Has Ozark – Series 2 Grounded It Among The Best?

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Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

You can find the Ozark – Series 1 review here, and Ozark – Series 3 here. Watch out for SPOILERS as well.

What a happy family, eh? Look at them. Who would have been able to guess that they were in the highest echelon’s of the crime world, desperately finding ways to save their lives and launder money for the Mexican cartel.

Yes, Ozark returned with flying colours for a second series, the story mainly diffusing from Marty’s (Jason Bateman) idea to open a casino, where they would then be able to find a legitimate operation for the cartel to launder money, all the while scheming a way to escape from the 120-beats-per-minute heart of Missouri, out to the Gold Coast. But, if you’ve watched the show, you’d know nothing quite goes to plan for Marty or his wife, Wendy (Laura Linney).

Like the first series, we see the continuation of strong female characters – only now, there’s more. This is really great to witness – I highlighted the lack of opportunities and limited originality of a male writer’s mind in my Se7en review. Anyone who says, “There’s a reason why there are less female characters because male actors are better,” just take a watch of Ozark. Your theory will be successfully shot down in flames. Laura Linney is superb, but her good friend Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner), who’s character and performance just gets better every time I watch, perhaps has a stake at best character in the whole damn thing. And we also get to meet, maybe surprisingly, Helen Pierce (Janet McTeer), the Mexican gang’s lawyer. After Del, it wasn’t what I was expecting, but reinforces that they can be more than just the innocent victim or the bawd. Quite frankly, they could be any archetype, but the characters in this particular series are far more complex than that.

I’d like to devote a paragraph to good old Roy Petty (Jason Butler Harner). He has an unfortunate, and unexpected, death in this series, but I just found him a fascinating character. It’s quite a sad ending – finally off this case that has ruled and strangled his life for so long so he can go look after his heroin addicted mother but is taken out by petty criminal Cade Langmore (Trevor Long) pleading – yes, pleading – to be a rat against his daughter Ruth. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like Roy. He’s a manipulating, devious, self centred, intense police agent, that feeds drugs to his informants and aims to, in any way possible, incriminate or turn his suspects against each other. But he is fascinating. The depths this man will go, his backstory, his complete mental instability, all the while trying to catch one incredibly smart criminal. I am disappointed by his death. In my Series 1 review, I only gave him a sideways glance, but he really grew into a formidable character.

I do understand that gruesome and sudden deaths are the hallmark of the show (ahem, Mason Young) but even with a character we had grown to love and hate from the first two seasons, well, it felt a bit… undignified. However, his death isn’t all bad – it will surely give the opportunity for ex-boyfriend Trevor Evans (McKinley Belcher III) to take the reins and lead the case. It’s refreshing to see someone on the screen such as Trevor, despite his small role in proceedings so far. So often, when black people are cast their characters are usually embroiled in racism or something along those lines. Now while, of course, this is a very important subject that needs to be talked about and what’s a better platform than TV or film, why can’t we just have a black character who isn’t involved for prejudice and discrimination, but just because they are a good actor and their character is interesting?

The bold choice probably would have been to cast him in the main role from the start as a gay police agent, but they went with Roy, who they then confusingly killed off? Save us the trouble. In avenging his death, it will be interesting to see if Trevor attacks the Byrde’s with such a passionate, relentless obsession as his former colleague. What will definitely be disappointing is if I’ve just wasted writing this whole paragraph or two, and he’s hardly in the next season.

We also had the surprisingly emotional episode Outer Darkness. Throughout Ozark, there isn’t much time to stop and just vent off some steam. This is the episode where the inevitable happened, and Buddy Dieker (Harris Yulin) unfortunately passed on to a better place. Jonah’s (Skylar Gaertner) speech at this funeral was truthfully heart melting, claiming Buddy his ‘best friend’. If ever a man deserved a spin-off show, Buddy’s past and his eventual move to Missouri would certainly be enthralling.

Unfortunately, it seems Buddy is a character the Byrde’s sorely missed, or certainly Wendy’s and Marty’s marriage. Because, as we move in series three, they seem further apart than ever and making rash decisions with little or no inclination to tell each other, with Marty planning to make a run for it but keeping it a secret, only for Wendy to reluctantly go along until backing out at the last moment, harbouring wishes of expansion in the gaming industry.

There were a lot of key deaths this season and when it was thriving, I can tell you – it was thriving. Ozark is turning into a real show and a half. It perhaps doesn’t compete with a Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, but it’s getting as better as ever.

The Byrde’s – or specifically Wendy – ended series 2 on good terms with the cartel. Which means one thing for series 3.

Absolute mayhem.

Best character: Hard not to go for Jonah again, but because I don’t want to bore you, I’ll say… oh, who am I kidding? Jonah, you get it again!

Least favourite character: “Darlene!” (Lisa Emery) is absolutely horrible. I don’t know what is going through her head, but… they better get Zeke back from her. Shame, because I actually liked Jacob Snell (Peter Mullen).

Best episode: The season finale, Gold Coast. I said this for the first one, and rumour has it the ending in series 3 is also shockingly good, although that’s heresy, isn’t it? Ozark must have a knack for big showdowns.

Best scene: The Gold Coast ending. I don’t think there’s any argument with that. Threatening, suspenseful and… funny. 🎶 The roof is leaking, and the rain’s falling on my head… it won’t stop…🎶

Ozark (Series 2) -8.5 out of 10