Two oil-boom soap operas, then and now

When word got out a year or so ago that a nighttime television drama about the Bakken oil boom was in the works, there was reason to be optimistic. TV-land has changed a lot since the last oil boom dramas, Dallas and Dynasty, were on the air. Reality shows have us demanding more authenticity — or at least the illusion of it — from the tube, and critically acclaimed hits like Breaking Bad and Mad Men have raised the bar, quality-wise, as well. Would it be too much to hope for a Bakken Bad, Fracking Bad or Land Men — a smart, well-acted exploration of the dark side of the oil boom?

Apparently that would be too much to ask. ABC’s Blood & Oil has about half of its first season under its belt and, well, it’s not exactly The Sopranos. It looks a lot more like its 1980s-era, Colorado-based predecessor, Dynasty.

There are eerie parallels between the two shows, including the overarching theme of upward mobility via oil. In Dynasty, Krystle Jennings, a secretary at a refinery, is set to marry Blake Carrington, Denver oil tycoon (and owner of said refinery) at the outset of the 1980s oil boom. Meanwhile, Blood & Oil’s Billy and Cody LeFever are headed to North Dakota to open up a laundromat in the oilfields and make it rich. After a pair of oil rigs run them and their washing machines off the road, the LeFevers team up with oil tycoon Hap Briggs. Both Jennings and the LeFevers are thus drawn into the dramas of the wealthy, imbued with sex, familial tension and violence (though, notably, no cocaine or meth).

In other words, both Blood & Oil and Dynasty are mere soap operas in a petroleum-soaked setting. Dynasty admirably taps into the Zeitgeist of the '80s, at least in the first episode. Carrington’s company is booted out of an unnamed Middle Eastern country, and there are several exchanges about the need for energy independence. Even Ralph Nader earns a mention. Carrington could be seen as a proxy for Ronald Reagan, who had just been elected president, and Carrington’s bright, sensitive son, Steven, as a stand-in for Jimmy Carter. “Why aren’t you out building windmills and turning Corn Flakes into gasahol?” Carrington says to Steven, bitingly, after Steven accuses his father of unethical business practices.

Blood & Oil, on the other hand, veers away from politics, except for when Darla, Briggs’ wife, manipulates the Mormon oil commissioner into handing over some secret U.S. Geological Survey report by promising him the governorship, and thus the power to approve an LDS temple right there in North Dakota.

We sat down and watched the first two episodes of each show, so you don’t have to. Here’s how they matched up.

	Dynasty	Blood & Oil
Original Working Title	Oil	Oil
Conceit/Plot	Krystle Jennings (Linda Evans), climbs socioeconomic ladder by marrying Denver oil tycoon, Blake Carrington.	Billy and Cody LeFever hope to climb socioeconomic ladder by opening a laundromat in the oil patch.
Sendoff	For her bridal shower gifts, Krystle receives a riding crop (symbolizing her move to the upper classes) and The Joy of Sex.	At the LeFevers' going away party we learn that their laundromat seed money comes from friends and family.
Patriarch	Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) is an aristocrat, who spends his time in his Denver high-rise corporate office, his palatial estate or in the back of his limousine, on his mobile phone! In 1981!	Hap Briggs, a.k.a. "The Mayor of the Bakken" (Don Johnson), is the son of a dirt farmer and a self-made millionaire who drives his own SUV.
Setting	Denver during the late-'70s/early-'80s oil boom, ignited by the Energy Crises of the '70s.	The 2007-14 "shale revolution," ignited by high oil prices and new drilling and fracking techniques, in the fictional town of Rock Springs, North Dakota, in the Bakken oil patch.
Geographical Faux Pas	Dynasty's scene-setting shots are in Denver and the Colorado Front Range mountains. But most of the show is filmed in Southern California.	The North Dakota of Blood & Oil is suspiciously mountainous; it was mostly filmed in Utah.
The Good/Bad Wife	Krystle is kind and intimidated by her newfound wealth ("I was raised in a town smaller than your living room"). Evans is 24 years younger than Forsythe.	Darla (Amber Valletta) is scheming and power-hungry. Valletta is 25 years younger than Johnson.
Oedipus Complex	Carrington is disappointed in his son Steven because he's educated but jobless. Worse, Steven's gay, leading to this Carrington monologue: "I’m about as Freudian as you could hope for in a capitalist exploiter of the business class ... I understand about sublimation. I understand how you hid sexual dysfunction behind hostility toward a father…”	Briggs is disappointed in his son, Wick, because Wick dropped out of college and is jobless. Briggs forces Wick to push mud on a rig. Wick gets revenge by stealing oil from one of Briggs' tankers. "The next time I'm proud of you will be the first."
Daughterly Rebellion	Falen feels like Carrington, her father, treats her like a bargaining chip. So she sleeps with the chauffer.	Lacey doesn't like her stepmother, Darla. So she sleeps with the driver.
Geology Quote	“I’m a geologist. I make holes in the ground. I’m not paid to set foreign policy ... But I’d say we’d damned well better start drilling for oil over here, a little deeper and a little faster." -- Matthew Blaisdale.	Hap: “That plot’s been drilled harder than a Tulsa whore.” Darla: “The old wells didn’t go deep enough.”
The Lover	Krystle pines for ruggedly handsome Blaisdale, Carrington's geologist. Blaisdale, though has been busy drilling in the Middle East, and then caring for his daughter and mentally ill wife.	Hap is sleeping with his son's love interest, Jules Jackman (India de Beaufort, who wasn't even born when Johnson played a vice-cop in Miami). Jackman is a loan shark, real estate agent, bar owner and bartender.
Fashion	Shoulder pads and hair! Fur! Conservative suits, narrow ties and hair! Noticeable dearth of bolo ties and cowboy boots. But the hair!	North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp said it best in a tweet: "Anyone who's been to Williston knows there are a lot more steel-toed boots and a lot less cocktail attire." And then there are the trendy running shoes: Hap Briggs is spotted wearing a pair of Hoka One Ones in one scene.
Architectural Faux Pas	Carrington's sprawling estate is so obviously not in Colorado that it's painful. It's more likely that he would have lived in a house like the Briggs'.	Briggs lives in a giant Park City-esque ski-lodge of a house. Jackman, meanwhile, lives in an exposed-brick, urban loft/warehouse style apartment. Really?
Boom/Bust	Dynasty started its run in 1981, just as the U.S. oil boom was ramping up. But the boom busted catastrophically in 1986, and ratings plummeted along with the rig count. The show ended in 1989.	Blood & Oil was first conceived of in 2011, during the height of the boom. By the time it hit the air this summer, the boom had decidedly busted, no less severely than in the mid-1980s. The script hasn't caught up with the changing economics.
What It Gets Right	The push for energy independence via drilling at home during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Steven tells his father: "You didn’t develop this country’s resources when you had a chance. You developed the Arabian fields because it was cheaper."	The exorbitantly high housing costs in the North Dakota oil patch. “Around here you either have two jobs or two houses," says Jackman.

Jonathan Thompson is a senior editor of High Country News. Follow @jonnypeace

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