Bloodline

So, I just finished Bloodline, the latest (I think?) original show from Netflix. Man, that was some truly great television; a bit slow in the beginning (unlike say, Wolf Hall, there were moments where I really felt the length of the episodes at times), but once it gained momentum, it never stopped. The last few episodes were some of the most riveting ones I've seen on TV recently.

Ben Mendelsohn plays Danny Rayburn, the estranged oldest son of the well-regarded family, who has returned to settle some old scores. I found Danny to be a very intriguing character, he reminded me a lot of one of literature's greatest avengers: Dumas' Edmond Dantes. Much like the self-styled Count of Monte Cristo, Danny is a character that its easy to feel bad for due to the way his family treated him in the past, but at the same time, he's also a person obsessed with vengeance, no matter the cost. Mendelsohn did a fantastic job playing Danny, making the character at turns charming, sympathetic and menacing. The scenes he shared with his brother (played by Kyle Chandler) were particularly intense and made me think a bit of the rivalry between De Niro and Pacino in the excellent Michael Mann film Heat.

I must say that I'm a bit skeptical to the idea of a second season though. The first season ends on a (frankly, rather cheesy) reveal, but personally, I think I'd have liked it if the creators of the show had just made this a mini-series. Oh, well, I'm still going to give the second season a try and even if it fails, I can at least recommend the first season of Bloodline to anyone in the mood for a good, suspenseful family-drama/revenge-story.