Ozark (TV series)

Ozark is an American crime drama thriller web series created by Bill Dubuque^[1][2] and produced by Media Rights Capital.^[3] Jason Bateman stars in the series; he also directed the first two and last two episodes.^[4] The first season is composed of nine one-hour episodes with a final 80 minute episode;^[5] it was released on Netflix on July 21, 2017.^[6]

Bateman portrays financial planner Marty Byrde, and Laura Linney portrays a homemaker turned real estate agent Wendy Byrde.^[7] Marty suddenly relocates the family from a Chicago suburb to a summer resort community in the Missouri Ozarks^[8] after a money laundering scheme goes wrong, and he must pay off a debt to a Mexican drug lord.^[9]

Cast

Main

• Jason Bateman as Martin "Marty" Byrde, a self-employed financial advisor, based in Chicago. In 2007, he and his business partner began to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel.^[4]
• Laura Linney as Wendy Byrde, Marty's wife, and Charlotte and Jonah's mother. After moving to the Ozarks, Wendy becomes a realtor and starts to identify businesses for Marty to use to launder money.^[7]
• Sofia Hublitz as Charlotte Byrde, Marty and Wendy's 15-year-old daughter, who strives to return to Chicago.^[4]
• Skylar Gaertner as Jonah Byrde, Marty and Wendy's 13-year-old son, who begins to show strange interests in dead animals and guns.
• Julia Garner as Ruth Langmore, a 19-year-old woman who has the potential to become a dangerous criminal. She becomes part of Marty's money laundering operation and is in charge of the day-to-day operations of a local strip club, known as "Lickety Splitz".^[8]
• Jordana Spiro as Rachel Garrison, a local hotel owner and Byrde's business partner
• Jason Butler Harner as Roy Petty, an FBI agent investigating Marty
• Esai Morales as Camino Del Rio, a ruthless crime lord for a Mexican cartel for whom Marty launders money
• Peter Mullan as Jacob Snell, an established local crime lord
• Lisa Emery as Darlene Snell, Jacob's wife

Recurring

• Michael Mosley as Pastor Mason Young.
• Josh Randall as Byrde's partner Bruce Liddell.
• McKinley Belcher III as FBI agent Trevor Evans and Roy Petty's former lover.
• Harris Yulin as Buddy Dyker, Byrde's live-in tenant.
• Kevin L. Johnson as Sam Dermody, a real estate agent in the Ozarks.
• Marc Menchaca as Russ Langmore, Wyatt and Three's father, Ruth's uncle, and Boyd's brother.
• Christopher James Baker as Boyd Langmore, Wyatt and Three's uncle. Part of the Langmore family gang.
• Charlie Tahan as Wyatt Langmore, Russ's eldest son.
• Adam Boyer as Bobby Dean, owner of the Lickety Splitz strip club.
• Sharon Blackwood as Eugenia Dermody, Sam's controlling, overbearing mother who works for her son's real estate business.
• Joseph Melendez as Garcia, an enforcer for Del and watchdog for the Byrdes.
• Bethany Ann Lind as Grace Young, Pastor Mason Young's pregnant wife.
• Michael Tourik as Ash, an enforcer for the Snells
• Robert C. Treveliar as Sheriff John Nix.

Production

The show is set at a modest waterfront resort at Lake of the Ozarks, inspired by the Alhonna Resort and Marina where series creator Dubuque worked as a dock hand while attending school in Missouri during the 1980s.^[10] Most of the shooting locations are in the Atlanta area at Lake Allatoona and Lake Lanier, rather than at the Lake of the Ozarks, because of tax breaks offered by the State of Georgia.^[11][12] The film crew constructed a set in Georgia after extensively studying the Alhonna Resort property.^[10] Some scenes are filmed at Chicago locations.^[13] Only a few scenes from the pilot were shot in the actual city of Lake Ozark, Missouri, which include shots of the locally famous "Welcome To Lake Of the Ozarks" sign and the "Injun Joe Muffler Man" statue.

Episodes

Critical reception

Ozark has received positive reviews, particularly for Bateman's non-comedic performance. On Metacritic, the series has a score of 67 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[14] On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 65% approval rating with an average score of 6.8 out of 10 based on 46 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Ozark hasn't yet reached the same level as the classic crime dramas to which it will inevitably be compared, but its satisfyingly complex plot – and a gripping performance from Jason Bateman – suggest greater potential."^[15]

Brian Lowry of CNN wrote, "While the fish-out-of-water concept is one of TV's oldest, Ozark carves out its own path with clever twists — including a late-in-the-run flashback explaining how the cartel came into his life — and the sheer strength of the performances."^[16] TV critic Sonia Saraiya of Variety wrote that Ozark is "smart, well-crafted, and says something," and that the series "comes together under Bateman's disarming and deceptively complex performance as Marty."^[17]

Critics compared Ozark positively to Breaking Bad, both of which involve a seemingly normal protagonist suddenly immersed in a world of crime. According to Film Daily, "Once you get past the surface similarities, Ozark shines as something special and inventive, an intense crime opera where the scenery is as much the star as anyone in the cast."^[18]

Symbols in the O at the beginning of each episode

Each episode of Ozark begins with a recurring vignette consisting of a white O that grows in size on a black background, followed by a white crosshair that emerges at the center. The crosshair divides the O into quadrants, each of which shows a picture that symbolizes a major event or theme in that episode, as well as spelling out the letters Z-A-R-K.

References

External links

• Ozark on IMDb