Netflix’s new show Bloodline is a twisty thriller with hints of long-suppressed secrets and devastating betrayals. It’s also an excellent example of a family drama, which draws its power from the contrast between the supposedly perfect front that the Rayburns present to the world and the darker reality lurking behind closed doors. Here are six other shows that put family life in the spotlight.
thirtysomething (1987-1991)
The family drama to end them all, this 1980s series followed a group of often insufferable Philadelphians as they went about their daily lives. The Steadmans, Westons and their friends were almost entirely self-obsessed and also oddly addictive to watch as they moaned about the slow corrosion of their 60s ideals, whether they were selling out, and if women should work after having kids. Yet for all its flaws, this is also a very genuine show. The Steadmans were intensely irritating yuppies but they were engagingly drawn and entirely believable. Hugely influential in its time and a source of inspiration for everything from Cold Feet to Parenthood, thirtysomething also sounds a horribly prescient warning of the consumer-driven horrors to come.
Six Feet Under (2001-2005)
Alan Ball’s family drama followed the lives of the Fisher family, running a funeral home in Los Angeles. Over the course of five years the clan fell in and out of love, made mistakes, occasionally triumphed and, more unusually, talked to dead people. It was that communication with the dead that moved Six Feet Under into a different league – rarely has a show been so unflinching in its examination of mortality, for both those dying and those left behind. Death was the fifth member of the Fisher clan (sixth if you count Nate Fisher Senior) and they faced it unblinkingly, most notably in an elegiac and beautifully conceived final episode, which gave audiences a sense of how great and how small each human life ultimately is.
Shameless (2004-2013)
Paul Abbott’s raucous tale of life in the dysfunctional Gallagher family ran out of steam long before its 11th and final season, by which time few of the original (brilliant) cast remained. But in its heyday, his tale of life and lust on the Chatsworth Estate was an in-your-face celebration of family dynamics – we understood eldest child Fiona’s desire to keep her family together and younger brother Lip’s equally furious need to escape. The show’s broad antics and witty dialogue caught the eye of commentators, but it is quieter moments such as Ian and Lip’s shared confidences in their bedroom or middle child Debbie’s love for her family that linger in the memory.
Big Love (2006-2011)
Few families are as mixed-up as the Henricksons, a group of polygamists from a Mormon splinter group in Utah. While the show initially came in for some criticism for its portrayal of The Church of the Latter Day Saints, it was also praised for “great inside jokes that show real homework”. But ultimately Big Love’s eye-catching premise was just a clever way for writers Mark Olsen and Will Scheffer to examine complex family relationships, with Bill’s three wives – long-suffering, hard-working Barb, complex, scheming Nicki and naive, slightly spoilt Margie – often depicted with a sisterly dynamic. They might have been polygamists, but the Hendricksons were also an average American family. The show’s power came from the way it examined the ties that bind – even when we’re falling apart.
Parenthood (2010-2015)
The TV adaptation of the 1989 Steve Martin movie was a very different beast from Ron Howard’s largely chirpy look at family life. Written by Jason Katims – who previously introduced viewers to the the Taylors in Friday Night Lights, the best TV family in the world – Parenthood ran for six emotionally draining seasons as the Braverman clan faced everything from cancer to divorce. Parenthood, which aired its final episode in the US in January, can easily be viewed as a throwback to the family dramas that dominated the 1980s: sprawling, warmhearted, often sentimental, always threatening to tip into corny. It was a hugely unfashionable show, yet I’m not ashamed to admit I cried when it came to an end.
Empire (2015-)
A swaggering show-off of a family drama created by Lee Daniels of Precious and The Butler fame, Empire is the soapy tale of ailing hip-hop mogul Lucious Lyon, his estranged wife Cookie and their three sons. Daniels has said that he was inspired by Dynasty and this unapologetically soapy show is filled with snappy one-liners, hair-pulling catfights and more backstabbing and betrayal than your average papal conclave. But beneath the gaudy trappings lurks a surprisingly soft heart: the show is grounded by Cookie’s support of her gay middle son Jamal, and by the sympathy we feel for the Lyon family even at their absolute worst. Sadly, it’s yet to find a UK broadcaster.
Do you have any favourite family dramas on TV?
