Blood and Oil Preview: First Look at ABC’s New Family Drama

Oil seekers are striking it right in North Dakota in the series premiere of Oil and one such pair hoping to find riches is young married couple Billy and Cody Lefever, who are hoping to start their first laundromat. The growing boomtown of Winslow, ND has 100% employment with oilrig jobs paying $100/per hour. The whole town is like a modern-day Wild West and Sheriff Tip Hamilton — whose department is understaffed as the crime rate is rising — can’t control a town full of roughnecks, grifters and newly made millionaires with cash to burn on anything.

The town’s wealthiest and most powerful man is Hap Briggs.  This iconic self-made billionaire oil tycoon is married to Carla Briggs. Together, they have the inside track on everything oil, turning that world to their advantage.  This power couple is out to charm Oil And Gas Commissioner, Myron Stipple, a Mormon and not easily seduced by the decadence of the Briggs’ lifestyle. Meanwhile, Hap’s children, Wick (Scott Michael Foster) and Lacey, have their challenges with stepmother Carla, but it is Wick’s complicated relationship with his successful father that leads to the ultimate showdown between father and son. In the pilot, Hap cuts Wick off and Wick’s response is to build his own Cowboy Mafia from scratch to defy his father. Hap’s daughter, Lacey, is on the opposite side of the oil business: a fracktivist. She’s a bleeding-heart environmentalist and her priority is to stop the drilling before it destroys the land, which includes sacred Native American burial grounds the oil is buried two miles under.

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Billy and Cody’s dreams are derailed right from the jump when their truck is hit and their washers and dryers are destroyed.  But oil fever is contagious, and after hearing a tip, they leverage everything they have to make a last-ditch play to be become part of the boom, putting them squarely in bed with the Briggs family, way over their heads.

Blood and Oil will air on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

Clarissa is Managing Editor at ScreenFad and former Managing Editor of TVOvermind. A lover of genre shows (like Supernatural and Arrow) and quality dramas (like The Good Wife and Homeland), Clarissa provides on set and event coverage as well as news, spoilers and reviews for all things TV and movies. Follow her at @clarissa373 or email her at clarissa @ screenfad.com.