Seamless

9: Reward (seizing the sword)

Disruption is only disruptive if you are not adaptive.

Blood is thicker than water

Family relationships and loyalties are the strongest and most important ones. Or so the theory goes. And all of this can be challenged and confused in family business contexts. Bloodline, one of my favourite Netflix original series, begins with a thrilling narrative by John Rayburn, the second eldest of four siblings in a family business:

Sometimes — you know something's coming. You can feel it. In the air. In your gut. You don't sleep at night. A voice in your head's telling you that something is going to go terribly wrong and there's nothing you can do to stop it. That's how I felt when my brother came home.

The Rayburn family operates a seaside hotel in Monroe County, Florida, and are somewhat of an institution down in the Floridian keys. (A word of warning: the following contains a few spoilers, so maybe skip the next few paragraphs if you're planning a Bloodline binge.) They are part of the ‘establishment' and their name is imbued with respect. John is a successful detective, Kevin runs a local marina and Meg is a lawyer with a local firm. The black sheep of the family is Danny, the eldest son, who returns home for the forty-fifth anniversary of the resort owned by the family matriarch and patriarch — Sally and Robert. Danny has a chequered history of criminality and drug use, and we learn that the origins of his troubled life come down to the untimely ...