Netflix’s popular drama Bloodline takes its final bow with an abbreviated third season.
Bloodline may be one of Netflix’s most popular breakout dramas, but the shelf life of the gritty, scintillating series just received a definitive date stamp. While the Florida Keys-shot show’s recent Season 3 renewal braved logistical uncertainties in the aftermath of expired tax incentives, it now appears that crucial caveats were put in place for its return, the most prominent of which is the subsequent cancellation of the show.
With the Bloodline Season 3 epic swan song imminent, here’s everything we know!
Bloodline Season 3 Latest News
Bloodline Season 3 now has a release date. Netflix has officially made the announcement by way of a teaser video, marking the date of the series’ monumental 10-episode conclusion for Friday, May 26.
To satiate appetites until then, Netflix also released a batch of Bloodline Season 3 photos.
Bloodline Season 3 Renewal
The July 2016 renewal of Bloodline by Netflix was reportedly the result of some serious negotiations with Sony Pictures Television, who produce the series. While there is a denial of tensions between the two parties, the Season 3 greenlight apparently came about after concessions were made to reduce licensing fees and rein in the number of episodes from its typical 13 down to 10. Of course, the elephant in that room was the ultimate concession that Season 3 would be the drama’s last run. Thus, the (sometimes deadly) familial squabbles of Key West's quasi-royal Rayburn family will see a proper conclusion at the end of Season 3.
Bloodline, along with fellow Florida-shot show in the Miami-set HBO football comedy Ballers, had scooped up the last of the monies from the $300 million the state had allocated in 2010, allowing both shows to get through their most second seasons with financial breaks. But now, with the incentives pot dry, another season of Bloodline would have been a pricier undertaking. However, producers and creatives for the series lobbied lawmakers and Florida business owners, citing the financial impact of shooting in the Florida Keys.
When Netflix released viewership data based on the “binge scale” for how audiences consume certain shows, Bloodline landed on the list as one of the shows that slides toward the savored category, meaning viewers tended to watch it for less than two hours a day. That’s not necessarily a knock on the quality of Bloodline; the series has a nearly full five-star user rating. Critical reception of season one has nearly universal, with 88 percent of Rotten Tomatoes top critics voicing their approval of the drama, but opinion soured with the release of Season 2. Thus, the decision to wrap things up with Season 3 was rooted in many variables.
Bloodline Season 3 Story
Logistical issues aside, the Season 3 sendoff for Bloodline is not entirely surprising to anyone who has been following the series. The recent Season 2 run saw the Rayburn siblings deal with the aftermath Season 1’s monumental moment when police detective John Rayburn (Kyle Chandler) proved to be the Cain to the proverbial Abel that was his sociopathic troublemaker brother Danny (Ben Mendelsohn). As the implications of that deed – collectively covered up by the Rayburn siblings – came back to haunt the squeaky-clean façade of John and his campaign for Sheriff, the season also ended with yet another devastating game-changing cliffhanger death involving the Rayburns.
Indeed, Bloodline Season 3 kicks off in the aftermath of a surprising second murder with the normally capricious Kevin Rayburn (Norbert Leo Butz) desperately killing John's police partner (and Meg's ex), Marco Diaz (Enrique Murciano). Thus, the show already wrote the broadly-complicit Rayburn family into a tight enough corner for Season 3, making it a natural place to conclude the series, lest it starts pushing its luck by jumping a Key West-sized shark. Thus, while Bloodline creators and executive producers Todd A. Kessler, Daniel Zelman and Glenn Kessler have expressed ambitions in the past for a 5-6 season series run, the confirmation of the end with Season 3 doesn’t feel like it’s premature.
Bloodline Season 3 Release Date
Bloodline will be back on Netflix for a bittersweet 10-episode Season 3 run on Friday, May 26.
Indeed, Bloodline Season 3 will see a creators Todd A. Kessler, Daniel Zelman and Glenn Kessler concoct a (let’s face it, likely-tragic) sendoff for the Floridian Rayburn family. Stars Kyle Chandler, Sissy Spacek, Ben Mendelsohn, Linda Cardellini, and Norbert Leo Butz will all return.