"Ozark" Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hAXVqrljbs

"This is our life now. I can stay here. I can talk about our feelings. Or I can go take care of stuff and make sure that we don't die, okay?"

Jason Bateman plays Marty Byrde, a successful financial advisor in Chicago who launders money for a Mexican drug cartel. When Marty's life is threatened after a financial scheme goes wrong, he proposes to move to the Ozarks to grow the business more to save his family's life.

However, building a money laundering business in the Ozarks proves to be a challenging conquest as there are dangerous enemies who will do anything to get in the Byrde's way. Nevertheless, Marty is a calm, analytical thinker who can come up with creative solutions with the aid of his wife, Wendy, and another ally, Ruth Langmore.

Wendy Bryde is a brave politician who appears to be sympathetic toward other people's emotions. But, as time passes, it's clear that her greed for power overcompensates the need to protect her family.

Ruth Langmore is a fearless and rebellious teenager who doesn't take disrespect from anyone and knows how to put people in their place. She and Marty have a tumultuous mentor-mentee relationship throughout the show.

There is a reason why Netflix's critically acclaimed series, "Ozark," is top-rated, and some of the cast have even won Emmy awards for their outstanding performances. The crime series has intense scenes with climactic season finales, strong character development, and shocking deaths that will blow the viewer away. It's interesting to watch each season as the Byrde family gains more enemies and threats while getting further embedded into the darkness of the cartel.

When I first started watching the show, I will admit that season one was a bit slow to me, so I stopped watching it. However, a few months later, after hearing solid recommendations from work, I gave it another chance and was hooked following the last two episodes of season one. Each season after that became more intense and darker than before, so definitely stick to it.

"Ozark" is the next series on your watchlist if you are looking for something gripping, unpredictable, and insane character development that will have you screaming at the TV based on some character decisions. If I hadn't gone back to watch it, I would've missed out on a phenomenal thriller.

Below, I will post my opinion of the series finale, and it will contain spoilers, so don't read it if you haven't watched the show yet. If you have seen the series finale, please feel free to proceed.

In the comments or contact form below, let me know your thoughts on the show or if you have any show recommendations. You can click the link here to sign up for the blog email list and submit suggestions for shows :)

Season Four Part 2: Finale

The beginning of season four: part two was epic. Ruth Langmore had just discovered her cousin's body, threatened to kill Marty, and was planning on finding and murdering the new cartel leader. The raw emotions of her grief and her brief moment of hesitation to kill grip the entire episode. When she finally did kill the cartel leader, it was semi-shocking but not really, given how she killed her uncles before. Maybe this episode is what sealed her fate in the series finale, but to be honest, I don't think she deserved it.

Although Ruth has been a frenemy to the Byrde's, she was always there for Marty when he ultimately needed it. She was willing to help protect his family whenever he was desperate and threatened by the cartel. And what has she gotten in return? Her involvement with the Byrde's led to her not having any family members left aside from one. Despite her arrogance and slight cockiness towards the Byrde's and attempting to ruin their casino business throughout season four, she still shouldn't have died. There are a variety of alternate endings that could have been way better; let's go over a few:

A. Claire never tells Camilla about Ruth being her son's killer. The Byrde's are free, and Ruth is running the casino. It could have led to a potential spinoff with Ruth as the main character.

B. Before Camila can kill Ruth, Marty manages to kill her instead. Both cartel leaders (Camila & Omar) are now out of the picture, so Marty would ultimately become the new cartel leader (just as the FBI wanted), and Ruth would be his right-hand woman who runs the casino.

C. Wendy Byrd gets killed. Let's face it, not too many people are fond of her character, including me. This action would allow Marty to become the individual he was in the beginning, highly analytical and creative, instead of a puppet who did almost everything Wendy says (aside from getting Ruth in trouble).

Season 4 was also disappointing in what I wanted Marty Byrde's character development to be. In season one, he's this calm, collected guy who can talk his way out of any dangerous situation with a creative, analytical solution. Del notices that, and by the season one finale, it appears as though they may become closer until Del offends Darlene Snell and gets his head blown off. After that, Wendy starts to take a more significant role in the family's involvement with the cartel, and it only gets deeper from there. For ten years, Marty kept the family alive and well without much participation in the cartel aside from money laundering. Yet, once Wendy gets involved, they get embedded deeper and become a financial lifeline to the cartel.

Marty's character begins to diminish slowly; he has fewer speech moments that save their lives and starts to do what his wife wishes him to do. Even in those moments where I thought he would become something bigger and better, like on his trips to Mexico, it ends in disappointment because he goes back to being a puppet in the end. I wanted a better ending for him, where the underdog becomes the top dog. If there's anything he stood his ground on when it came to his wife, it was in protecting Ruth. If it was up to Wendy, we all know that Ruth would have been dead. And in the series finale, I had hoped that he would have protected Ruth again even if it may put his life at risk. I had hoped that he would be the one to kill Camille before she could kill Ruth. But, perhaps, that was too much to ask.

The siblings (Charlotte and Jonah) did a switch. In seasons one and two, Charlotte is rebellious and not very supportive of what the Byrde's do; she doesn't want to be a part of the family, while Jonah is all in for it and even wants to participate in it because he thinks it's fantastic. However, the two siblings switch places after Ben comes along and dies. Charlotte begins working for the family and providing assistance, while Jonah does the opposite. Jonah works for the enemy, tells secrets that could jeopardize everything his family is working toward, and lives on his own because he doesn't want to be a part of the family anymore. I'm not sure how he miraculously became supportive of his family again towards the end of season four, but everything just felt like a rush when the writers had plenty of time to come up with a better ending. There are a few loose ends, like what will happen to Three now that his whole family is dead and what's next for the Byrde's?