Saeed Adyani/Netflix Inc.(NEW YORK) — Netflix wants you to binge on their latest thrilling drama, Bloodline, which centers on the Rayburns, a Florida Keys-based family, who run a local hotel. When the black sheep of the family returns home to his small seaside town, the family is turned upside down.
Sissy Spacek portrays the matriarch of the family. Unlike the rest of her family who is skeptical when her eldest child, Danny, portrayed by Ben Mendelsohn, returns home, Spacek’s character Sally is welcoming.
“When the oldest son, Danny, comes home I think she’s just thrilled,” the Oscar-winning actress tells reporters. “He’s her first child. She had her children very young. She had him at 19 and I think she feels guilty about [his problems] you know. She feels responsible for a lot…of problems that he has.”
Still, Sally has three other adult children with problems of their own. Spacek said her character fights for each of them.
“She’s fiercely protective of her family,” she explains. “I think Sally never really learned to back off, you know. She loves her family. They’re very involved. They all work together, they live near one another, and they’re a very close family.”
Kyle Chandler plays the respected son, John Rayburn, who is also the town’s top cop. And although it may appear John has his life together, Chandler says his character is dealing with secrets of his own. He’s also trying to shed his family’s expectations of him. The former Friday Night Lights star said he can relate offscreen.
“I get it sort of. I’m going to that place [in my own life] where [I say,] ‘Wait a second, I’m my own person, I’ve got my own thoughts on things and my own ideas. And I don’t have to play by those rules anymore,’ which can be a liberating thing, but it can be sort of dark and spooky at the same time, because you’re stepping out,” he explains. “So I think of it like a coming-of-age story for John if you will.”
Bloodline’s creators Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman say it won’t be the “what happens” that will keep people intrigued, it will be the “why did it happen?” Another aspect of the show that will captivate Netflix viewers, will be the shots of beautiful Florida, the backdrop for the family drama.
Emmy Award-nominated writer Zelman explains to reporters why he and his co-creators set the series in the Florida Keys. “One of the reasons we chose it is because it’s not on television. You know, we wanted a visual landscape that felt unique to this show,” he explains. “We knew this family ran a family business. And it was always appealing to us that that business take place in some kind of ideal environment or had some element of paradise to it because there was a darkness to the story.”
Mendelsohn, the trouble-starter on the series, won’t hint at what happens throughout season one. Although viewers will see in the first episode, his character Danny being dragged by his brother John unconscious. Still, he promises the series will keep you clicking to the next episode.
“Pop over, visit the Rayburns, strap your seat belt on, and I mean, it’s a ride,” he teases.
Thirteen episodes of Bloodline will be available on Netflix Friday.
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