ABC’s Blood & Oil premiered Sunday night, filling the void left behind by other ABC dramas like Revenge (RIP). The show is pretty harmless fun, the enjoyable sudsy series ABC is known for on Sunday nights.
But despite B&O’s original premise involving a young couple moving to North Dakota during America’s greatest oil boom, this show’s writers clearly have watched their share of Days of Our Lives and General Hospital. The first episode is riddled with soap opera cliches.
A car accident for no apparent reason.
En route to their dream of opening a laundromat in North Dakota (yes, really), Cody (Rebecca Rittenhouse) and Billy (Chace Crawford) suddenly get into an accident, throwing all of their laundromat essentials into the air!
Were one of those truck drivers in the wrong? Or was Billy stupidly traveling down a two-lane road in the wrong direction? We’ll never know.
Sex on a stack of money!
Wick Briggs (Scott Michael Foster) and Jules Jackman (India de Beaufort) figure out the exchange rate right on the table!
The Evil Father Figure
Think of Don Johnson’s Hap Briggs as the Victor Kiriakis of the show, for you Days of Our Lives fans. He’s the most powerful man in town. . .and possibly the most evil?
Cody’s not feeling well. . .
As soon as Cody said she had been feeling sick lately, I hoped/prayed she wasn’t going to be pregnant. Not because I’m against these two kids becoming parents (although I am), but the pregnancy was so obvious, and I was hoping for something a little more original (given the unique setting).
Another accident for no apparent reason (same person)
After Billy wheels and deals to get a piece of land, he races to the owner’s house to provide payment, crashing his car almost immediately. And this guy wants to use the land to put a “car wash” on it.
Man carrying the woman across the threshold
Soap opera couples always do this.