Bloodline Turns the Florida Keys Into the Most Beautiful Crime Scene on Television
Most shows set in the Florida Keys use the scenery as a backdrop. Bloodline makes it a character.
This Netflix original (2015-2017) follows the Rayburns, a family that runs a waterfront inn in Islamorada. They’re respected, connected, and hiding something ugly. When the black sheep brother Danny (Ben Mendelsohn, in a performance that earned him an Emmy) comes home, the family’s carefully maintained surface starts to crack. Kyle Chandler, Sissy Spacek, and Sam Shepard round out a cast that plays dysfunction like a slow-burning fuse.
The show was filmed almost entirely on location in the Keys. The Rayburn family inn is actually The Moorings Village and Spa on 18 acres of old coconut plantation in Islamorada. Scenes were shot at Alabama Jack’s in Key Largo, at Anne’s Beach, at Robbie’s, and at a dozen other spots that locals will recognize instantly. The water, the light, the humidity: it all seeps into the story until the setting feels inseparable from the tension.
Season one is the strongest, and it’s worth watching for the Keys cinematography alone.
