SummaryMarty Byrde (Jason Bateman) and his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) move from Chicago to The Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri in this drama created by Bill Dubuque.
SummaryMarty Byrde (Jason Bateman) and his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) move from Chicago to The Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri in this drama created by Bill Dubuque.
There was a bit of a stumble in Season 2, but with Season 3, I’m pleased to report we’re back in business. ... [Julia Garner] continues to deliver shattering work as the whip-smart, fierce and tough but also vulnerable Ruth, who remains the most sympathetic character on the show.
The deck is stacked against the fledgling money launderers. How they maneuver around their detractors is still “Ozark’s” biggest strength. Couple that with the one-two punch of Linney and Pelphrey, and this is a compelling season worth binging.
One of my top 5 all time shows. This a quality show. Always on edge. Complex characters. Great writing/directing/visuals. And now 3 seasons in it just gets better. This is a must watch series.
Save for a few minor missteps concerning Wyatt’s foolishness and Ruth’s less-than-wholly-believable anger over her own dad’s assassination, Ozark once again handles its business with merciless efficiency.
“Ozark” still has its crazy nooks and crannies — Ruth’s young cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) takes up with the much older deranged opium grower Darlene (Lisa Emery), things like that — and the troubled, still-loving chemistry between Marty and Wendy remains powerful. Plus gangsters, drug cartels, body counts, all the standard pleasures of crime shows.
Season 3 is a marked improvement over Season 2, dialing up the pressure and tossing in just enough surprises to keep the audience on their toes. It’s engaging, well-acted (Linney and Bateman really are spectacular), and the moody blue and green color palette remains an incomparable tone-setter. Still, there’s un-mined drama in these murky waters.
The Byrdes make some bogglingly stupid, irresponsible choices, which dilute the show’s cool credibility—and, especially in season three, send it careening toward melodrama. Finely acted melodrama, but melodrama nonetheless.
Those who weren’t crazy about the series to begin with are unlikely to be magically won over—Ozark Season 3 is still very much Ozark—but fans of the series are sure to once again get wrapped up in the cavalcade of complications (and twists) that ensue, especially as the season reaches its explosive final episodes.
It is so well shot with those sleek and smooth camera movements that are such a relief from all those shows with the horrendous jerky cam, and the story is unfolding so effortlessly with such a lulling pace that it feels like riding inside Helen Pierce's jaguar. Jason Bateman is a pleasure to watch. His character is clearly the main reason to watch this show. Imagine if Bugs Bunny were a dead serious accountant dancing around the cartel, the FBI, the mob, his wife etc...
However, just like the Jags of the past, you have to contend with quite major technical problems:
- implausible plot twists and deus ex-machina
- inane motivations of certain characters (when you are squeezed by the cartel and the FBI, do you really fight tooth and nail for adopting a third child at 48?)
- lazy clichés and one-note characters (Wendy's brother feels like a cheap plot trick).
Hence, it's best to enjoy the show with a glass of vino in the hand, with half the brain shut. Or should it be with Darlene's hemp products? Wait. Was that the subliminal message all along?
It's not bad, but it's not good.
Ozark has two glaring problems. First is the casting. When they get it right; they hit it out of the park, but the casting "fails" are disasters. You will really notice how some of the characters just don't look the the part, especially if you're a V.Gilligan fan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul). It's a tad difficult to not compare it to Breaking Bad a little, because instead of a Chemist breaking bad (so to speak), it's an accountant.
The second problem is the story. It's starts to really become pretty unrealistic even within it's own boundaries. You will yell, Oh Come ON, and, Give Me A Break, many times throughout all seasons. The story is really asking a lot from the viewer; way too much.
It's not all bad. I love the way it's shot. Bateman is definitely the best thing in the show (both as actor and director). Some (but few) of the supporting actors, mainly Julia Garner as Ruth are pretty good. Like many series, however, some dialogue scenes are just flat out boring...skip those. You'll know them when you see them. The good news is that these problems are fixable, so I hope they do for Season 4.
All in all it's just okay, as long as you're not expecting The Sopranos, or Breaking Bad level quality. For what Netflix has to offer, it's watchable enough.
"Old white woman with an inflated ego is tired of making peanut butter sandwiches so she teams up with a lesbian lawyer and the leader of a narcoterrorist group to guilt trip her husband."
Ozark S03 is like House of Cards S06. No one is going to remember that it even existed.