The agony of deceit.
This is an overall review for all ten episodes of Bloodline's second season -- now available on Netflix -- but it doesn't delve into major spoilers. For my more specific thoughts about the season, including the ending, head over to the Bloodline: Season 2 Spoiler Discussion page here.
I was hopeful, but also had my doubts, about Bloodline heading into its second season without its original hook and real Season 1 draw, MVP performer Ben Mendelsohn. Could you invest in the remaining Rayburn siblings "trying to get away with it?" and be up for watching already fragile characters continue to snap and bust at the seams? It felt, premise-wise, exhausting. And yes, parts of Season 2 are frustrating.
Because in Danny Rayburn's place comes, instead, the vast spectre of his sins. And that turnsd out to be a very heavy load for John (Kyle Chandler), Meg (Linda Cardellini), and Kevin (Norbert Leo Butz) to bear. In flood floaters - members of Danny's life, both familial and criminal, to make the family's already strained existence a living nightmare. Most notably Owen Teague as Danny's despondent and painfully "Danny-esque" son, Nolan, Andrea Riseborough as Nolan's shady mom, Evangeline, and John Leguizamo as Danny's dangerous wild card former cohort.
Also, there are returning faces Glenn Morshower (as local drug smuggler Wayne Lowery) and Jamie McShane (as Danny's local sleazeball friend, Eric). So as you can see, it takes a lot in Season 2 to fill the Mendelssohn void. All these characters, in one way or another, work, under differing agendas, to undo the Rayburns. Be it business or personal, the family gets targeted by everyone under the sun. Even those once considered to be friends.
And that's not to say Mendelsohn is a no-show, though a big fear I had going into this season was over the use of Danny as a vision or some sort of talking delusion. Because that type of gimmick has to be handled just right in order for it to work. The Leftovers, in fact, just did it exceedingly well in its second year with a character who had died, but within that came the built-in premise that the person seeing the vision was mentally ill or was experiencing a phenomenon brought on by the state of that particular world. Here, any sight of Danny would just be explained as someone's haunted conscience.
And there's a bit of that; just a touch. Mendelsohn, while not hugely present, is used in a variety of ways. In waking dreams and sparse flashbacks and in replays of scenes from the first season. There's really no one way Danny comes to us this year, so it's a smattering and it works, along with the shortened season (just 10 episodes compared to 13 last year), to make this run feel less bloated.
But, as mentioned, in place of Danny's there are several characters who all work, too hard at times, to give us the conniving "black sheep" experience. Making, I'd say, the first four episodes a bit chewy. Kind of like how Season 1 also took a bit of time to invest in, Season 2, similarly, needs warming up. And so the first four episodes actually tell a somewhat closed-ended story, and the first of the handful of John Rayburn "we're all gonna get caught" panic arcs. It's good, but during this time Nolan and Evangeline really go overboard with the button pushing and Nolan, as a swoopy-haired, TV teen "bad boy," can be a chore to watch at times.
Fortunately, these two characters smooth out over the course of the season, particularly because the show starts informing you more about their lives, creating sympathy, while it also makes you start to root against the Rayburns - who while probably noble in intention initially, utterly dissolve into puddles of manic meanness and malady. A memorable John quote from Season 1 was "We're not bad people, but we did a bad thing" and Season 2 works its butt off to sort of dispel the first part of that line. Because in all their sordid Season 2 scramblings to keep from going under, the siblings become the worst kind of people.
And there are several points during Season 2 when one of the siblings seems to be choosing to just sort of give up, give in and sort of surrender to fate, come what may; tired of the lies and soul-crushing cover ups. And you too, as a viewer, feel a sigh of relief. Because it's a lot.
Bloodline may occasionally frustrate, especially when it starts juggling too many characters and their respective wants and angles, but it's also awesome at creating slow, humid tension. And, like last year, the Florida Keys become an integral part of this suspense. The location gives everything an untamed jungle-adjacent vibe, where everyone sweats even when they're not nervous or under the gun. Oh, and Kyle Chandler's hair becomes a savage nest of anxiety.
Mendelssohn may have been the standout last year, but Chandler, Cardellini, and Butz are no slouches. Sure, the bulk of their performances are reactionary, since each of them are constantly putting out fires this year, both large and small, but they're all excellent. And Butz manages to turn a quivering mess of a man who excels at poor decision making into a vibrant, relatable character. Because Kevin, especially at the outset of this season, is a freakin' f*** up factory. But as the season progresses, most everyone does something massively counterproductive and/or destructive. The wealth gets spread around and Bloodline kind of becomes a series, gloriously so, where you don't really like anyone.
The Verdict
Bloodline's second season had some great acting and a handful of truly suspenseful moments, but it's also - really - about one thing the entire way through and that's John, Meg, and Kevin scrambling to stay afloat and not get caught in their web of lies. Which can really wear down on you if the show's not offering something else as well. Which it really isn't.
For my more specific thoughts about the season's plot twists, including the ending, head over to the Bloodline: Season 2 Spoiler Discussion page here.
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