Fall TV Shows: ‘Blood And Oil’ Proves ‘Sometimes You Have To Play Dirty To Get Filthy Rich’

Fall TV shows will be premiering shortly. Needless to say, network television has finally discovered they are going to have to change the way they play the game to try and win back viewers that cable has been stealing. Blood and Oil is ABC’s answer to that on Sunday nights in the fall.

Blood and Oil has a healthy mix of things most viewers are asking for. Don Johnson fills the roll of the classic television star doing what he can to stay on top. Johnson plays self-made oil tycoon Hap Briggs. Briggs is looking for new land to push his stock up amid all of the wanna-be drillers looking to hit it rich in the North Dakota oil boom. Briggs will step on anyone he can to remain on top.

Chance Crawford and Rebecca Rittenhouse are the too-hot-to-be-here young couple who are just looking for a better life. They borrow money from their friends and set out North to find their millions. If the promo that Entertainment Weekly premiered this week is any indication, Blood and Oil is sure to feature a lot more than oil fields.

The big question on most critics minds is ‘Can Blood and Oil emulate what cable shows are doing on network television?’ According to Collider, the pilot has promise, but the pilot may not be enough to hold viewers attention.

“Blood & Oil is another attempt by a big four network to mimic the quality of a niche cable show (all the talk of land deals, indigenous populations & political minutiae brought to mind later seasons of Deadwood).”

The review goes on to talk about the promise the cast has, but it also mentioned it wasn’t until the last 15 minutes that things started getting interesting.

“The show’s too broad to ever fully hit the quality metric to which it aspires, lying in a weird middle ground of just not quite good enough. There’s something here though – between Johnson’s magnetic charms, the rich location and the darker network aesthetics – it all suggest the potential for a show far greater than its pilot. Whether or not the show will have time to find its legs or will falter under the soapy tropes that have defined ABC remains to be seen. But as a pilot itself, it remains a curiosity – an ill-fitting square in a circular network hole.”

Blood and Oil is set to premiere Sunday, September 27, just after Once Upon a Time. Blood and Oil will spend most of the first season fighting for second place with the likes of The Good Wife on CBS and Family Guy on Fox. NBC should have the number one spot locked up through Christmas with Sunday Night Football.

What do you think of Blood and Oil? Is it one of the fall TV shows you are looking for, or do you think this is destined to be short lived. At the moment, there is just a 13 episode order for it.