User reviews

I loved the first 2 seasons of Bloodline. Great story and acting. But WOW!!! season 3 was terrible. I assume the writers did not know what to do to conclude this show. My wife and were so eager for this release but man what a let down. This is my first time to submit a review to IMDb as I tend to just read other reviews. However, I felt compelled to express this opinion. If you have not watched Bloodline yet, my advice is to watch and enjoy seasons 1 & 2 but stay away from this 3rd season.

Bloodline is every bit as good as everyone says it is. I can't say enough about how good the acting was. Ben Mendelsohn and Kyle Chandler give as good as performances as you'll see on a television show. The only negative thing about this show was how bad the ending was. There have been plenty of good shows with bad endings before but this has to be near the top for all-time worst. The show is still a must see but prepare to be disappointed by the finale. It's about a popular Florida family who dark secrets start to come out and make them do things they never thought possible. The story and acting is what makes this show so special. If you give this show a chance you'll most likely become hooked and want to binge it as quickly as possible.

Season 1 is among the best television to ever be made. Season 2 lacks luster and season 3 is a joke.

Luckily season 1 is mostly self contained and can and should be watched as a solo show.

I've wanted to watch Bloodline for the longest time but kept putting it off for other shows for some reason. I finally gave it a chance and I loved it. I'm now mad at myself for putting it off for so long. It starts a little slow for some but stay with it because before you know it you can't stop watching it. Season 3 wasn't quite as good as the first two but it's still worth watching and really only speaks to just how good those first two seasons were. I do have to admit that the ending was just awful. The acting and writing are what makes this show so special. I can't say enough about the entire casts performances, they all do an incredible job and are led by Kyle Chandler, Ben Mendelsohn and Linda Cardelli. Those 3 all give award worthy performances. I know Mendelsohn and Chandler were both nominated every season for an Emmy and Mendelsohn even won an Emmy for best supporting actor. It's a show that's absolutely worth watching!

It took me a long time to start watching Bloodline. I felt I should, because it got such solid reviews, but the description - black sheep brother returns home, did nothing for me.

When I finally started watching it, though, I realized the description didn't in any way convey the intensity of the series.

This is a show about a brother whose homecoming raises old conflicts and causes new ones. The characters are all distinct and real, beautifully written and acted. Ben Mendelsohn is particularly memorable as Danny.

The story is punctuated by flash forwards that are brilliantly put together in the season finale.

Bloodline was designed like a great mini-series. This made the season ending satisfying, but it also meant that things happened that made it harder to make a good season 2. The best character goes and the writers decide to do the worst thing they can do; create a new character that is very similar but inferior. After a couple of episodes I gave up on it.

My recommendation: watch the first season as a mini-series, then stop.

How can you rate 3 seasons when they are so different? I loved the first 2, but the third was really bad. Don't know what happened in production but something must have happened. The third season didn't have any of the qualities and ideas in the first two. Too bad... I'm leaving this on a very bad impression.

Having now watched the complete series in an utterly unstoppable binge I can say without a shadow of a doubt that, for me, this is up there with the greats like True Detective, Breaking Bad and Rectify (to name but a few). Never so much has a show swayed my feelings towards the characters; I had several about faces with regards to my sympathies but it left me feeling that nothing is ever black or white. This is not for those who want a fast pace and constant excitement. The characters are developed slowly and cleverly as is the storyline which keeps you guessing. The cinematography is phenomenal and I bet you will all be wanting to move to The Keys after watching this I do hope they make a follow up series, however if they want to leave us wanting more but very satisfied at the same time stopping here would do just that. The cast, without exception were stellar in their performances.

This rating is based on 10 for the first two seasons and a 2 for the last season. I don't think there has ever been a more captivating story that fizzled into meaningless garbage in the end. The last two episodes can only leave me to believe that the writers either quit before then, or they decided that since the show was being canceled that they would deliver crap to fill out the rest of the season. What a disappoint.

Bloodline is a quality Netflix series, that totally validates their strategy of delivering a season in complete, binge-worthy form, rather than an episode at a time. I watched it over two days. It's hard to imagine a movie with a better cast; the performances from top to bottom were sensational. I also appreciated the salty, adult, realistic language of the characters. One of the earlier reviewers spoke of all the characters as being "terrible people." Couldn't disagree more; virtually all the the characters from Kyle Chandler to Sissy Spacek to Cloe Sevigny are likable, compelling individuals who find themselves in a difficult situations. It's about good people making fateful decisions. Bloodline is a beautifully produced, deeply human drama, that, once it gathers speed, will grab ahold of you. Kudos, Netflix.

I really enjoyed season 1 , this series really promised a great deal, season 2 was a disappointment in comparison with the plot becoming more and more far fetched and with some new characters who just didn't fit , you know when the script writers start running out of ideas when "ghosts ' or figments of imagination start appearing and by season 3 they were running riot and haunting the whole show with dream after dream and whatever! and after a while I just didn't care at all what was dream or reality it just all became totally pointless.

First time review. I typically don't bother since movies/shows can be so highly subjective.

Started out to be at least one of our top 5 series... Gripping story, great writing, superb acting. What more could you want?

Season 1....10 stars Season 2....9.5 stars

Waiting for season 3 was agonizing, and the result was a total failure for an ending. What a monumental disappointment.

Season 3....0 stars

This TV show is superb if it were for the first two seasons. It is beautifully filmed, the acting is on point and the scenario is great. Nothing more to add.

The third season has some good parts but the last two episodes are just not it. It is a very disappointing ending for such a promising cast and story.

I would have rated S01 a 9/10 and the overall show a 8/10, but the second part of the second second will just not cut it for me so I gave it a 7/10 overall. A good show has to have at least a decent ending, whatever that ending is.

PS: save yourself 50min and skip S03E09, which brings no value at all and is not necessary to understand the final episode.

I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS I've SEEN IN YEARS !!Season 1 and 2 are excellent ...Season 3 is an absolute mess , not one bit interesting exciting ,it seems it was made by a totally different production company its just horrible ..every episode is slow meaningless drawn out , its simply lazy writing to wrap up a once good story ! Kyle chandler is the only good thing in the show he is a great actor . but man season 3 is miss able even if a fan of 1 and 2 .

The first season of this show is so powerful, groundbreaking well made and complete it requires no second or third seasons. It is a stand alon, in fact when i had finished the first season back when it had first released i thought i said goodbye to the series it was over the story was told only to see a second season years later. I wasn't even looking for it because i think it doesnt need one. I think the first season defines this series and the rest is a stretch and i hardly remember anything that happened after the first. Watch the first and leave it. MY SCORE IS FOR THE FIRST SEASON, and for me the first season is a stand alone limited series.

Welcome to Rayburn House - a quaint family inn situated in an idyllic part of the Florida Keys. It is the perfect place to forget troubles if you're there on vacation. But it is a near constant reminder of tragedies that have plagued the family who own and operate the resort.

The place in the sun the Rayburns enjoy is one they have carved out through hard work and determination guided by the vision of their folksy yet menacing ex-sailor/ex-ranch-hand patriarch Robert Rayburn (Sam Shephard) and his adoring yet industrious wife Sally (Sissy Spacek).

Though seemingly every tropical acre evokes painful memories they have put far too much in to consider leaving. Life there is just that much more sweet than bitter. The very thought of losing it makes them so defensive it scares them.

Their dutiful children - John the cop (Kyle Chandler), Megan the lawyer (Linda Cardellini), and Kevin the boat captain (Norbert Leo Butz) each maintain their own strong presences in the community whilst helping run the inn in various capacities as needed. John and his own wife (Jacinda Barrett) and children live in one of the bungalows the inn used to rent out.

The periodic return of the troubled eldest son Danny (Ben Mendelsohn) elicits feelings of anger and guilt for all of them. Often an embarrassment, hard-living low-level criminal Danny is their chief tormentor yet also the victim of past family excesses. His cringe-inducing antics are continuously forgiven because they know they own the biggest stake in why he is the way he is.

All the men in this family, as it turns out, have criminally violent tempers. All, including the women, tend to like their alcohol a little too much and do illegal drugs and have sex in inappropriate places. Danny will pretty much take a leak anywhere. If anything this is a soap opera family people might look down on. Their tendencies are THAT redneck.

This is a more realistic take on the genre of night-time soap opera. Unlike the super wealthy families of other night-time soap operas of the past the Rayburns don't seem that different than the average viewer. Innkeepers who live where they work are obviously more down to earth than oil tycoons or corporate raiders.

Megan is a lawyer who attended Florida State instead of an Ivy League school. Kevin has a boat and a business which repairs boats but he is no yachtsman. Failed restaurateur Danny went to cooking school and is a decent enough cook but he's no world class gourmet even though he acts like one. Their parents aren't educated people and the most romantic night of their marriage was spent in the back of a pick-up truck.

The Rayburn family fortune is presumably substantial but it isn't so much to be beyond comprehension. The less they mention amounts of money the more identifiable they seem. They have been successful because they picked the right location (even if it is in the way of hurricanes) and somehow stayed there long enough to learn the business, establish a reputation and manage their expectations. They live well mostly by living at their own inn.

There is a precariousness to it. These people are also highly sensitive and suspicious. Danny gets the worst of it. They cloak their treatment of him in family but to them he is more like the jittery member of their criminal gang that they are afraid will talk. They watch everything he says and does looking for signs of betrayal of their secrets.

The rivalries within families about the direction of their legacy play out in a more compelling way in a more believable setting on this show. But where the narrative really takes it a step further is in capturing those private moments we all have with family making it seem that much more common to the experiences of audiences. That recognition elicits real emotional attachment.

Danny bonds with each of his siblings, his mom and his young niece in ways that suggest this family has hope. But the tension beneath the surface bubbles up every once in a while particularly when something happens that reminds them of past friction. The normalcy of it has a disquieting effect when juxtaposed with ruthless criminality.

This is a story that with universal themes and timeless appeal. It could be set in Australia. It could be set in South America or the Mediterranean etc. It could even be set in a different age up to a hundred years in the past if not more. That is how good the writers were in finding that commonality.

The opening montage with its time-lapsed view of the beach during a thunder storm is coupled with suitably haunting theme music beginning each episode with dark mysticism. It is perfect for the intricate rhythm of each teleplay.

Bloodline is nothing less than exceptional viewing worthy of multiple Emmys particularly for writing and for the acting portrayals delivered by the entire brilliant cast. A show this subtle, nuanced and thoroughly appealing could only be on cable or Netflix.

My husband and I LOVED the first season of this show, and wish there were more out there like this: Great character development, excellent acting, and an interesting story - all in a beautiful location, the Florida Keys.

Season 1 is riveting and binge-worthy, and a solid 10. You really get to know the characters and the family drama. (Things are not as they appear on the surface!) Then Season 2 comes along and is a bit less believable, and more violently dramatic, but you care so much by then what happens to the characters and the family that you keep on watching. Due to the great acting and entertainment value, I still give Season 2 a solid 7. I was really looking forward to the final season to wrap up the many unanswered questions in Seasons 1 & 2. Well, most of the questions were never answered, and everything kind of fell apart. We were so disappointed!

Season 3 is a disaster. I can only conclude that the writers or producers had a disagreement with Netflix and angrily just threw Season 3 together, not caring about audience reviews. Was a contract broken by somebody? Season 3 is the worst of all worlds: it is not believable, poorly written, rushed through in an erratic tempo (back and forth between too slow and too fast), the characters were inconsistent to the first two seasons, and there were about a half dozen subplots that were never wrapped up. So many intriguing mysteries and questions from Season 1 were never answered or properly concluded! The last two episodes were a farce, as if the writers angrily rushed through to finish them. (Or maybe they were different writers?) The second to last episode was surreal and nauseating. What happened? Season 3 is definitely a 1 star.

Having said all this, I am still rating the show a 9, because I honestly hope more shows like this are produced, with hopefully the producers and writers following through to the end and not leaving us confused and upset. The acting was a solid 10 by almost every actor. I would love to see a well-made sequel to this show, or at least something similar.

I just found this on Netflix. I've been obsessed by the acting and the story. Kyle Chandler is outstanding! But what the hell happened to the storyline in season Three? I agree with other viewers that with as much character and story development was done in seasons one and two, season three is not cutting the mustard. How could it be so strange and deflated? I just finished season three episode eight, and I don't see how this is going to fully resolve in only a few more episodes. Seems like we're headed for a disappointment. It is worth watching certainly, and Kyle Chandler is excellent in this role!

The acting and production are solid. The location and sets are superb. However the storytelling and pace are maddeningly slow. In all honesty, I am probably not the "TV Series" type. I just don't have the patience for long drawn out dramas. In this case, the character developments could have been fully accomplished in 'half the time', leaving the other half for something interesting to actually happen. I get it: "black sheep addict/dysfunctional family/dark secret". Do we really need 50 minutes of tedium to compose this hackneyed image??? The production is actually quite skillful at building suspense. And again the piece is 'professional and polished'. However in each case of heightened suspense the piece falls flat. It just doesn't deliver 'grist for the mill'. I will concede there is an audience for this one given the many positive reviews. C

Bloodline is a Netflix and Sony production series based on the Rayburn family in the Florida Keys. The family is forced to face their past secrets when the supposed black sheep Danny Rayburn played by Ben Mendelsohn returns to a family reunion. The first season is the best of the three and also the saddest. Although Danny was the bad one, you feel for him due to the fact that the family left him out of the trust and treated him like an outsider. His brothers John and Kevin played by Kyle Chandler and Norbert Leo Butz were no saints themselves but they were never as bad as Danny. Their sister played by Linda Cardellini acts as the family lawyer who has her own demons along with their parents played by Sissy Spacek and Sam Shepard. If you are going to watch this series stop with the first season and don't bother with the third. The show was supposed to be six seasons long but it was so costly at seven million dollars an hour that Netflix had to cut it short thank god. The second and third seasons bring out the worst of the characters and shows how Danny's character still haunts the family. The beautiful Chloe Sevigny acts as Danny's lover and Jamie McShane as Danny's best friend who treats him as a brother more than his own family. John Leguizamo, David Zayes, Mark Valley, Mario Van Peebles along with Beau Bridges join the cast the following seasons. Mendelsohn received nominations for his role, he is the best thing in this series. Watch it for him otherwise don't bother.

Bloodline has a great cast and had a great first season. The wife and I burned through that first season in a weekend. You cared about the characters and you so wanted to know what had happened in the past.

Without spoilers I will just say that season 2 was dumb and boring and season 3 was weird and stupid. Characters changed motivations and behaved in ways at odds with season 1. Smart characters did dumb things.

If you can watch Season 1 and then stop, good for you. Season 1 is an 8 or maybe even a 9.

Season 2 might be a 5. Season 3 is rated at 1 unless zero is allowed.

A wonderful tale and a spellbinding story. Great slow pace that was perfect for the setting of the Keys. I loved every episode. Masterful writing and top notch acting. Very good cast with several new actors that did a phenomenal job. Cant wait for season 2!

I loved the movie with Tommy Lee Jones "In the Electric Mist" and this series seemed to have a similar pace but spread out over 13 episodes. I was something to look forward to watching each night when the kids went to bed. If the wife was out of town It would have been a non-stop marathon for me!

Go Netflix! Your series with House of Cards and Bloodline are wonderful and are better than any other series going at this point in time. Please keep up the good work!

Thank you for the great entertainment!