The Bloodline Series

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through links on my site, I may earn a commission at no cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

(Updated on August 29, 2025)

Have you seen the “Bloodline” series on Netflix? I just watched it for the second time, and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time.

Bloodline is an American psychological thriller television series that premiered in 2015. The series lasted for three seasons.

This is a slow-burning drama, where anger, regret, and reproach build up in a pressure cooker. What happened in the past with this family spills out little by little, staining the present.

“I used to think the greatest thing to ever happen to me was being born a Rayburn.”

The Bloodline series is about a well-off family that owns a seaside inn in the Florida Keys.

The first episode begins with John Rayburn (Kyle Chandler) waiting in his vehicle for his older brother Danny to get off a bus.

His character narrates: “Sometimes you know something’s coming. You 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.”

The Oldest Brother:

The oldest brother’s homecoming raises old conflicts and causes new ones. Danny Rayburn returns home to Islamorada, Florida, for the 45th anniversary of his parents’ Robert and Sally Rayburn’s seaside inn, the Rayburn House. A pier will be dedicated in their honor to mark the occasion.

In the Bloodline series, the Rayburns are regarded as upstanding citizens in the community and are highly respected. They have the town’s respect, and the citizens want to recognize and reward them for it.

The family worries about Danny being home because when Danny is around, bad things tend to happen. However, his mother wants him home for the local family celebration.

The Rayburns have owned the beautiful inn in the Florida Keys for many years. They are a fixture in their community. They seem to live an idyllic life.

The Bloodline series explores the demons that lurk beneath the surface of a contemporary American family. The Rayburn family’s past contains dark secrets that they hope remain buried. But they are forced to face their past secrets and scars when Danny, the eldest child, returns home.

The Black Sheep Returns:

Sally (Sissy Spacek) and Robert Rayburn (Sam Shepard) built the inn. Then there is the firstborn, Danny, who rarely comes home and seems to always be in a jam of some sort. There is John, the golden boy —a detective whom everyone relies on to solve their problems.

Younger brother Kevin owns a boatyard and has problems with drugs and alcohol. There is Meg, the daughter, who is an attorney. And Sarah, who died as a child in a boating accident.

The facts of what happened the day Sarah died are murky and obscured. All the family problems circle continuously around her death like a shark in the water.

Danny keeps seeing an illusion of his deceased younger sister, Sarah Rayburn, who drowned when he was a teenager.

He also sometimes sees an illusion of Beth Mackey, who first appeared in Season 1 as the woman who bailed him out of jail. She is strongly implied to be his half-sister from his father’s affair.

Danny is the only one who can see and interact with these figures, as they represent aspects of his guilt and past trauma. 

“Sometimes you know something’s coming.”

The Rayburn Children In The Bloodline Series:

Three of the Rayburns’ four children live nearby. But Danny left home as soon as he could and rarely comes to visit. Danny is the shadow that continuously hangs over them. He reminds them of the family secrets, which they can’t deny when he’s in their midst.

Ben Mendelsohn, an Australian actor who plays Danny, was an excellent choice for this role. His star shines from the very first episode of Bloodline.

An article written in The Guardian said this about Bloodline: “A Netflix drama turns shady when the sun goes down.”

I read a review that said: “You know when the family’s patriarch is Sam Shepard, there’s going to be some blood on the floor.”

The Ghost Of Daughter Sara:

The ghost of Sarah, daughter and sister, is woven throughout the theme of the Bloodline series. The underlying questions are: How did she die? And who was at fault?

Why was Danny, as a teenager, beaten so severely by his father (Sam Shepard) that he was hospitalized? And why were the other siblings told to tell authorities that Danny was hit by a car?

A Family Too Good To Be True:

What the Rayburns have built is a virtual paradise. But it’s also a picture of perfection that is too good to be true.

Underneath the wealth, success, and prominence in the Bloodline series lies a family’s dark secrets that steadily bubble to the surface. And Danny seems to bring the worst out in all of them.

Is Danny merely the ne’er-do-well son who never managed to make anything of himself? Is he a bad seed that tarnishes the family’s reputation? Or is he a victim of his father’s rage, and a man who had the deck stacked against him early on?

Danny carried blame and guilt on his shoulders when he left home. No one else in the family would admit their own part in what shaped him.

The reason for the family secrets stays contained when Danny is away. When Danny returns, it’s like someone rubbing salt in old wounds. Pour one of them a few drinks, and some of what they’re trying to conceal spills out.

Paranoia and mistrust build, and lies pile up, and then an unthinkable crime takes place. The tight-knit family’s relationship deteriorates, and good people are forced to consider doing terrible things.

“We’re not bad people, but we did a bad thing.”

The Bloodline series on Netflix is filled with drama and secrets that have long been buried. It is certainly worth a watch.