Netflix show Bloodline Filmed in Islamorada (Miami, Homestead: middle-class, 2015, renters)
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Yes, we are watching it. Great show, cast and amazing scenery. And I gotta say, I love when Sam Shepherd plays the ukulele & sings. So makes me want to go to the keys!
Three episodes in and I already know the hotel is Pierre's restrurants, spotted a few other well know places. Great show so far but I do love seeing places in the keys as well.
Saw the entire series. It's not my thing. For one, I think they are missing a lot of the humor that makes a show like Orange is the New Black so great. I felt like I was being hit over the head with a sledgehammer it was so heavy-handed.
However, there were some interesting points I think in the way they portrayed the Keys which are relevant here. I'm sure a lot of people will be enticed to visit, and if possible, move down because of the wide viewership of this show. Definitely a ton of people will want to stay where the hotel is filmed, at Islamorada's Moorings Village & Spa, if they can afford it.
Beach
I was concerned with some aspects though of the way they portray Keys life. Of course, I won't discuss anything that could be a spoiler in any of this following; there are plenty of things to talk about regarding the Keys without discussing plotline. Some parts were very accurate - I got a chuckle for instance over a line criticizing the repetitiveness of Keys restaurant menus. On the other hand, I had a real problem with the show's constant footage of a beach, which is even in the opening credits. That is one of the things we really struggle with here, that people book vacations without doing research and just assume there is beach everywhere. We are a series of coral rock islands, with only 3 natural public beaches on the islands connected by road in the entire 100+ mile stretch. And those beaches are really small by Florida standards. A few things they call "beach" - like Anne's Beach in Islamorada - are not even beach but shallow water over sand next to the highway. If you're not right next to one of those beaches, you have very little easy access to the water other than boat ramps. Sure, some hotels DO have their own tiny beach areas, nearly all of them man-made, but these are not going to be empty or plentiful, the way they appear on Bloodline. So hopefully, people will not get the impression from the show that the Keys have endless miles of coconut palm-lined white beaches that you can just walk up to anytime you want (the 3 we have are also closed from dusk to dawn), just because The Moorings has a beach with some 600 coconut palms planted on it. And that place costs a LOT to stay in, it's not where most visitors, or certainly residents, will be. [The Moorings was once a coconut plantation, which is why they have so many coconuts - most of our shoreline is mangroves, and nowhere in the Keys has that many coconuts naturally occurring.]
Heat
The other thing I found strange is that the show frequently references the heat, perhaps because the shooting crew feel like they are in hell to have come down shooting during the summer. But they go out of their way to put in clips that are fabricated and erroneous. First, we don't currently have a normal TV news station that broadcasts Keys weather and events - we rely on Miami news. Secondly, there is no way that the temperature was 98 degrees F. We are a series of small islands jutting out into the ocean, and we're not on the Equator. We are subject to a constant sea breeze, and the average high temperature at the hottest in August is 89. It is cooler here than in Miami, and than in Homestead where much of the indoor footage was actually shot on a soundstage they built just for that purpose. And even Miami does not usually get to 98, it usually stays stuck at 93 every day of the summer, rarely going much higher. 98 in the Keys would have been in the record-breaking area for Islamorada. The sun feels very hot though, and can do some serious damage.
Maybe this is a small point, but it just seemed odd for them to go out of their way to make this point about the temperature. Every single degree that goes up makes a difference when you're dealing with 99% humidity, so 98 is a huge difference from 90 degrees.
I also found it really odd, just as an aside, that they made a whole thing about the residents not having A/C. Really? Any wealthy or middle-class resident of the Keys is going to have central air, so it's weird that apparently not one person in the entire show has central air when these are some of the most privileged "Conchs" in the Keys. Moreover, the idea that a lawyer would suffer for days without any A/C because her window unit broke, when all she has to do is pay the $110 to buy a new window unit, is ridiculous. Plus, apparently a guy who owns a portion of the marina has no A/C at all, and will sleep there night after night with a hole in his window that he never even bothers to cover (um, mosquitoes...) with no breeze and no air... I don't get it. And the idea that anyone on any planet would have sex in a car with all the windows closed and no air on in the Keys in the middle of summer is insane. So these things really jumped out at me.
Rain
Another thing I noticed was that, due to the way they cut the footage, and their choice for the intro, one sees a ton of rain in nearly every episode. It seemed worthwhile to point out that while we do get some torrential rains in the hurricane season, unless there is a storm most of those are very short and not nearly as much as what is shown here. Monroe County is actually the driest county in the entire state of Florida. During the winter, we get so little rain that there are brush fires. Those kinds of rains are more characteristic of Miami, which gets 3 times as much rain as we do. While we don't really have all that much rain, and most of the time have extremely clear skies and a lot of sun, we DO have almost constant humidity. The ground is frequently a little bit moist, due to miniscule drizzles overnight, so with the heat of the day the steam is plentiful. And actually, if it were to rain more we would have more relief from that and eventually the air would cool off. (I really miss the heavy rains of Miami.)
Attitudes Toward the Water
I noticed a few other things that I thought were strange. The show showed kind of a constant disrespect among locals for the water. It's sort of unbelievable to me that many of the things that happen in the show would even happen among people who grew up here, because most people are pretty obsessed with the ocean and protecting it. If you read interviews with the show's producers, they even admit how difficult it was to get permission to even shoot many of the scenes they shot [don't read the interviews before you've watched though, because some contain mild spoilers]. Little things, like men urinating directly into a marina, or spitting into the marina, are rather shocking just because they give a sense of disregard for the water that isn't anything like what I have witnessed here. Most people are very respectful, and want the water they hang in to be as clean as possible - they would never openly do things to disrespect near-shore water, especially water that does not get the best circulation. Everybody here makes their living off of that water, and also spends nearly all of their time in it and looking at it. So that just struck me as odd.
What Locals Think of the Show
For those who are interested in the local perspective of the show, from what I have heard it is split about 50% between those who ardently support shooting, and those who are ardently opposed and want them to go away. Many residents still have never heard of Bloodline at all, especially those in areas that were not interrupted by shooting. The average age here is in the high 50s I think, so many residents are not the type to even have Netflix or get much of their programming online (we also don't have the best internet speeds down here for streaming).
Bloodline has been featured a bit in the local papers, which have been positive. But many people don't want a big TV show down here because they feel it will just encourage more tourism than the islands (and its single road) can handle, and they are really concerned about the local environment being ruined because certainly the Keys have a track record of drawing a lot of people who are wild and crazy and trash both the places they stay in as well as the local waters. A lot of people don't want more gridlock traffic than we have already. Renters are reasonably concerned about the cost of rent skyrocketing even further and the availability going down from the pittance it already is. On the other hand, predictably some business and property owners are happy that it will bring more business down here, and may raise home values further.
The show had one incident with a set worker who appeared to be impersonating a cop and pulling over cars in the middle of the night on his way home from the set with the set cop car. But that was an isolated incident and there were no other problems. Certainly if there are many incidents of trouble with the law in connection with the show in future seasons (if there are any), locals will turn against it. One concern is that the show portrays so much law-breaking and seedy characters, that perhaps it will encourage people to come down here thinking that sort of thing is common or welcome - and it really is not. On nearly every island, the lifestyle is currently peaceful and very safe, and the kinds of crime found are usually limited to those related to excessive drinking - DUIs, bar fights, domestic violence. Occasionally there are teenagers who come down from Homestead to steal boat parts, who get caught. Sometimes people come down from Miami and get caught stealing fish in preserved areas for resale. Outside of a few areas of Key West and Stock Island, not much major is happening here. And Islamorada is - dare I say it - boring and primarily filled with wealthy older people.
Starfish, I don't know how you have the time to type these long responses that you do, but I do enjoy reading them!
Lol, I'm glad you like them! I work from home, I type really fast, and writing is part of what I do for a living... so I'm cranking out work all day, and it's fun for me to take a break and talk about the Keys when I have to be inside by the computer waiting for something and can't go out to actually enjoy them in person! I mostly research and write about them here when I'm cranky that I'm stuck inside and can't be out there having a good time! These responses never seem long to me until I post them, because they only take a few minutes to think about and type out - it's amazing how many words it takes to say something that only took a second or two to think!
But I'm hoping Bloodline gets people talking and thinking about the Keys, because they're a cool and interesting place, and definitely unique in the US and really anywhere in the world. Even if I don't love the whole show, I do like that the producers stated they chose the Keys because they wanted an iconic sort of place to set the story in, and one that had not really been done much before. They mentioned New Orleans, Las Vegas... but they chose here, and because of that had to deal with some difficulties in really being the first to do any major shooting here of more than a few scenes. They had some local red tape to get through because of environmental protections, and also simply because we never had the equipment before in terms of studios and all that. So now that they built the one in Homestead, and I don't think I'm giving away too much to say that they left some opening for a possible second season, they or future different projects may be back to do more work here. I personally would love more Keys-related programming to watch, because I think it's such an interesting place. I have had a few ideas about setting various TV shows here myself - I have a few ideas that I think would be awesome! - because I just think it's really fertile ground to pull both drama and comedy from, and often a twist of both.
It's such a simple place, but I think deceptively simple - underneath the surface of watersports and motels, there is so much complexity here in terms of culture, politics, and environment. I like living in complicated places, and the Keys definitely fit that. I'm always glad when other people admire them, or at least find them interesting like I do. I do hope though that this show will not contribute to more choking traffic and harm to the local environment. I have never been able to experience the Keys as a remote and desolate place as it once was, but I don't relish the idea of them getting completely overrun with noise and pollution, either. Many locals fought to keep the highway from expanding too much, purely because they did not want a super-highway to bring huge amounts of people down here all at once to ruin it - people are forced to come in more as a trickle. I think that makes sense - I visited Tikal, Guatemala (Mayan ruins) at a time when it was less touristed than it is today, and the locals at that time had refused to pave the road there for the same reason. It worked - word was out that it was a long, arduous, and dangerous journey by bus with banditos frequently robbing the buses, and therefore far fewer people made it out there to see and climb them (and thus mess them up) in person. That was the theory all over Central America then - don't develop things and they will stay protected - and so the Keys is continually up against this question now. More TV shows and movies lead to more desire for highrise hotels and houses and roads... and who knows where that leads. I love NYC dearly, but I don't think Manhattan would be a good match for the Keys environment. Building upwards and adding more infrastructure to accommodate the people who will want to move down due to publicity like this show provides will just lead to a precarious metropolis in a hurricane zone, and since the Keys are so good at doing Nature, I think it would probably ruin what is best about being down here.
So hopefully there's a balance between exploring all that is interesting about the various Keys, and not over-exploiting and expanding them to the point that they lose what makes them so special. I can completely see though why someone would watch Bloodline, especially after a long winter up North, and want to come down here to see the exotic-looking beauty captured on screen for themselves. It is exotic, but also pretty hum-drum, all at the same time.
I noticed the inconsistencies too - but it's a fictional show so it's to be expected. My mom says she saw Sissy Spacek interviewed and she complained about the heat and bugs. 99% of the country doesn't resemble our climate at all so it's harder for them to deal with it. Is that place on the bay side or ocean? I would imagine there are a lot more mosquitoes on the bay side.
I noticed the inconsistencies too - but it's a fictional show so it's to be expected. My mom says she saw Sissy Spacek interviewed and she complained about the heat and bugs. 99% of the country doesn't resemble our climate at all so it's harder for them to deal with it. Is that place on the bay side or ocean? I would imagine there are a lot more mosquitoes on the bay side.
It's oceanside - hence why they don't show any sunsets from it, but do mention that watching sunsets are a part of Keys culture.
Here are some excerpts from two interviews (one from the local paper, one a movie and TV magazine) with Linda Cardellini, who plays the adult sister. I skipped over any spoilers, and the parts included are just about working in the Keys. She went out of her way to be nice about it, but you can tell parts of shooting here were really tough:
"Q: The family dynamic is really key to this story, and it feels really lived in. Did you have any time, before you started shooting, to work together and find those rhythms?
CARDELLINI: Not too much. The Keys are pretty secluded, in a lot of ways. Getting to the Keys was hard on everybody. Everybody got there staggered and had to try to find places to live. Getting acquainted with that place, if you’ve never been there, was an adjustment. So, I had to get acquainted with that and figure out where I was going to be. Some of our locations where an hour away from other locations. It’s a destination. It’s a place where people go on vacation for a reason because it’s away from it all. It’s close to mainland Florida, but it’s out there. There were times where getting to the grocery store took an hour. At the same time, you’re looking off both sides of the freeway, and off one side is the ocean and off the other side is the bay. It’s a beautiful place, but it was a totally different dynamic. ...
Q:This is a show that deals with really heavy stuff. Was it hard on you guys to film those scenes?
CARDELLINI: It was fun, in terms of acting with the other actors. That part was really fulfilling. Sometimes the elements would be hard because it was so hot and so humid. I remember that I was doing a scene in a motel and there were so many mosquitoes that there were literally blood splats on the wall from killing mosquitoes... I grew a healthy fear of mosquitoes. ...It’s crazy weather, but gorgeous. Where the show is, is a character of the show, and I think that’s a really cool part of the show. I feel like it’s a beautiful place, but also a place where really weird stuff is capable of happening, and has happened. ...
Q:Was it cathartic, when you guys wrapped?
CARDELLINI: I got sick, so I missed the party. We were out in the water, shooting for hours and hours and hours, and we were wet. But it’s a wonderful job and a beautiful place, so there’s nothing to complain about. If you see that place on a boat, it’s just heaven. The waters are gorgeous. You feel like you’re in the Caribbean. It’s fun, but the level of drama is super intense...."
"At a weathered dining table of a Florida Keys home not in the Keys, Linda Cardellini punched up a cell-phone video of her dangling bait fish off the docks at Robbie's of Islamorada.
She erupted in laughter at the memory of big tarpon lunging to swallow the ballyhoo whole.
"The tarpon jump out of the water!" she told a "Bloodline" crew member. "It was terrifying, and at the same time exhilarating," she recounted. "My daughter loved it."
...
"The Keys are awesome, really extraordinary," Cardellini said. "It's a great place to work and a beautiful place to be. I think it's a world people will enjoy being introduced to."
Cardellini was sitting at the Rayburn family table -- part of a realistic interior set erected inside a cavernous warehouse that was converted to a sound stage in south Miami-Dade County.
Cardellini earned an Emmy nomination for her 2013 run in "Mad Men" and is fondly remembered for her breakout lead role in 1999's "Freaks and Geeks" and 128 episodes of "ER."
...
A native Californian, Cardellini joked that in coming to the Keys she "exchanged earthquakes for hurricanes" in the realm of potential natural disasters.
"It's worked out so far," she said, literally tapping the wooden table for luck.
She lived in the Upper Keys with her daughter, now age 3, during filming that wrapped in November. On quiet evenings, they watched the sunset from a favorite spot on Florida Bay.
Cardellini described being greeted by "a giant barracuda and stingray" on her first snorkeling trip near Alligator Light.
"I don't mind the heat" of the Keys summer, Cardellini said, "as long as the mosquitoes aren't out. Friends came down to visit and talked about how hot it is. I said, 'You missed July and August.'"
"The locals are kind people and really relaxed," Cardellini said. "People seem to be enjoying island time, being out on boats, catching fresh fish to eat. It's a totally different feeling, being in a small community that's surrounded by beauty."
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