11 Years Ago, Netflix's Most Underrated Psychological Thriller Predicted A Massive Trend

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Kyle Chandler and Linda Cardellini in Bloodline

Published Apr 8, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While Netflix has plenty of great thriller shows, only one of these managed to predict a huge thematic trend that went on to shape the genre for over a decade after this show's critical success. The race to become the best streaming service for thriller shows has been raging for more than ten years at this stage.

Although Prime Video’s Reacher is peak Dad TV, that action thriller’s success isn’t enough to give the streaming service a definitive edge in the genre. After all, Netflix has many hit psychological thrillers like His & Hers, which managed to earn both critical acclaim and huge viewership numbers upon release.

Moreover, some of Netflix’s best thrillers, like 2015’s Bloodline, pulled off the difficult trick of predicting a huge genre trend before it began. Debuting in March 2015, Bloodline was an early "Eat the Rich” thriller that followed the mounting misfortunes of the rich Rayburn family, a dysfunctional, fabulously wealthy dynasty whose massive fortune hid a dark secret history.

Bloodline Predicted A Massive Genre Trend

Sydney Sweeney and Fred Hechinger in The White Lotus season 1-1

With a superb ensemble cast that included Kyle Chandler, Linda Cardellini, Sissy Spacek, John Leguizamo, Andrea Riseborough, and Sam Shepard, Bloodline wasn’t short on star power. However, this was never the show’s primary appeal. Instead, Bloodline’s cleverly constructed mystery was a masterclass in Eat the Rich storytelling, as viewers rooted for the downfall of these amoral protagonists.

Blending family drama with psychological thrills, Bloodline took a look at the dark underbelly of the uber-rich. The creators took inspiration from Dostoevsky's iconic novel Crime and Punishment, and it showed, as Bloodline consistently turned the screws on its wealthy antiheroes by giving them chances to redeem themselves and avoid doom, if only they could part with their worldly wealth.

To say that this storytelling trope became ubiquitous in the years that followed would be putting it mildly. HBO’s hit The White Lotus, Succession, Parasite, Knives Out, its sequel Glass Onion, The Menu, Death of a Unicorn, Triangle of Sadness, Ripley, the Ready Or Not movies, You season 4, Saltburn, and The Fall of the House of Usher all owe a debt to this ingenious thriller’s cathartic story.

The list truly goes on since, as income inequality grows ever worse with each passing year, viewers seemingly never tire of stories where the rich get what’s coming to them. Some of the titles listed above are outright comedic, while others are surprisingly dark and morally complex, but all of them have one thing in common.

Like Bloodline, these shows and movies all explore the ways that wealth corrupts, and the ways that protecting one’s fortune can end up driving people away from their basic humanity. Bloodline pioneered this story with its twisty plot, as the Rayburn family’s attempts to safeguard their individual interests led to murder, cover-ups, blackmail, and all manner of criminal shadiness.

Bloodline Is Still One of Netflix's Most Underrated Thrillers

Kyle Chandler squeezing a stress ball in Bloodline

While Bloodline fared well with critics upon its original release, the show had the misfortune of coming out before Netflix was well known for its thrillers. In fact, Bloodline’s 2015 arrival predated Stranger Things, Squid Game, Wednesday, and a lot of the other franchises that made Netflix one of the biggest names in entertainment.

This meant that, despite its critical success, the show didn’t gain the massive mainstream audience it otherwise might have. In this regard, Bloodline is reminiscent of Orange Is The New Black, House of Cards, or Netflix’s acclaimed comedy BoJack Horseman, as the show helped build the streaming service's critical credibility, but predated its mainstream ubiquity.

As a result, Bloodline remains one of Netflix’s most underrated thriller shows to this day. Admittedly, seasons 2 and 3 of the series don’t quite live up to its dynamite debut, but the show still deserves credit for managing to avoid a major problem that later entries into the Eat the Rich thriller sub-genre struggled with in the years that followed.

Bloodline Avoids This Thriller Trend's Worst Mistake

Jenna Ortega looking up at an angry unicorn in Death of a Unicorn

Since Eat the Rich thrillers weren't an existing trend yet in 2015, Bloodline season 1’s story truly needed viewers to care about the fate of these super-rich, privileged characters. The show managed to pull this off, making the Rayburn family feel complex, relatable, and, in some cases, redeemable, despite their wealth.

In contrast, most highly criticized later Eat the Rich movies and shows, like Death of a Unicorn, Slasher season 4, and Saltburn, stumbled on this step by making their wealthy characters cartoon-ish cads. While it can be fun to see irredeemably awful wealthy caricatures get gruesomely killed off, these shows didn’t ask much of their audience in terms of emotional investment.

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Netflix's hit thriller adapted from a bestselling book cemented Brittany Snow's status as the queen of twisty mysteries with unpredictable endings.

In contrast, like Netflix’s later five-season thriller masterpiece You, Bloodline took time to ensure that the show’s fans were invested in all its main characters despite their many monstrous misdeeds. This resulted in a uniquely satisfying Netflix thriller as viewers were torn between wanting some of Bloodline's Rayburn clan to get away unscathed while wanting others to suffer the consequences of their wealth acquisition.

Release Date 2015 - 2017-00-00

Network Netflix

Directors Mikael Håfström, Todd A. Kessler, Michael Morris, Ed Bianchi, Mario Van Peebles, Jean de Segonzac, Johan Renck, Daniel Zelman, Dennie Gordon, David Manson, Alex Graves, Michael Apted, Daniel Attias, Simon Cellan Jones, Stephen Williams, Tate Donovan, Carl Franklin

Writers Arthur Phillips, Bill Cain, Lizzie Mickery, Addison McQuigg, Ashlin Halfnight, Lucas Jansen, Barry Pullman, Melanie Hoopes, Dani Vetere