Bloodline: Netflix’s 33-Part Thriller Series Delivers an Acting Masterclass in Family Secrets

Television’s changing status

For years, movies were widely treated as more prestigious than television, despite notable actors moving between the two. That divide began to weaken as ambitious series gained prominence in the 2000s.

Shows including The Wire, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones brought cinematic scale to television. By the 2010s, streaming services were investing in high-profile casts, helping make their series major draws.

A family under pressure

One early example was Netflix’s Bloodline, which debuted in 2015. The psychological thriller follows members of the wealthy Rayburn family as their secrets emerge and turn them against one another.

The story was loosely inspired by Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Its unpredictable plot and morally compromised characters kept viewers shifting between competing sympathies.

An ensemble cast

Bloodline featured Kyle Chandler, Linda Cardellini, Andrea Riseborough, Sam Shepard, Chloë Sevigny, Sissy Spacek and John Leguizamo. Ben Mendelsohn was also among its cast. The performers received dramatic material suited to the show’s tense family conflict. Their layered work helped make the series’ characters compelling even when none could be considered wholly innocent.

An early family-drama model

Bloodline arrived before later stories focused on wealthy, troubled families, including Knives Out and Succession. Other examples named in the article include Yellowstone, Saltburn, Parasite and Ripley. The article also points to Big Little Lies and Only Murders in the Building as later shows with especially prominent ensembles. Bloodline, it argues, anticipated both the appetite for star-filled television and the appeal of morally tangled family dramas.