Ozark: Season 4 (Part One)

Creators: Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams
Starring: Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz, Julia Garner, Lisa Emery, Charlie Tahan, Felix Solis, Damian Young, Alfonso Herrera, Adam Rothenberg, John Bedford Lloyd, Joseph Sikora, Katrina Lenk, Bruce Davison, Richard Thomas
Original Airdate: 2022

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★) 

After delivering its biggest shocker and best season last year, anticipation has built as to whether Ozark's final one could not only follow it, but capitalize on that momentum to finish strong. Broken into two parts, the first seven episodes of season 4 is all about complications, setting the table for sure the Byrde family, who are sinking even deeper into the control of the Navarro drug cartel. 

With Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) destroying everyone and everything around them just to stay afloat, whatever moral ambiguity existed when the series began has long passed, as are their promises to "get out" and start fresh. Too much blood has been shed and innocent lives lost to argue otherwise, even as they continue to. And while they might resent being used as puppets by the cartel and are justifiably terrified, the lore of money and public respectability proves too alluring for the insecure Marty and completely corrupted Wendy, whose insatiable appetite for power has believably transformed her into the show's Lady Macbeth. 

With the Missouri Belle casino now thriving and the possibility of them starting their own foundation, Wendy's flexing her political muscles, taking full advantage of opportunities not possible in Chicago before Marty made his pact with the devil. After watching Omar Navarro (Felix Solis) have cartel attorney Helen Pierce (Janet McTeer) shot and killed right in front of them, the fallout's immense, with him seemingly now entrusting the Byrdes as his right-hand couple. 

It's iffy how much longer Marty can keep playing both sides of the fence while Wendy still reconciles ordering the murder of her bipolar brother Ben (Tom Pelphrey), now considered a "missing person." What does Navarro want? Surprisingly, to get out, using Marty's FBI connection and Wendy's respectable reputation to cut a deal and make a clean break. But Navarro's volatile, hot-headed nephew Javi Elizondro (Alfonso Herrera) has other plans, angling to take over the cartel from his uncle and is more than willing to kill them both if need be.  

The big hook heading into the end game is a flashforward car crash that raises even more questions as to whether to Byrdes will ever truly be able to escape, with or without FBI assistance. Marty and Wendy have made their bed and all the scrambling and double talking he does or power plays she makes may not be enough. Their elevation into the cartel's inner circle following  is both good and bad in the sense that if Navarro does intend to go straight and Marty can get a deal done with FBI agent Maya Miller (Jessica Frances Dukes), freedom is in sight. But if any of it goes sideways, literal hell will rain down.

The biggest obstacle is Javi, whose trigger short temper and insistence in having his hands in everything threatens the Byrdes' very existence. Whether it's his sloppy methods of covering up Helen's "disappearance," nearly sabotaging Wendy's deal with a Chicago-based pharmaceutical company CEO (Katrina Lenk) or poisoning Marty's arrangement with Agent Miller, he's this series' answer to Better Call Saul's Lalo Salamanca, only lacking the intelligence. Smoothly played by Herrera, Javi does have some of that character's charisma, making it that much more terrifying when he doesn't get his way. Guided entirely by money and greed, with no forethought or planning whatsoever, his unpredictability establishes him as the season's most dangerous character. 

Completely defiant of this threat is the monstrous Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery) who with boyfriend Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) continues to grow her heroin business, which she cut the K.C. mob in on last season as make good for blowing off Frank Jr.'s (Joseph Sikora) genitals with a shotgun. Darlene powers on despite Marty's dire warnings of Navarro cartel retaliation, having recruited a still enraged Ruth (Julia Garner) to join her cousin Wyatt in moving the product. 

Jumping at whatever opportunity still exists to screw over the Byrdes for their role in boyfriend Ben's death, Ruth's tenuous arrangement with Darlene is destined for failure, if not far worse. Just the thought of these two toxic personalities attempting to co-exist without killing each other provides the exact brand of tension the series thrives on. Emery again impresses as the slimy, manipulative Darlene, but she's met her match in the cunning Ruth, who unsurprisingly wants to run this entire thing, even purchasing a sleazy motel as a front to do it.

If Ruth's still devastated by what happened to boyfriend Ben, Marty and Wendy's previously meek and mild mannered teen son Jonah's (Skyler Gaetner) pain far transcends it, made far worse by his mother's expectations that he simply forget that she killed his uncle and fall back in line. His decision to go against his parents and start laundering money for Ruth and Darlene feels less like a betrayal than justice to him, despite the increased danger he's put his family in. Out for vengeance in a way older sister Charlotte (Sophia Hublitz) never was when she had her own teen rebellion phase earlier in the show's run, he's all done covering for them.

We saw glimpses of this new Jonah last season when he threatened Helen, but Ben's death pushed him off the deep end, hardly giving a care whether anyone discovers his parents' misdeeds. This includes private investigator Mel Sattem (Adam Rothenberg), a disgraced former cop who's arrived in the Ozarks to look into Helen's disappearance and knows something's up. Wendy's excuses and desire to maintain the upper hand only pushes Jonah further away, with Marty flailing in his attempts to play referee. 

As an occasional voice of reason, Jonah now sees his parents as viewers do, knowing that no matter how much Marty and Wendy talk about wanting out, it's hollow. Ironically enough, a now more complicit, Wendy-like Charlotte has drawn the line, insisting he ride this out without putting them in worse jeopardy. But to Jonah, his sister's just the latest victim of Byrde Stockholm Syndrome, despite the fact that his illegal money laundering  makes him more like Marty than he'd ever care to admit. Just because it's for the other side doesn't make it right.

If it wasn't clear before, there are few situations Marty isn't capable of dancing around or talking his way out of, kicking these skills into overdrive when faced with the challenge of cutting a deal for Navarro with Javi breathing down his neck. With a relaxed, deadpan delivery and demeanor, Bateman remains the beating heart of the show and straight man to all the chaos erupting around him, maneuvering his way out of the dark corners the writers frequently paint the character into.

Linney's again terrifying as Wendy, who becomes more drunk on power with each new move she makes, strategically planning her next play while stepping over whomever or whatever it takes to get there. Now utilizing trusted ally Jim Rattelsdorf (Damian Young) as her personal attorney to facilitate this political ascent, the Byrdes still can't get out unless Navarro does, as complicated as that's become due to Javi's interference. 

You know it's bleak when even the supposed "good guys" who could actually help the Byrdes navigate their way out of this mess are severely compromised. Agent Miller is taken advantage of by Marty when Navarro won't play ball and the FBI have their own agenda, which doesn't include giving a free ride to a cartel kingpin. All this while Javi plots his takeover, increasingly viewing Marty and Wendy as liabilities rather than assets.    

One of the show's most explosive moments comes in the Robin Wright-directed mid-season finale (Sanctified"), when Emmy-award winning Julia Garner proves not only how masterfully she inhabits Ruth, but what a great screamer she is, practically summoning up everything available in her soul to convey an unimaginable inner pain in a wildly emotional final scene. It's an inevitable accumulation of poor decisions made by these characters and the likely headline when anyone talks about the first half of this season. 

Simultaneously needing her former employer Marty's resources while still harboring a bitter grudge for everything the Byrdes have done to her family, tragedy strikes and Ruth snaps, setting the stage for what could be Marty and Wendy's last stand. Suddenly, the probability of them crawling out from under the cartel's thumb with their lives couldn't look bleaker. And as these episodes prove, nothing is off the table in terms of who can or can't survive heading into the home stretch.

While the decision to split its final season supposedly resulted from a compromise between Netflix and showrunner Chris Mundy, we'll have to hope this isn't another case of viewers having to wait an inordinate amount of time for what's left. This streaming model of fewer episodes and tighter, shorter seasons have unquestionably led to higher quality storytelling, if you're willing to sacrifice some of the instant gratification. But given all the intriguing events that unfolded to set it up, Ozark's final half can't possibly arrive soon enough.  

Ozark (Season 3)

Creators: Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams
Starring: Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaetner, Julia Garner, Charlie Tahan, Lisa Emery, Janet McTeer, Felix Solis
Original Airdate: 2020

★★★★ (out of ★★★★)


When the first season of Netflix's crime drama Ozark premiered in 2017 to strong reviews and even stronger viewership, few could have guessed it would eventually emerge as the streaming network's most reliable and tightly written series. Much like Breaking Bad, to which its been endlessly compared, it's the rare show that's gotten better as it's steamrolled along, culminating now in a third season that's easily its best. But in hindsight, maybe we should have known. It was always great, moving at a breakneck pace while still managing slowly develop its characters and dropping narrative bread crumbs that result in major, but logical payoffs. The show knows what it is and makes sense, with performances heightening the suspense and impact of an already exhilarating story.

All of those Breaking Bad comparisons seemed lazy at first, based solely on the series' premise of a regular guy and his family being dragged into the drug business. But now that reference seems truly earned, based not on the show's plotline, but its escalating quality. Season 3 is simply a thrill ride and as good as ten episodes of a drama you're likely to see, putting its central characters married characters at war with not only the dangerous outside forces controlling their lives, but each other. In way over their heads, but with wildly different ideas about how to manage, the crisis has become a mirror reflection of their contrasting personalities and histories, ripping their relationship apart in the process.

Fluctuating between clumsy incompetence and Machiavellian genius, The Byrdes have sucked so many people into their vortex, things were bound to blow up. And yet, the show remains at its core about the quest to keep their family safe, even as their actions seem to result in the exact opposite. When launching this new business, everything becomes about facades and keeping up appearances,
 but the arrival of an exciting new character throws a wrench in the power dynamic, providing the ten episodes with almost unbearable levels of tension. It's also one of the best acting performances of the year, as this previously unknown actor takes us to hell and back with one of the saddest and scariest recent on screen depictions of mental illness in any medium. You may as well just hand him the Emmy right now.

After opening and managing the new Missouri Belle casino as a means of laundering money for the Navarro Mexican drug cartel, Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) Byrde find themselves at a crossroads, with him wanting the family out of this terrible situation that followed him from Chicago, and her doubling down, more determined than ever to make this business work. Suddenly she's in the driver's seat, getting another taste of the power and ambition she once had early in her political career, impressing icy cartel lawyer Helen Pierce (Janet McTeer) and her boss, the terrifying Omar Navarro (Felix Solis), to whom Wendy now has a direct line.

While fighting over how best to keep their teen kids Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaetner) safe now that they know everything, the Byrdes have entrusted the fiery, foul-mouthed Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) to manage the casino's day-to-day operations. But her frequent clashes with Kansas City mob boss Frank Cosgrove's (John Bedford Lloyd) son, Frank Jr. (Joseph Sikora), as well as her lingering resentment toward the Byrdes over her father's murder, make her a potential liability.

Still lurking in the wings is local drug runner Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery), who not only owns a piece of the casino, but still has custody of Baby Zeke, and intends on making the Byrdes pay for destroying her town. While she's now corrupted Ruth's estranged cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) into helping her, Wendy's black sheep brother, Ben Davis (Tom Pelphrey), comes to town looking for a place to crash, revealing himself as a ticking time bomb unintentionally playing fast and loose their lives. As Marty entertains a new offer from the FBI and Wendy grows closer with the ever-present Helen, it looks like it'll take more than a few hours with their new marriage therapist to solve the Byrde's many problems.

Rarely do you see as many complications stack up over the course of a full season while having them still all pay off this thrillingly by the end. Co-creators Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams just keep piling it on, with everything always circling around the Byrdes, as lawyer Helen has now increased her stranglehold over the couple, now actually buying a house in the area and dragging along her rebellious teen daughter, Erin (Madison Thompson), with whom she has a fractured relationship.

We're given a lot more insight into the cold, calculating Helen's personal life, as Janet McTeer brings some more fascinating shades to Helen, strategically offering glimpses into what could almost be described as genuine human emotion from as the high-waisted pantsuit wearing operative. Of course, she and the writers are so smart in how they subtly walk up to that edge, before pulling back to remind us that whatever no matter what's happening with her ex-husband or daughter, she's all business and won't hesitate disposing of anyone if necessary.

Helen and Navarro are starting to see the floundering, stressed-out Marty as expendable, especially since he's doing everything he can to sabatoge Wendy's planned casino expansion, even wiretapping her. He just wants out, and it's hard to blame him, as he's being pulled in every direction from Helen, Navarro, the KC mob, Ruth, the FBI, his own power-hungry wife, and even at one humorous point, REO Speedwagon. It would be nice to just pack up and leave as he planned at the end of last season, but it's clear that's no longer a possibility, and for the first time since the pilot, Marty faces immenent physical harm, if not possible death at the hands of a displeased and highly volatile Navarro. Bateman is so good at playing Marty when he's lying, completely straight-faced in his deception and denials, all for the sake of keeping him and his family alive long enough to come up with a new plan. The actor does some of his best work of the series thus far, as a hopeless Marty suffers locked up in solitude in Navarro's Mexican prison, with childhood memories of playing arcade games the only thing keeping him going.

Marty from emerges from his torture test transformed, adopting a new philosophy while Wendy further crystalizes her role as the mover and shaker. Her reasoning that she's digging her heels deeper into the cartel to protect this family have been wearing thin since emerging as the Heisenberg of the series, clearly getting legitimate thrills from being in the power position as Helen and Navarro's chosen one.

The drama has trickled down to the rest of the family as Charlotte and Jonah seem more aware than ever of their parents dangerous dealings, with the former now working for her mom and the latter withdrawing further into himself after reeling from losing his only friend, Buddy, last season. But all their lives are about to be seriously shaken up by the arrival of the most pivotal character, Wendy's estranged younger brother Ben, whom we initially meet in a sensational school-set scene. And even without a clue as to his identity at the time, we can tell he'll be making a huge impact. 

Ben re-enters his older sister's life carrying a considerable amount of baggage, but it's only a matter of time before he's clued in to what's going on. The more he knows, the more he'll want to be involved. And that means trouble. But what's so masterful about Tom Pelphrey's electrifying performance is its sincerity, imbuing Ben with such an honest, moral compass that he almost comes across as childlike in his innocence, wondering why people just can't do what they say and say what they mean. Hyper-sensitive and just to a fault, he's just not built for a world filled with toxic criminality.

While the root of Ben's issues stem from a bi-polar disorder he's battled his whole life and his behavior becomes increasingly monstruous off his meds, there's hardly a moment where we doubt his intentions aren't pure or that he's right. He only wants to protect this family without realizing the best form of that he can provide is to either leave town asap or get back on his meds. And the more erratic and dangerous he is off them, the tougher everything becomes for Wendy, having to choose between his safety and that of her kids and husband. And that's a battle Ben could never win. So he has to be handled instead. The suspense in the final three episodes of the season the tension reaches a boiling point largely because his problems can really only be resolved one way if he continues down this road. And time's running out for all of them.

Despite Wendy's warnings to her, Ruth's relationship with Ben grows, with her emerging as the only person who seems to believe in him, to both their detriments. The decision Wendy feels she's forced to make regarding her mentally disinegrating brother is heartbreaking, with the scenes Linney shares Pelphrey in the penultimate episode representing a series-high on every conceivable level. Even as she senses an increasingly infantile Ben has gone completely off the deep end, there's this apologetic sadness in Pelphrey's eyes and voice that reflect an awareness of what he's done and how badly he's screwed up, all while remaining powerless to stop it. It's really some performance, especially considering he wasn't even a series mainstay until this season.

It all eventually comes down to loyalty. On shaky ground with their slip-ups, the only thing Wendy and Marty seem to agree on is that they need to make a big move to survive. The whole season sets up this power struggle with Helen over Navarro's allegiance that culminates in a truly shocking final moment, and one that  lays the table for a new beginning. The Byrdes may have temporarily gotten what they need, but as usual, the cost hardly seems worth the sacrifice, especially when it's difficult imagining a future where they're ever free from the shackles of the cartel.  For the time being, they've made their bed and have to lay in it, as the show teases the frightening possibility that the worst is yet to come.