TV Review: Blood and Oil Series Premiere “Pilot”

“Blood and Oil” premiered this Sunday on primetime and my verdict is that it has potential to grow.

Am I saying this just because I want to continue seeing Chace Crawford’s beautiful face on my TV screen? Maybe. Just kidding, I really do think it’s a show that we should give a chance. I do have my complaints about it but I would like to think these can be worked out.

“Blood and Oil” is about a young married couple Billy (Chace Crawford) and Cody (Rebecca Rittenhouse) LeFever who are looking for success, their last name actually suits them extremely well. They have invested all of their money (and their family and friends’) into washing machines to build a laundry mat in Williston, North Dakota, the city where because of the biggest oil discovery in American history, it is booming. But on their way they have a car accident where all of their future is destroyed to pieces…literally. So, they’re left with nothing except ambition and pride to continue to strive for success.

Williston is more expensive than they ever expected and they end up staying in a tent-like “hotel” room where they befriend a very nice Nigerian couple. They quickly learn that the town is basically run by the big oil tycoon power couple Hap Briggs (Don Johson) and Carla (Amber Valleta), his wife. Hap has a reckless and overtly spoiled son, Wick (Scott Michael Foster).

Billy was able to land a job digging mud for the Briggs oil company but Wick did a great job of getting him fired and banned from the company on his first day. Wick also gets disowned by Hap, as he’s tired of having to clean up his grown son’s mess time and time again. Cody is understandably freaked out about Billy losing his job. It’s terrible timing as she’s just found she’s pregnant. Thankfully, Cody at least had picked up a job at the local pharmacy where she was able to over hear about a coveted piece of land that’s being sold, a piece of land that Briggs is desperate for.

Billy knows he’s under pressure to provide for his now growing family and so he begins to make moves and borrows thousands of dollars left and right in order to take a risk and buy the coveted piece of land to resell to Briggs basically for whatever price he wants. This is what I liked about Billy’s character, he’s risky, he’s daring to the point of almost being irrational. It shows that he’s willing to do anything, for better or for worse…which can make for an exciting rest of the season. What I love even more is that Cody is by his side no matter what. When they bargained with Hap and Carla it was such a double power couple scene.

Clearly Hap and Carla see a little bit of themselves in Billy and Cody and it will be interesting to see if this new partnership/mentorship will work out. Going off the little we’ve seen it seems the Briggs have taken Billy and Cody under their wing. Meanwhile, Wick is acting like a teenager full of angst. Which makes sense since it seems he has the emotional age of one. He plans to steal oil from his own father in retaliation but it goes awfully wrong when the Happs arrive with Billy and Cody and stumble upon the robbery.

Gun wrestling in oil is involved. As we all know, ammunition and oil doesn’t go together very well. The episode ends on a great cliffhanger!

There aren’t huge exciting things that happened during this pilot episode and at first I was confused about what time period it was set in until I saw Billy pull out a cellphone.

So why do I feel that it has potential?

Well, because I enjoyed that this episode took the time to establish the setting of Williston and what goes on there as well as the characters that we will be dealing with. You were able to grasp the love that Billy and Cody have for another and the type of people they are when they invest in their neighbour’s restaurant venture as a way to repay them for their kind hospitality.

I’m definitely intrigued to find out more about the Briggs, especially Carla.

Here’s to hoping that Blood and Oil makes it among a slew of new TV shows. It’s different from any other show that’s on right now, and that is refreshing.

Rating: 6.5/10