Considering everyone is confined to their homes with no end in sight, Netflix couldn’t have picked a better time to release the final season of its crime drama Ozark, and it’s some of Netflix’s best work yet.
At its best, Ozark nearly reaches the heights of legendary crime dramas such as The Sopranos, The Wire and Breaking Bad. At its worst, Ozark has an unnecessarily complicated plot, rough with storylines of side characters that are uninteresting or add nothing to the core story.
Ozark follows Marty Bryde (Jason Bateman), a financial adviser whose gig laundering millions for the cartel goes awry, causing him to cut a deal with the drug lord he’s working for. As a result, Bryde lands himself, his family and his broken marriage in a tourist town in the Ozark mountains while trying to repay a humongous debt to the cartel. The story is simple and straightforward enough — until it’s not.
The first two-thirds of season one are fantastic and bolstered by captivating performances from Bateman and Laura Liney (Wendy Bryde). The dynamic of a failing marriage being strained further by a minor-mannered husband turning to the underworld to support his family is incredibly reminiscent of Breaking Bad.
Unfortunately, as the show progresses, the writers decided to descend into subplots and subplots within those subplots, which led to a rather uninteresting, far-fetched and convoluted story. By the latter half of season two, the FBI, the mob, politicians, a drug cartel, local drug dealers, small-time criminals, a crazed former preacher and local police were all circling around Marty Byrde. That’s enough to make anyone’s head spin, especially when it lacks careful execution. Despite all this, the performances remained fantastic, but it wasn’t always enough to save the show. Worst of all, as some of the younger actors grew into their roles, the story got weaker.
The best thing the second season did was conclude the season by cutting off the unnecessary characters and storylines. This provided the setup for an absolutely fantastic, gripping and tragic third season. By getting back to the core players in the show, and providing a few new but important faces, Ozark managed to produce a near-perfect season. The newer characters shined, and those who had been around were given the opportunity to take center stage in ways they hadn’t before.
Perhaps the most riveting factor was the introduction of Marty Bryde’s bipolar brother, whose actions when refusing to medicate put everyone in peril. The character was portrayed flawlessly and tragically. Ozark finally managed to express the strains crime can place on a family in a refreshing and heartbreaking way.
Although the newest season cannot completely make up for the flaws of former seasons, it takes the story to new heights and makes it worth investing the time to work through some of the subpar episodes. Ozark will never be in the upper echelon of crime shows, but it comes extremely close in season three.
