Another Netflix Original is vying for our attention and it’s a brooding beast called BLOODLINE.
With alarming regularity I hear the question ‘do you have Netflix?’ leaving my mouth. I also often say things like, ‘Oh, if you have Netflix you just have to watch [insert new Netflix show here]’. I’m genuinely surprised that friends and/or loved ones haven’t yet told me I’m a pretentious plank, ‘Put a sock in it! [Insert new Netflix show here] sounds just as boring as you are!’ I’m becoming a walking, talking Spoiler Alert, much like the tiresome twerp in that hilarious PORTLANDIA skit (you can find it on YouTube if you search ‘Portlandia Spoiler Alert’)… and the ironic thing about that reference is that I first watched that hilarious PORTLANDIA skit on… you guessed it; Netflix. So, now you know that I’m a Netflix junkie, I’m going to ask you… ‘Do you have Netflix?’ Then I’m going to follow that question with, ‘if so, watch BLOODLINE.’
BLOODLINE opens with a narration, honest and foreboding, “Sometimes you know something’s coming. You can feel it in the air, in your gut. A voice in your head is telling you that something’s about to go terribly wrong and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. That’s how I felt when my brother came home.” Now that’s what I call setting the tone…
The gruff voice is that of John Rayburn (Kyle Chandler) a detective born, bred and working in the tropics of The Florida Keys. The brother he speaks of is his senior, Danny Rayburn (Ben Mendelsohn), who is returning home to the white sands and coconut palms amongst which their parents, Robert (Sam Shepard) and Sally (Sissy Spacek) Rayburn, run an oceanfront guest house.
The blissful landscape acts as a perfect counterpoint for the dark secrets that the Rayburn family are hiding; where has Danny been? Why are his siblings, the aforementioned John as well as younger sister Meg (Linda Cardellini) and youngest brother Kevin (Norbert Leo Butz), simmering with resentment towards him? Tropical storms threaten as the family politics are explored with brooding melodrama; BLOODLINE proves slow-burning and enrapturing.
But this is perhaps no surprise. BLOODLINE is created by the writing/production trio of Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman from DAMAGES fame; that psychological legal thriller was sophisticated and engrossing therefore BLOODLINE comes from bloody good stock. The two shows sharing DNA is particularly apparent when BLOODLINE racks up the tension by flashing forward to pertintently dramatic events, an effective device also used in DAMAGES. Both shows too boast quite wonderful casts; DAMAGES benefitted from the talents of the inimitable Glenn Close and lovely Rose Byrne, where BLOODLINE has the relatable Kyle Chandler but most importantly, dominating proceedings… Ben Mendelsohn. Mendelsohn plays Danny Rayburn, the eldest son, returning wanderer, with utter malevolence and inscrutability at times and complete vulnerability and heartbreak at others. It is an outstandingly compelling performance without ever being jarringly overdramatic. And BLOODLINE, at it’s core, is about Danny Rayburn and how he’s effected the family with his actions in the past and how he will shape the future of the Rayburns with his actions in the present. Danny’s fate is the whole thrust of the 13 episode series.
And that, unfortunately, may be where viewers are lost. BLOODLINE is painstaking in its exploration of the characters psyches and the tension between each of the Rayburn family therefore its pace is snail-like. 13 episodes at 59 minutes each is a huge commitment and only viewers with the required patience will reach the payoff in the penultimate and final episodes. But if you get there, oh if you get there, it is incredibly dramatic and shocking. A second season has been confirmed and it will be fascinating to see where BLOODLINE goes from here.
So, another success for Netflix hot on the heels of HOUSE OF CARDS, BETTER CALL SAUL and the like; they really are smashing out of the park with alarming regularity which must have other networks quaking in their boots. In the upcoming months there is MARVEL’S DAREDEVIL, Jane Fonda vehicle GRACE AND FRANKIE and SENSE8 penned by The Wachowskis (yes, THE MATRIX writers!) so Netflix’s reign of terror is set to continue long into 2015. Maybe, just maybe, it’s not such a bad thing to be a Netflix junkie after all.
BLOODLINE is available to watch on Netflix now.
