The First Five of "Ozark"

Moderate spoilers ahead.

The least realistic thing about crime thrillers like "Ozark" is that nearly everyone is smart.  I can appreciate that everyone is greedy, ambitious, self-important, or willing to resort to violence at the drop of a hat, but the prevalence of criminal masterminds here is pretty unlikely.  However, it does make the show a whole lot more fun to watch than it would be otherwise.  

Jason Bateman plays Marty Byrde, a Chicago-based financial advisor whose life is turned upside down by two revelations.  One, his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) is having an affair.  Two, his business partner has been stealing money from a Mexican drug cartel they launder money for.  Marty manages to talk his way out of being executed by cartel enforcer Del Rio (Esai Morales), but this requires moving his family to the remote Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri to set up a new money laundering operation.  

I love how aware the show's creators, Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams, are of some of the usual tropes of this kind of show, and deliberately avoid them - or subvert them to their own advantage.  Marty and Wendy have two teenagers, Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), who are told the truth about what's going on after only a few episodes.  When some of the money is stolen by the petty criminal Langmore family, Marty manages to recover most of it - not through force or trickery - but by confronting them directly, and laying out the bad consequences of what happens if they keep it.  However, Marty's got plenty of flaws and blind spots.  When he tries to find businesses to invest in and use them for his laundering operation, the locals are rightfully suspicious - and one immediately knows exactly what Marty is up to.  

And after five episodes, the most sympathetic character is Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner), one of the thieves who Marty recognizes is brighter than the rest, and ropes into his schemes.  Marty is acting out of desperation, but already shows signs of being  far more morally compromised than similar characters like "Breaking Bad's" Walter White.  Wendy, meanwhile, is getting her groove back through her own ruthless schemes, and displays the capability to be just as despicable as anyone else in the cast.  Bateman and Linney are very good here, and I like the very messy dynamic that their characters share - sure, they have some pretty severe trust issues, but their interests are so closely aligned, maybe they can still work things out.

"Ozark" is designed to be fast paced, with a new plot twist coming every episode, and cliffhanger endings are pretty much a given.  The way that the problems have been compounding and compounding as new characters are introduced has been fantastic.  We're five episodes in, and the Byrdes are already juggling three major sets of villains - the cartel, the Langmores, and the drug dealing Snell clan - plus an FBI investigator, Roy Petty, (Jason Butler Harner) they don't even know about.  Then there are at least two people that they're conning - lodge owner Rachel (Jordana Spiro) and a pastor (Michael Mosely), plus Harris Yulin living in the Byrds' basement, encouraging Jonah's budding psychopathy.  This is one of the best plot-driven shows I've seen in a while, with very smart writing and no boring installments.  I'm not fond of the Charlotte or Roy storylines at the moment, but I'm hopeful that they're leading somewhere interesting.

In short, I've found my latest binge.  "Ozark" has been a series on my radar since it was racking up Emmys a few years ago, but my "to watch list" was already massive, and "Better Call Saul" was always ahead of it in the queue.  Now I'm done with "Saul," and frankly I've missed having a thriller series in  my rotation.  The fact that it's only four seasons and 44 episodes is definitely a plus, and I expect I'll have to take care not to watch it all too quickly.  Definitely keep an eye out for more "Ozark" posts ahead.  

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