Thinner than Water: 'Blood and Oil''s Shallow Bleakness
What is thicker?
Through the Thinness
Besides consisting of the on-the-nose title, Blood and Oil delivers plenty of revenge, adultery, backstabbing, bickering and soapy situations. The show brings to the fore such themes all in an hour's time. But what sets the show apart from contemporary dramas is the fact that it centers around business. What's sad is that no hero rises from all the fighting and bedding. Yet another series fails to project independent, moral individuals who know how to exploit resources, not people. Producers Pate (Josh and Jonas) brought the show to the air on September 27, 2015. While it looks like it's not headed for The Wire or Breaking Bad territory, it could at least pine for Mad Men status, sans the boardrooms and cinematic departures. But what B&O lacks in character depth and ethics it makes up for in intriguing plots. The storylines and the dynamics such as father and son duo Hap and Wick Briggs (Don Johnson Scott Michael Foster) illustrate the power of casting. Edited conventionally and acted adequately, the show issues a dark sense of life. This darkness only undergirds the negative outlook that the show holds.
And Delroy Lindo's Sheriff Tip Harrison seems forced and out of place. It's as if the producers scrambled to get a Negro to fill a principle cast role. But the women, like Amber Valletta's Carla Briggs, get just as much shine as the men. Carla is a staunch supporter of her husband and the business affairs of the family. Maybe B&O is not a masterpiece of the small screen and maybe it's as thin as thread, but it presents a picture where one wonders which is thicker: the blood or the oil?
