50 best television shows set across the United States
By Sundi Rose
North Dakota: Blood and Oil
The premise: A young couple moves to a North Dakota boomtown in the hopes of making their fortune on the largest oil reserve discovered in America. Don Johnson plays Hap Briggs, head of the corporate oil company that controls most of the drilling.
The show feels like a far more generic version of the classic, Dallas, and this might be why the show never really got off the ground. It only aired for one season and faced poor critical reception and low ratings.
The setting: The couple, Bill and Cody LeFever arrive in Rock Springs, North Dakota, hoping to stake a claim in the big oil strike. The town is meant to mimic the startup towns during the gold rush in the 19th century. Our protagonists are all wide-eyed and full of hope and optimism, and the town represents this kind of faith in the unknown. Even when things look kinda grim for the LeFevers, they hustle their way into better opportunities.
The most North Dakota thing about it: The fictional town of Rock Springs looks like your typical boom town in the late 1800s. Folks are camped out on the streets, they’re brawling in the mud, and everyone is on the take. It feels dangerous and forbidden, and it resembles the Wild West.