Starring: Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Julia Garner, Jason Butler Harner, Esai Morales, Peter Mullan, Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner, Lisa Emery, Jordana Spiro, Harris Yulin, Marc Menchaca
With his ability to analyze, forecast, extrapolate, and problem solve, I can't imagine Marty Byrde (Bateman), a Chicago financial analyst who launders millions for a Mexican drug cartel, didn't foresee at least the possibility of the trouble he faces in Ozark. His life isn't exactly rosy before he learns at gunpoint that his partner has been skimming from the cartel. His wife Wendy (Linney) is cheating on him, and he views the video footage from a private eye's hidden camera repeatedly. Is he angry or being voyeuristic?
His cartel contact Camino del Rio (Morales) kills Marty's partner and stuffs him in a barrel of acid. Marty survives, but only after convincing "Del" that there are beaucoup money laundering opportunities in the Missouri Ozarks. Del gives Marty and his family 48 hours to leave Chicago, relocate to the Ozarks, and then set up shop. Marty assumes incorrectly he can quietly launder the eight million dollars his late partner stole from Del because it's the Ozarks, after all. He's wrong, and in many ways, puts himself and his family in even further danger by stepping on the toes of the criminal element there.
The crime families of Ozark are the Snells and the Langmores. They each encounter Marty and both profit and suffer from his involvement in their lives. The Langmores are what the Snells would consider rednecks. The Snells live on a vast poppy farm which feeds their heroin distribution ring. The Langmores think smaller, and nineteen-year-old Ruth (Garner) is the driving force behind their schemes to get rich quick. The Snells quote the Bible, but they surely don't follow its spirit. The Langmores don't pretend to be religious at all.
On the periphery is FBI agent Roy Petty (Garner), who smells a rat when Marty's partner goes missing and Marty withdraws eight million from his various bank accounts before skipping town. Roy camps out at a local Ozark hotel, ingratiates himself with Ruth's closeted uncle Russ (Menchaca), before seducing him into becoming his lover and later informant. During the eighth episode of the first season, we witness Roy's mother succumb to a heroin addiction back in 2007, and this fills in the background as to why his obsession with taking down Marty and the cartel isn't strictly part of the job.
Ozark is wonderful noir drama with a lead character who is a criminal, and a family who is complicit in his crimes, although one can forgive his two children since they are teens and have nowhere else to go. Marty's life is a pressure cooker of robbing Peter to pay Paul and trying to prevent his house of cards from blowing away in the wind. Bateman expertly conveys this, and even though Marty is a criminal too, we sympathize with him to an extent. His reasons for getting in bed with the drug cartel aren't excuses, but the opening speech of the first episode gives us a window into what makes Marty tick. I suppose we care more for Marty because there are lines he won't cross, lines which the Snells and Langmores obliterated long ago. Laura Linney delivers her usual excellent work. She doesn't just sit on the sidelines; she thinks and schemes just like her husband.
At least through season one, Ozark does not attempt to paint Marty as a hero or a victim of circumstance. He made his bed, now he must lie in it, and what compels us to keep watching is wondering why he felt he needed to make this bed to begin with.
A thoughful review of a gripping first series. My opinion of the character Marty, played by Jason Bateman, is mixed; I admire his quick logic and problem-solving on the hoof when faced with extreme choices (not to mention when a gun is held to his head on several occasions!). However, he still seems ambivalent about his feelings for his unfaithful wife, brilliantly played by Laura Linney.
ReplyDeleteHe is really only keeping the whole thing together for the sake of the kids.
Special commendation for the soundtracks to the pivotal scenes - I thought the Radiohead track at the end of Ep. 1 was superbly chosen. Indeed, the choice of music throughout was perfect.
Laura Linney and Jason Bateman head an excellent cast of eccentric characters, and the plot turns are deliciously sudden.
I rate the drama and characters in this series right up there with the classic Breaking Bad. Well done to Jason Bateman!
I an savouring binge-watching S2 and S3!
BTW, I rated the 1st Series as 4.5 out of 5, superb crime drama.
DeleteI agree with your assessment. Seasons two and three only muddy the waters further with Marty and Wendy's relationships. It is also a rare show in which the children don't disappear for episodes at a time, but are an integral part of the plot.
ReplyDelete