The Netflix original ‘Bloodline’ showed promise. It was good enough to have overtaken ‘House of Cards’ or ‘Orange Is the New Black’. But the show was abruptly ended. What happened to it? Let’s find out.
‘Bloodline‘ was one of Netflix’s original web series that some say was destined for silver screen greatness. The show was a thriller with a dark and eerie vibe. It debuted on the streaming platform on March 20th in the year 2015 and has not released any new episodes since the conclusion of the third season on May 26th, 2017. Fans of Bloodline were left hanging, with no news of an upcoming season 4, and were quite sad over their favourite show’s cancellation by Netflix.
Highlights —
- What was ‘Bloodline’ about?
- How did the show end?
- Why did the show end so abruptly?
- Will the show go on with a season 4?
While the show initially received a lot of positive attention and critical praise for its masterful cinematography, its nomination at the Emmys, and the acting performance of its lead cast, it sort of faded out of the mainstream? Why did that happen? Let’s dive into it!
What was ‘Bloodline’ about?
The Emmy nominated show was a collaboration between Netflix and Sony Pictures Television, and according to its official synopsis, the show is based on the traumatic, secretive, and dark lives of four siblings. In the show, the four Rayburn siblings are John, Meg, Kevin, and Danny, out of which Danny is the black sheep owing to his history with each one of them.
The story starts with Danny returning to the Rayburn household after a long time to help his parents. This is not liked by his father, who had abused him many years ago blaming Danny for the death of Sarah, the youngest Rayburn, in a boating accident. The other three siblings had lied to the police on behalf of their father to cover up Danny’s abuse at his hands. Danny’s return throws everything into a whirlwind and threatens to expose Rayburn’s dark past.
How did the show end?
For some fans, the ending of ‘Bloodline’ was extremely unsatisfactory as they believed that the writing team could have ended the story whichever way they had wanted but chose to throw everything together haphazardly and call it a day.
For Meg Rayburn, the ending was the easiest. She leaves it all behind and escapes to Los Angeles with a new identity, where she is building a new personality and socializing with the locals. Kevin had a rollercoaster of a season right from him killing Marco and covering up his death to a hastily-constructed timeline of his descent into drug trafficking at the behest of Roy Gilbert, and then it all falling apart due to a police investigation. And while John tries to assist him by getting Kevin and his family out of the country, they don’t even last two hours because Belle forgets to switch her mobile phone GPS off.
The finale ends with John’s internal struggle about whether or not he should tell Nolan the truth about what happened to Danny. Neither option was a win-win for Danny, strictly speaking. John has the chance to continue the Rayburn tradition of lying and cheating or he could embrace the truth and let the chips fall where they may, for once.
Why did the show end so abruptly?
According to a leading Hollywood magazine, the reason Netflix cancelled the show was mainly due to tax incentives in the state of Florida. They say that while it was reasonably cheap to shoot the first 2 seasons, production costs skyrocketed from the third season and that forced Netflix to reconsider its support of the series.
Will the show go on with a season 4?
While the writers on the show had plans to take the series to its 5th or possibly 6th seasons, that was all cut short by Netflix’s decision to pull the life support from ‘Bloodline’. All hopes of a possible spinoff or sequel were quashed when showrunner Todd Kessler said, “We’re quite happy with the end”, in an interview with a major Hollywood magazine.
Despite being one of Netflix’s first original shows, garnering much attention and even an Emmy nomination, the streaming platform had to end the series in a shorthanded fashion. If you have some thoughts you’d like to share regarding the end of ‘Bloodline’, feel free to do so in the comment section below!
