Bloodline (Netflix 2015, Kyle Chandler, Ben Mendelsohn)

Set in the Florida Keys, Bloodline centers on a close-knit family of four adult siblings whose secrets and scars are revealed when their black sheep brother returns home.

Bloodline is a brilliantly made series full of fine performances and scripts. When the series opens the Rayburn’s are seemingly the perfect family, a vital part of the community and getting ready to have a pier named in their honour. But then Danny returns and as the episodes unfold everything begins to unravel. Danny is genuinely a loose cannon who seemingly can’t make up his mind whether he wants revenge on his family for past wrongs or whether he wants to take the chance to start again.

The first season ends in truly shocking style which carries massive repercussions throughout the whole second season. Mysterious strangers from Danny’s past arrive with a dangerous agenda. The hole that the Rayburn family have dug themselves into gets deeper and deeper. And the tight-knit family’s once harmonious family dynamic is poisoned by paranoia and mistrust as it slowly begins to unravel. Lies mount. Alliances are betrayed. Relationship are destroyed. The excellent poster for the first season.

There was a third and final season in May 2017 which will bring Beau Bridge’s sinister Roy Gilbert (who appeared in the second half of season two and is clearly a lynchpin of the badness that is going on in the area) very much to the fore.

Opening narration: Sometimes you know something’s coming. You can feel it. In the air. In your gut. And you don’t sleep at night. The voice in your head is telling you that something is going to go terribly wrong and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. That’s how I felt when my brother came home.”

From Netflix’s press release, April 2017…  They’re not bad people, but they did a bad thing… and then a few dozen more. And that will most certainly continue as the Rayburns reach the end of their morally-ambiguous journey in the 10-episode final season of Bloodline, launching Friday, May 26, everywhere Netflix is available. Ben Mendelsohn as Danny and Sissy Spacek as Sally.

production details
USA / Netflix – Sony Pictures Television – KZK Productions / 23×60 minute episodes / Release dates: 20 March 2015 (season 1), 27 May 2016 (season 2)

Creators and Executive Producers: Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, Daniel Zelman / Executive Producers: Chris Mundy, Michael Morris, David Manson, Mark A. Baker / Theme Music: The Water Lets You In by Book of Fears

cast
Kyle Chandler as John Rayburn
Ben Mendelsohn as Danny Rayburn
Linda Cardellini as Meg Rayburn
Norbert Leo Butz as Kevin Rayburn
Jacinda Barrett as Diana Rayburn
Enrique Murciano as Marco Diaz
Sam Shepard as Robert Rayburn
Sissy Spacek as Sally Rayburn
Katie Finneran as Belle Rayburn
John Leguizamo as Ozzy Delvecchio (season 2)
Andrea Riseborough as Evangeline Radosevich (season 2)
Chloë Sevigny as Chelsea O’Bannon
Steven Pasquale as Alec Moros
Mia Kirshner as Sarah Rayburn
Angela Winiewicz as Young Sarah
Brandon Larracuente as Ben Rayburn
Taylor Rouviere as Janie Rayburn
Glenn Morshower as Wayne Lowry
Gino Vento as Rafi Quintana
Eliezer Castro as Carlos Mejia
Bill Kelly as Clay Grunwald
Jeremy Palko as Nicholas Widmark
Frank Hoyt Taylor as Lenny Potts
Owen Teague as Nolan Rayburn (also plays young Danny in flashbacks)
Beau Bridges as Roy Gilbert (from season 2)
David Zayas as Sheriff Aguirre (season 2)