It's tough to watch this as it looks NOTHING like ND. The people, the way they portray the city, etc., why couldn't they be more true to life of the scenery, people, culture of ND? Plus, mountains... seriously? We are the great plains state ... flat as can be with a touch of badlands (which are not mountains), and a few buttes. I'm trying to get into this show, but it's hard when the details of ND is so far fetched.
shareI completely agree with you! There are plenty of small towns and open spaces they could have used to film in ND but instead they use some town in Utah?! I do not understand why they did not come to the area and get to know the people either. There are so many things that happened over the last decade that would have made for great TV. The potential is there but they completely ignored it.
shareI lived in Minot for 10 years and couldn't agree more!!!
Because of this show, I'll bet that North Dakota is going to get some disgruntled tourists next year looking for those beautiful snow covered mountains and lush forests!
shareI honestly dont think people think that this part of ND is like this…lol….Its been glossed up for tv, of course, and to get some ratings….and viewers ( 18-32) typically dont want to see regualr people on the screen….I focus on the oil business side of it….not on the athenticity of the locale…but I understand. Various shows have portrayed OKC as a hick town and far from it….in some areas…but we are used to it.
Surely, most people realize that they are not mountains in ND…
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat”…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crqnn3C87Ko
You'd be surprised how little people know. The reason this was filmed in Park City, UT is because Park City has a film studio and the state of Utah pays incentives to film companies. Since the studio opened in the past year, three TV series have been shot entirely in Park City. The other two are on HBO.
shareIt's almost like one of the conditions of the film credit is that you frame every scene with craggy snowcapped peaks ... of which ND has exactly "zero".
As a geologist who knows people in the oil business, I find this kind of neglect for geographic/geomorphic accuracy kind of offensive, but then that's Hollywood.
If they'd just driven a little bit east, hey could have gotten the intermontane scenery of the Green River Basin [not as lush as ND, but just as ranch-y and flat,] but I guess that either would've cost too much, taken too much work, or both ..
Not to mention, people who think there's no snow on Christmas
shareI'll tell you why. The focus groups at ABC deemed ND not sexy enough to film at. They decided that flat land without skyscrapers would be ratings poison. They needed scenery and looked for whoever had the right tax incentives. The beancounters also figured that offending ND viewers was an acceptable loss if it got the rest of the country to watch. Clearly, that didn't work, but that's how shows are made. They'll cut off a foot to save a leg.
THE ONLY CRITIC WHO CAN REVIEW WHILE JOGGING:
http://bit.ly/1pPzoBc
its a work of fiction get over it already.
sharerammur65, The oil boom happened. It was real. It was fast. It was dirty. If you are going to set a show on a real life town and what happened in real life is far more interesting than the crap you make up about it, then you should expect to get criticism. Get over it already.
shareI also live in North Dakota and the inaccuracy of the geography was too distracting. There was zero attempt to have it remotely resemble the state. Could have at least picked plains somewhere.
share