Sorry I'm not a gifted writer in anyway or form, please don't let any thing I say below dissuade you from watching this amazing series. The five best first seasons ever in my not so humble opinion:
1) "Homeland"- one major miss on a plot point or this might have been the greatest season of television ever.
2) "Bloodline"- through 10 episodes, it still has a chance to surpass "Homeland" for this reviewer
3) "Lost"- don't let the bloated final seasons distract you from what an amazing first season it had.
4) "Broadchurch"- Again the finale wasn't as good as it could have been, but still an amazing season.
5) "The Missing"- an incredibly heartbreaking season about the loss of a child, obsession, paranoia and losing one's mind.
The "Bloodline" trailer featuring Lissie's take on Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters":
"Bloodline" was released on Netflix on March 20th, 2015. All 13 episodes were made available at the same time. That has both it's good and bad points and some of those qualities works both ways. For instance, I love having 13 episodes available at once for the ability to binge. However that's also a bad thing, because when I binge a lot is lost. The main thing I lose is the opportunity to think about and try to come to my own conclusions about what really is going on. That's why I've done my best to limit myself to one episode a day.
A brief recap and introduction:
"Bloodline" tells the story of the Rayburns, a family of 7 living in the Florida Keys. Second oldest son, and the only well adjusted son is John. He's played by the always great Kyle Chandler, narrates the story about why his family did the "bad thing". John is the local sheriff and Rayburn family protector. At the start of episode 10, John says he's almost done with his story. When he's done with the story then we can judge his family.
In one of the early episodes, maybe even the first one, we see the Rayburns decide to kill oldest brother, Danny. (Danny is played by Ben Mendelsohn, who I don't remember seeing anything he's been in. But he's fantastic in this series.) We don't know exactly why they want to kill him, at that point we don't necessarily even agree with that decision. Danny is the black sheep of the family and has at least some responsibility for the death of another sibling, Sarah. Her death put him at odds with his Dad, Robert, played by Sam Shepherd. Strangely enough that death seemed to bring Danny closer to his Mom, the very good Sissy Spacek.
In the first episode we see Danny taking a bus to the Florida Keys. He's talking to a woman, who we believe is real, because we can see her. She asks him "did he write something for tonight?" To which he replies "this was a bad idea". (meaning coming home.) He gets off the bus and imaginary Sarah stays as on the bus as it leaves. Except at that point we didn't realize that she was just a figment of his imagination. He sees a newspaper about a dedication ceremony for his parents, for whatever reason that seems to have prompted him to go home.
While Danny has lived a lot of time away from the family. All the rest of the family has stayed close to home and the family business, the Rayburn Inn. Danny keeps on appearing and disappearing from the family home over the past several years. Danny's siblings are conflicted about him being around the family. They try to be there for him, but they maintain a wary distance. He has a very contentious relationship with his Dad, but on the other hand he's a Momma's boy. The mysterious death of Sarah, and the details surrounding it, slowly dribble out explaining that dynamic.
Hopefully that brief two paragraph story outline will explain the following thoughts.
Last night I watched episode 10. No episode has a title, other than which part it is. Episode 10 is a game changer. It completely changes our perception of oldest brother Danny. At first we thought he was a bit dumb and had a run of bad luck. But now we see Danny in a whole new light, and that light isn't very flattering. It took everything I had to not watch Season One's last 3 episodes, because I really wanted to know what happens. However since I didn't I had a lot of thoughts about the show, the thoughts may be completely wrong but I love stretching my brain. For me a lot of the joy of the show is enhanced when I have adequate time to think about it. I like being completely wrong, completely right and constantly surprised in a good way.
In the following paragraph are some of the thoughts I had since watching Part 10.
Danny is clever and of all the siblings is the least invested in the family business. That makes him very dangerous. At this point he seems he wants to destroy the family and the 50 year old family business. But what's murky is what exactly is he trying to do and why? He seems to love his mother, but is that just part of the charade. John, being a cop, immeadiately puts him at odds with Danny. Probably more for his mother's sake than anything else, John is trying to do right by Danny. Although Danny has no thought to do the same. From being the sheriff John knows that the DEA is going to come down on the criminal operation that Danny is part of soon. John goes to his brother and informs him of that, John says he'll do what he could do to make the punishment as little as possible.
Danny uses his cleverness for self gain, he takes the information he got from his brother and betrayed John. He tipped off the boss of the criminal enterprise and someone else took the brunt of the betrayal. Then Danny, using leverage he has to possibly destroy the family business, does visit John at the police station. He confesses part of what he has done, but once John finds out about the betrayal he proceeds as if nothing had happened. Danny tells John that he's now calling the shots. John's response is priceless and we are so behind him.
The lone surviving sister is Meg, who's a lawyer. She's becoming suspicious of Danny and his low level associate Carlos. Meg was able to get Carlos off from a criminal charge, which brought him into Danny's world. Meg is engaged to Marco, another cop, and they are planning their wedding. Although after a revelation Meg shared with Marco, we have no idea whether that marriage will occur. But thanks to flash forwards we see the deceased Danny being carried by John. They are both wearing the suits they were being fitted for in episode 10 for Meg's wedding.
In this episode we find out more details about the death of Sarah, explaining Sally's bond with Danny. It makes us feel much more sympathetic for Danny and his hard luck life. But the clever and greedy Danny only uses that sympathy to take further advantage.
So one of the thoughts is the women he's talking to on the bus, is that his dead sister that only he can see. John was doing some investigating, he talked to a former girlfriend. The former girlfriend stated that she had caught Danny talking to a Sarah, but when she went to check up on him no one else was there. Is this ex-girlfriend part of the scam or was Danny using her to build a back story? We also see Danny sending money to someone, I'm guessing more than one someone. He seems to be sending money to himself. But he also writes notes on some of the packets about "more being on the way".
So was this whole thing an elaborate con, as Sawyer from "Lost" would say a long con. Danny and Sawyer remind me so much of each other in how they deal with the world.
I'm fighting so hard right now to not go watch the final 3 episodes and I know I'll be fighting later to not consume all 3 episodes in one setting. "Bloodline" is a much watch for anyone that likes high quality, smart and extremely entertaining stories.
The above is still true, but sadly episode 11 wasn't one of this show's best episodes. Too much of dropping Danny off the bus stop and then Danny deciding not to go anywhere. Too much sleight of hand indicating one thing would happen, but then something else completely happened. Also too many flashbacks of the day that Sarah died and how she died. Those scenes advance the story just a bit, but not enough. They could have cut out some fat and only had 12 amazing episodes- I'm guessing the 11th episode is a bridge episode to an explosive finale. Although we already knows a lot of what's going to happen, we just don't know how.
themusicaddict
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