On July 28, 2017, in my review for the first season of Ozark, I praised the series as much as I could, but I wrote that I didn’t know if there would be a second season. Ozark, which started as a mini-series, got the desired attention and turned into a 4-season adventure. In this process, each season has progressed from a slow-paced struggle for survival into an action-packed Crime 101 series. Ozark spent all four seasons to the fullest with its characters who died, who just joined the series, who survived, who developed themselves and grew up before our eyes. I can’t say that I was sad about the finale. This adventure had to end somewhere. I have to say that they even spread it well over 4 seasons.
The fourth season was a manifestation of an increasingly warped story. Marty took his family with him and moved to Ozark, promising to launder $8 million to the cartel in the first season. He never thought he’d run into trouble on his way to Ozark, which his dead friend called redneck paradise. But Ozark wasn’t an innocent place at all. When all Marty had to do was launder money, he suddenly found himself in the drug trade. And while he could have kept his word, he found himself in a swamp from which he could never get out because of the Snell family. So the distortion started from here. Wherever he took steps to save himself and his family, a new problem arose; other problems erupted while solving one problem.
Again, Ozark started out as a series that only ran through Marty. However, with the inclusion of Wendy in the story, the series gained serious momentum. The series, which progressed slowly but concisely like an oxcart in the first season, officially accelerated like Ferrari in the second season. Turning from the story of money laundering into a series with the theme of “how to commit a crime.” Joking aside, if you ever need to launder money or blackmail someone, just watch 4 seasons of Ozark. There are lessons and details about all kinds of crimes in the series. This acceleration increase starts with Wendy. Her incorrigible ambition is dragged Marty with her, and when the cartel problem that the Snells screwed up gets involved, the difficulties grow like a mountain.
Wendy isn’t the only one joining the story in season two. With a second ambitious female character, Ruth Langmore, well placed in the story, the series turned into a flood of excitement every second. We can say that Ruth, played by Julia Garner, is the most exquisite character in this series after Jason Bateman. Although she is just one of Ozark’s rednecks, she managed to survive for four seasons thanks to her choice of places where she stood and her communication with the Byrde family. But when she chose to distance herself from Byrde’s, she prepared her end. One of the most frustrating points of the show is that for us, the audience, no other character except the Byrde family can calculate the results. Most of them wouldn’t have seen the end of the second season if the Byrde family hadn’t tried to tidy up the decisions that they took with the courage of ignorance.
One of the best things Ozark did was make sure the characters they included each season could be permanent. The series, which added Ben Davis, Roy Petty, Helen Pierce, Omar Navarro, Javi Elizonndro, and many more characters, was totally successful in its choices. Since there is no purposeless populism in the series, where even a single character is not superfluous, the series reached the finale without any sagging in its story for four seasons. As much as I dislike the finale, I have to say that it actually ended quite logically. I even have to say that I find it a bit ironic. The family’s salvation, which struggled for a whole season to clear their name, was when everyone died.
Bottom line… Ozark was a “discovery” series for me. I wrote about it as soon as I watched it and shared it with my compliments. I wasn’t very hopeful for the second season. However, luckily, it didn’t turn out as I expected, and the series remained a part of our lives for 5 years. As I mentioned above, Ozark, one of the rare works in which Netflix does not mix populism, is one of the top 10 projects in its catalog if you ask me personally. The momentum it gained, especially with the second season, was thanks to Wendy and Ruth. Love it or not, they are the main amplifiers. Wendy, who has turned into one of the most shrewd women on the screen; Ruth, who tries to do great things despite her ignorance; and Marty, who wrote the book of composure, gave me one of the most extraordinary shows I’ve watched in my 31-year life. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the production.
totally agreed.
great review.