Blood Ties is a drama podcast created by Wondery. To date, three seasons, each six episodes long with episodes about 20-25 minutes long, have been released.
Upon arriving in the Caribbean to spend Christmas with their parents, siblings Eleonore (Gillian Jacobs) and Michael Richland (Josh Gad) learn that their parents' private plane has crashed en route to the island. As they are still grieving, Eleonore gets a call from a journalist (Amy Landecker) revealing some dark secrets about their late father, celebrated doctor and CEO of Richland Health, Peter Richland, that sends the siblings into a maelstrom of corporate corruption and family secrets.
Season 2 features the addition of two more big names to the cast: Wayne Knight as Peter Richland, and Dominic Monaghan as David Hammer, the new CEO of Richland Health.
In Season 3 (Strange Days), five years have passed, Eleonore has taken over as CEO, and Richland Health is about to sign off on a huge acquisition, only for the company to be thrown into chaos once again. Between cooked books and suicide, does the psychiatric wonder drug really live up to its promises? Who's pulling the strings, and what will Eleonore do about it? Peter Stormare joins the cast as Dr. Anton Kozar.
Tropes
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: David Hammer turns out to be fully aware that the trials for the new drug have revealed serious, even deadly side effects, but tries to sweep it under the rug to get the drug out quickly.
- Crusading Widow: While stuck in hiding at the governor's house, Peter runs his own discreet investigation into his wife's suspected murder.
- Exact Words: It turns out that Eleonore and Michael's mother snuck in a tiny but significant change to her and Peter's will: the part bequeathing the inheritance to Eleonore and Michael is changed to say "all of Peter's children", allowing Santino Reyes to get his share of the inheritance as well.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Eleonore is a down-to-earth academic and more responsible than Michael, who has a bit of a painkiller habit. More seriously, she becomes the one of the two who tries to do the right thing while Michael is too protective of his own interests not to help Richland Health cover up Peter's sexual misconduct.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Season 2 shows how some outsiders have responded really badly to the accusations against Peter Richland due to how popular he was and how influential his company is, accusing the victims of lying. Eleonore, who helped break the story, even gets burned in effigy and harassed by people protesting outside the Richland Health building.
- Herr Doktor: Dr. Anton Kozar is a pharmacologist who emigrated from East Germany.
- Killed Offscreen: Season 3 reveals that, a few years before its beginning, Michael died of an opioid overdose when his addiction turned worse.
- Never Found the Body: While the Richland's mother was found dead after the plane crash, Peter was not. Sure enough, he turns out to be alive.
- Rape as Drama: Peter Richland turns out to have been a sexual predator who raped several women.
