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 The series, which premieres on Sunday, tracks a young couple
played by Chace Crawford and Rebecca Rittenhouse who aim to open
a laundromat in burgeoning Rock Springs, a fictional oil
boomtown based on real-life Williston.
After a setback and in desperate need of cash, Crawford's
character engineers a land deal that gives him financial
leverage over the local oil tycoon and his wife, played by Don
Johnson and Amber Valletta.
"We were really interested in the modern-day version of the 1849
gold rush, in that theme of boom and bust" Josh Pate, the show's
co-creator, told Reuters.
The series explores many common challenges of North Dakota's oil
boom, including the lack of affordable housing, get-rich-quick
deals and the rise in crime.
Crawford's character deposits a $1.1 million check at a local
bank in the first episode, a step that seems unrealistic to most
Americans but a common occurrence here at one time.
"They say the first million is the hardest," Crawford's
character tells the bank teller, a reference to oil tycoon T.
Boone Pickens.
Johnson's character was based in part on legendary wildcatter
Harold Hamm, the founder of North Dakota's second-largest oil
producer, Continental Resources Inc.
"I've known a lot of guys like Harold Hamm that are riverboat
gamblers," said Johnson, best known for his role in the 1980s
police series "Miami Vice." "I used that to help create my
character, who is a master at this game."
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The show further mirrors real life with mentions of the Mandan
American Indian tribe and oilfield service provider Halliburton Co.
Valletta's character takes a dig at a "weasely VP at Goldman" Sachs,
who, fictitiously, helps ascertain the state's true oil potential.
Not everything about the series reflects real life, however.
"Blood & Oil" was not filmed in flat North Dakota, but mountainous
Utah, making its promotional material the subject of ridicule
throughout the oil patch, where snow-capped peaks are nowhere to be
found, undermining the show's credibility with locals. Pate said the
decision was taken for "creative and logistical" reasons.
Many have forecast the recent drop in oil prices as a bad omen for
North Dakota, which produces about 1.4 percent of the world's oil
each day, but that doesn't bother the show's creative team.
"Even the downturn happening now is fodder for future seasons," said
Pate.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Alan
Crosby)
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