That wasn’t the case. In 2023 dollars, the LotR trilogy had a budget of around $513 million, eventually resulting in about 12 hours of finished product. RoP has a budget of about $150m for around 9 hours. So the trilogy spent $42m per hour compared to RoP’s $16m per hour.

You’re talking about the franchise that perfected product placement in the 60s and never looked back.

It should also be pointed out that Germany saying anything at all about foreign military intervention is a big deal, given their longstanding policy against it.

Although the US has spent more on bangs than Europe, which has spent on bangs but also helmets and armour and transport.

Anyone who saw Rings of Power knew this.

Pity SpaceX doesn’t believe it has to obey the law, and thinks it can just buy land and dump waste on it.

When you let anyone make a “TV channel” even when they don’t have a legal team.

I wasn’t particularly impressed by this one. 5/10. Agreed Thornton is the main reason to keep watching.

Predictability

This show exists to promote oil, access the flyover state audience, and to rehabilitate Paramount for the right-wing ahead of a major merger. As such, it is an old-fashioned show where boxes are to be ticked, not to be thought outside of.

You have the brave workers in constant danger, you have the battered cowboy keeping it together, you have the Mexicans playing the role of drug dealers. You have the eye candy by the pool, and just the semblance that “if there was a better way we’d do it”. As if.

So yes, the composition and lighting are pretty, the locations are different, and there’s plenty of scaffolding and machinery to pan slowly across while the music swells. But what do you actually leave with after an hour? Very little.

Wafer-thin characters

Billy-Bob is the dour fixer who knows the real way the world works. He delivers at least one lecture per episode about this, without contradiction or growth. A recurring theme is how oil will always be king, always.

His daughter is, apparently, a tight little butt with a girl attached. Or that’s how every other character and the camera treat them. See the excruciating “comedy” bits with Billy-Bob’s roommate.

His son is an oil worker. He reacts to situations, but doesn’t instigate them. He’s a passive character who only serves to justify the audience being told how Tab A fits into Slot B and why that’s important to make the oil come out.

His ex-ex-wife exists to deliver Quippy innuendos. Curiously, she’s the only character who almost gets development, but that’s quickly swept away and forgotten about.

The company owner is a businessman. He likes money. He owns a pool. He’s often at dinner with other businessmen. Or playing golf. Really breaking the mould here.

The company lawyer is a predictable city-type woman, who is good at what they do (which is apparently still a shock to other characters because were essentially in an 80’s throwback show). She starts out rough but softens up because that’s original.