We all have TV shows that we go to again, and again. They’re the comfort food of the binge-watching era. Some watch vintage science fiction shows from the 70s, others consume 90s sitcoms. It is inevitable that Breaking Bad will become an occupant of (if it hasn’t already) this space — Walter White and Jesse Pinkman have become archetypes, which is a little bit sad considering how original and atypical they are as characters. What’s worse, though, is that the success of shows like Breaking Bad has encouraged a piggyback profusion of mediocre, me-too shows and movies — Netflix’s Ozark, unfortunately, is one of them, a crime thriller that squanders a promising start to lose the plot mid-season, literally and figuratively.
Marty Byrd (Jason Bateman), our straight-man-turned-criminal-mastermind for the show, is paying off a debt to Mexican drug lord Del (Esai Morales) by laundering money for him. His wife Wendy (Laura Linney) and their family moves from Chicago to a summer resort in the Missouri Ozarks. The first couple of episodes are quite punchy, with Bateman offering us a grim variant of his Michael Bluth (his famous Arrested Development character) poker-face. The ever-reliable Laura Linney tries her best to extract moments of vulnerability from a clearly underwritten character.
In the very first episode, Marty rushes out from his car to confront his wife’s lover — only to see him land on the pavement next to his feet, burst open like a tomato. This is a visceral, genuinely shocking moment, but moments like these pretty much dry up after this. Bateman utters some platitudes once in a while, to remind us about his unbearable moral dilemma or some such. The rest of the cast (with the exception of Julia Garner as Ruth Langmore, a 19-year-old woman who becomes Marty’s chief aide) appears to go through their motions; competent but never really stirring. This is typically the case when conceptually, the creators dish out something so derivative that even the actors feel a sense of déjà vu.
It's a tricky time for television, because more and more heavy hitters from the industry are now betting on Netflix and Hulu and Starz, all of whom have created very worthy shows this year. But in the rush to consolidate and optimise their business, they risk making the creative process thoroughly mechanised, algorithmic even. Ozark seems to be the product of one such board meeting, where figures and audience preference polls filled gaps meant for the writing team.
Ozark is available on Netflix India
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