Round Two: Bloodline

Bloodline: Season 1, Episode 2 “Part 2” (C)

I checked back in to watch the second episode of this show mostly because, in watching the pilot with my wife, she enjoyed this show a lot more than I did and found it intriguing. This second outing doesn’t inspire much confidence. “Damages” was always frustrating because it offered only a glimpse of the future at the beginning and end of each episode, and while this show does show at least a full scene or two that drops a big bombshell, it still seems like a simple storyline that my wife thinks would be better set for a movie is being stretched unnecessarily out into thirteen episodes. What seems very clear is that Danny was pushed to being the bad person he is by the treatment he receives from his siblings. The revelation that events did happen exactly as he describes them and he had nothing to do with causing his father’s death doesn’t make him a great person but it certainly doesn’t make him the man that his siblings think he is. Regarding the other three siblings, I’m disappointed that all we’re seeing of Linda Cardellini’s Meg is a reliable daughter eager to allay the concerns of her mother but incapable of having any real personality of her own. The same is true to a different extent of Kyle Chandler’s John, since Chandler’s quiet demeanor works well in other contexts but is a bit lackluster here. Norbert Leo Butz is being allowed to be as enthusiastic and frenetic as he wants, making him the show’s star hothead. I’m considering a third go of this show, but I don’t think its pacing or plotting will be compelling enough.