enough clues to tell where it's going. Other than that, the
show is moving fairly quickly concerning its main plot but there just
isn't that "umph!" I'd like to have.
What
do I rate this show? I regrettably have to give it a C. Ever since
the amazing Desperate Housewives went off the air and sucked Brothers
and Sisters (a not as amazing show) along with it, ABC has had
trouble filling the 9pm Sunday time slot. Last year's Resurrection
had showed promise but petered out quickly, losing viewers' interest
before Thanksgiving hit and that was in its sophomore season.
Unfortunately, this might do the same. If this show is to survive, I
think they need to liven up the drama amongst the women as on
Empire--again, they have Dynasty as a great example--and maybe bring
one of Don's ex-wives on the show as she was mentioned in passing to
be working in the oil industry down in Texas. Maybe that is the plan
or maybe they are trying to see what they have first, but I think
this show could use some new blood to make things bubble and catch
fire a lot quicker. The characters all seem muted on the backdrop and
that even goes for Miami Vice Don who I think could make a really
great JR or Blake Carrington if given the proper juiciness in a role.
For now, they ring hollow and, unlike the quiet but tension-filled
characters that populate AMC and other cable TV shows, every second
of quiet from the characters is felt in an uncomfortable way. Just
think of how improperly and clumsily worded that last sentence is and
that is the way the characters come off to me.
Also,
I know that this show has had behind-the-scenes problems to which I
would offer up a suggestion of getting the season one Revenge
showrunner to helm things and change the tone of the show. Every
barb, slight, undercutting and etc. needs to be felt more and made
weightier. Some characters are there but aren't used enough and it
feels almost like they wanted only to tell one story but someone told
them they had to have side stories so they tried shoving them in
without giving proper care to develop them. Honestly, after the third
episode, I have no idea where this show is going. Of course Chace is
going to try to get his money back but... is that it? Hmph!
Should
you be watching? Isn't that clear already? Look, I'd actually like to
see this show survive because I enjoy the cast for some reason and
really think they have the potential for something good or even
great, but I also understand that people are busy and don't have time
for something that feels like it lacks vision. Blood and Oil are two
very thick liquids. I hope the producers and writers can stop trying
to look through them and see them for what they have the potential to
be.
What
do you think? Am I being too much of a roughneck on the show and this
is one of your favorite Sunday night shows? Have you seen the show?
If so, how do you think Cody and her husband are going to fair in
North Dakota? Let me know in the comments below.
Check
out my new comedy novel Yep,
I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-boyfriend.
#AhStalking
If
you’re looking for Halloween scares check #AFuriousWind,
#DARKER,
#BrandNewHome
or
#ThePowerOfTen.
For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check
out #TheWriter.
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Until next time, “there's oil in dem
dere hills!"
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