Oh, the poor Cutter family. They are just regular Joes who happen to be in the oil business in Ohio.
They discovered oil 30 years ago on the Ohio family farm, but aren’t really in it anymore.
Now with big oil taking over the local farms, the Cutters — or make that one Cutter, a son named CJ — wants to get back in the oil game big time, using half a million in family funds to do it. Or maybe he just wants to be a reality star.
Either way, he comes off in “Blood and Oil” as such a boring reality-fake — spouting such fake dialogue that he will make you root for Goliath to win this fight.
The whole setup is insulting. For example, when CJ’s sister, Kristin, is away, CJ sneaks giant, heavy equipment and a 100-foot-high rig to drill in her backyard, supposedly without her knowledge. I guess no permits are required in Ohio.
When Kristin returns, despite her backyard being totally destroyed — and a drill already boring hundreds of feet down — she only says, “He better hit oil in my backyard because if he doesn’t I’m gonna wring his neck.” Puleeeeze.
With his horrible expository dialog to his brother, Josh (“See that well there? We gotî s–t out of it since we bought it”) and explaining family history thatJosh already knows, CJ is creating fake tough-guy TV situations. Towards the end of tonight’s episode, for example, he hears that people are inside the old family farmhouse and are stealing scrap metal.
Are we supposed to believe that the “thieves” don’t notice the giant drilling operation or the TV cameras?
Does CJ call the cops? No — he leaves his sister’s backyard drilling operation with a wrench to beat the guys up. Thing is, he leaves in the dark, drives the few acres and it’s daylight and then he chases intruders in the dark and crushes their truck with the bulldozer that wasn’t there before — in daylight. Then, for good measure, he crushes the farmhouse and sets it on fire in the dark.
When his mother arrives, she says she wishes he hadn’t destroyed family history. What?
Meantime, we know nothing about the “star.” Is CJ married? Does he have kids? Does he exist when he’s not acting out and pretending to be real?
He’s so fake, and takes viewers for such morons, that you’ll be pulling for the Saudi oil interests.