Critic Reviews

[Producers Josh Pate and Cynthia Cidre] keep Blood & Oil living large without quite stumbling over the top. They get a lot of help from their skilled cast, particularly Crawford, who has grown some grit since his pretty-boy heir in Gossip Girl. And Johnson gives his best performance in years.

Blood and Oil, harkens back to the best elements of “Dallas” and “Dynasty.”

It’s confidently economical in its goal of pure, late-night, soapy entertainment.

Blood feels excessively earnest, even in its best attempts to be trashy.... In its current form, Blood is a throwback to a quainter time in primetime soap history, when a simple, well-told story of family intrigue was enough.

The pleasantly fresh setting is the North Dakota oil boom, but the tone is very "Dallas," and the storytelling is as melodramatic as the show's title.

Blood & Oil is not a realistic drama but an out-and-out soap opera.

Hap and Carla are certainly a great-looking couple, standing in the shadow of the North Dakota Rockies. What they're not is a heightened version of Blake and Alexis Colby Carrington, the sort of heights I was really hoping for here.

Well, the play’s the thing in this one, but Johnson is the hammer and tongs. At age 65, he still seems up to the challenge of stirring up this little petroleum potboiler. The kids are all right but he’s the man.

This show will run on poisonous rivalries, hidden agendas, and unbridled ambitions. And something about a Mormon temple. Blood & Oil doesn't dig deep enough.

You see where all of this is going, of course, but no one is out to surprise viewers with Blood and Oil. This is a soap opera. It may not last as long as either “Dallas,” but it’s working the same territory.