Why Ozark Is The Best Crime Show Since Breaking Bad
Miscellaneous / / April 29, 2022
Netflix released the final episodes of the famous show. If you haven't watched it, it's time to catch up.
The Ozark series ended on April 29. The final seven episodes appeared on the streaming service Netflix, the second half of the fourth season - with recently, the platform divides its most popular projects into parts in order to keep spectators.
For Netflix, Ozark is a really important series. And both in terms of ratings, and for the image. The initial half of the final season immediately started from the first place in the top views - viewers spent 77 million hours on this project in a week. He overtook even the mega-popular "Archive 81”, although, in fairness, it was already the second week since the release.
At the same time, if you look at the ratings of critics, they grew from year to year. The first and second seasons of Ozark have about 70% positive reviews on the aggregator Rotten TomatoesOzark/Rotten Tomatoes. The third and fourth have already more than 90%.
And it is no coincidence. The project really accelerated with each episode, throwing more and more unexpected twists. Against this background, the ending may seem a little timid. But still, the ending of Ozark does not disappoint and fully fits into the main ideas of the series.
Lifehacker did not write reviews of previous seasons. Therefore, by the release of the final episodes, we will tell you why the series is worth paying attention to.
Ozark has an incredibly dynamic plot without failures
The protagonist of the project is financial consultant Marty Bird (Jason Bateman). He is married with two children and seems to be the most law-abiding, boring and even cowardly person, he even tolerates the infidelities of his wife Wendy (Laura Linney). In fact, the hero, along with his partner, helps the Mexican cartel to launder money earned from the sale of drugs. But one day it turns out that Marty's friend was stealing. He is killed, and the consultant himself, in order to save his life, convinces the boss that he has found a great way to launder money in a quiet town near the Lake of the Ozarks.
Marty and his wife and children urgently move to a new place and are looking for all possible ways to withdraw mafia cash through a local business. But here there are drug dealers, as well as petty bandits and just suspicious residents. And literally with every step, the position of the Byrd family only becomes more difficult.
The above is just the beginning of the series. If we talk about further events in general terms, it may seem that the Ozark is a very slow project. With the exception of rare offshoots, all four seasons of Marty and his family are trying to come up with a new scheme. money launderers, face new obstacles and just try to somehow survive, because they are threatened and cartel, and local bigwigs, and the FBI.
But in fact, the dynamics of the "Ozark" can be envied by many thrillers and almost militants. The main indicator is that hourly episodes do not seem to be drawn out. Literally in every episode, the authors manage to surprise the viewer. If not by the appearance of another criminal, then by a new financial scheme, for example, the construction of a casino or an attempt to connect a drug cartel with local farmers.
At the same time, only a couple of moves can be called drawn or far-fetched - among them, perhaps, the appearance of Wendy's brother. The vast majority of events perfectly fit into the logic of what is happening, without violating the cause-and-effect relationships. Roughly speaking, if someone did something stupid, he will be punished. Disturbed the established order - problems begin.
And surprisingly, with each season, watching the actions of the characters is only more interesting. We can say that the action develops along a certain sinusoid: as soon as it seems that Marty finally solved all the problems, he figured out with an FBI agent and eliminated inadequate local bandits, immediately the hero falls from the top to the bottom, finding himself on the verge of survival.
The series has very ambiguous characters that develop over time
Ozark is often compared to another crime project, Breaking Bad. In fact, since the end of the Walter White story, many series have claimed to be a replacement, but only the Netflix show has fully succeeded (except for Better Call Saul, of course).
There are indeed many commonalities. In both stories, an exemplary family man is drawn into criminal activity and gradually turns into a cruel bigwig.
But there are also differences in character development. And in this case, you can even argue which of the series shows more interesting characters. The thing is that in the Breaking Bad show, White began selling drugs, being almost in a hopeless situation: he was dying of cancer and trying to urgently earn money. For Marty Bird, the collaboration with mafia - a voluntary choice, he just wanted to increase the comfort of his life. At the same time, the consultant at first stated that he himself did not sell anything and did not kill people, he only dealt with money. Whether these excuses are considered sufficient is up to the viewer. But in any case, the authors deliberately put far from the most positive character in the center of the plot: Bird without hesitation interferes with the quiet life of local residents, which leads to many personal tragedies.
Moreover, it is difficult to call his wife a model of morality. It's not even about betrayal - they were rather the result of problems in family life. But Wendy often continues to do things even more cruel than her husband. Over time, she increasingly manifests herself as an aggressive careerist, and by the end she even turns into almost Marty's opponent.
Still, it's impossible not to sympathize with these characters. Each of them has both positive and negative qualities, everyone often does stupid things and even terrible things out of fear and fear for the family.
Although just from the third season it is more and more noticeable how the main characters are changing. At first, it seems that Marty and Wendy are simply forced to commit another crime, and they themselves are experiencing what happened for a long time. But gradually the heroes resign themselves, becoming more and more prudent and cruel. Before the fall of the hero of the Breaking Bad series, they are far away even in the finale, but still the idea of moral degradation is obvious: at first, Marty is shocked by the actions of the mafia, then he actually gets used even to murders.
But the Ozark is not only based on two or three main characters. The secondary characters of the series turned out, perhaps even more naturalistic. In the first seasons, Buddy (Harris Yulin), a terminally ill old man, from whom the Byrd family buys a house, is revealed incredibly brightly. At first, he seems to be just a function - he says wise lines and pleases with comedic scenes. But gradually turns into the most touching hero and mentor of Jonah (Skylar Gertner) - the son of Marty and Wendy.
The Bird children are also growing up, not only literally, but as characters in the series. Of course, Jonah and Charlotte (Sophia Hublitz) are hostages to their parents' actions. But already from the middle of the second season, each of them is given their own story: the first wants to help the family, the second - secede from her.
Well written secondary characters can be listed for a long time. But perhaps it's better to stick with Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner). A girl from a family of criminals quickly becomes one of Marty's main assistants, while simultaneously planning to outsmart her boss.
However, she is very quickly revealed as the series' most tragic character. The heroine is literally torn between family ties, the desire to escape from terrible conditions and simple honesty. And, if you stretch your imagination just a little, “Ozark” can be considered precisely her story: Ruth’s drama is written almost deeper than the experiences of the main characters.
"Ozark" is perfectly built from the first episodes to the finale
The series can not be called very pretentious in terms of presentation. Despite the fact that the project has an aesthetic picture, constantly flooded with a cold blue filter, a minimalistic soundtrack that pumps tension, and a lot of beautiful wide shots - some of them were filmed on the real Lake of the Ozarks, yet visually "Ozark" is rare surprises.
But the construction of literally every episode and season is worked out as clearly as possible. Many episodes start with a small flash forward, a scene that takes place towards the end. Then they show a screensaver, the characters in which hint at the plot. And it turns out that the beginning gives a hint to what is happening, but you can understand everything only by watching it to the end.
However, it is much more important that the seasons are not separated from each other, unlike, for example, from the same Dexter. At the same time, while maintaining the overall plot, the creators each time set a slightly different direction of action: building a casino or joining a cartel. This helps to avoid self-repetitions.
And yet, many fans had concerns about the finale of the project. It is too difficult for the authors to strike a balance between love for the characters and a clear conclusion to all storylines. Alas, the ending of Ozark is not ideal: in comparison with the Breaking Bad show, it definitely loses. However, this is not a failure, as in the case of the same "Dexteror the recent Killing Eve.
But we can say that the completion of the Ozark turned out completely in the spirit of the series itself. It is as ambiguous as the whole life of Marty Bird and his family. You can be unhappy that not all the heroes got what they deserved. But this project was never about justice. Here again purely human logic works. For tragic heroes, the finale will indeed be gloomy. And for those who are constantly rushing about and wriggling, it is open, allowing them to independently think out what will happen next.
"Ozark" has long been included in the ratings of the best criminal serials. And it's well deserved. The project pleases with dynamics and unexpected twists, but at the same time it retains liveliness and integrity. Its ending may leave controversial impressions, but it certainly won’t upset, but only make you think that in life it would certainly have happened that way.
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