Goodbye "Bloodline." You were a pretty good TV show. A very good one, in fact. At times mesmerizing, every-once-in-a-while a little frustrating, but always reliable. While the ‘goodbye’ may be a little premature yet, the show is coming to an end soon. Netflix recently announced that it’s Emmy-nominated drama will be concluding after its third season. This doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, given its relative lack of coverage/audience-generated discussion and incomprehensively massive budget (seriously, look it up, it’s fucking insane). Still, it’s fairly disheartening to see a quality program have to end prematurely.
Bloodline had all the tools to succeed. It had a creative team who had a good track record and were generally lauded for their previous product, "Damages," on FX. Glenn Kessler, Todd Kessler and Daniel Zelman had, with this move to a wealthy and hungry company like Netflix who was looking to assert its dominance in a crowded field, a new freedom and free reign with which to be able to tell their new story. They were able to recruit an absolute stunner of a cast featuring the likes of Kyle Chandler, Ben ‘the God’ Mendelsohn, Linda Cardellini, Sissy Spacek, Chloe Sevigny and Sam Shepard.
So what happened? Well for one, it just didn’t catch on. You’re reading this article, but there is a good chance you have never seen one episode of Bloodline. Hell, there’s a good chance you’ve never even heard of it. Which is definitely a component when companies are deciding whether or not to renew a show. No matter how talented your creatives and cast are, no matter how much good will the show has built up with critics, a series produced on this scale needs to have the general viewership’s attention as well. While not everything can completely immerse itself into pop culture like, say, "Game of Thrones," it still has to be able to squeeze in there.
"Mr. Robot," "The Night Of," "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men" are all recent examples of TV shows that have captured their own ‘moment’ within the conversations of television watchers. I mean even stuff like "Preacher" and "Halt And Catch Fire" had/have a few people here and there talking about them. While we will likely never really know exactly how many people did or didn’t watch "Bloodline" because Netflix doesn’t release any of its shows’ numbers publicly, it was no "House Of Cards" in terms of maintaining cultural relevance. Or "Marvel's Daredevil." Or "Stranger Things." Or "Master Of None." Or "Orange Is The New Black." You see what I’m saying.
To say that it didn’t find its way into the discussions of the prestige TV era isn’t to say it isn’t good, though. It really is, even if season 2 didn't reach the heights of season 1. Kyle Chandler and Ben Mendelsohn have both been nominated for consecutive Emmy’s the last two years (Chandler for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Mendelsohn for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series), and Mendelsohn even won and took one home last week. Deservedly so, the guy is brilliant.
So, there’s one more season and then it’s a wrap for Netflix’s "Bloodline." You probably don’t care, but you should. Do yourself a favor and watch season one on Netflix the next time you spend 30 minutes scrolling through content trying to decide what to watch. It’s a great story. It’s contagious. It’s gorgeous. It’s almost over. Aw, man.