Critic Reviews
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The show has an occasionally suspenseful twist. (Electrocution in the water: Watch out!) But as it proceeds, Ozark takes way too long to make a few good points and to showcase a few good performances, most prominently Jason Bateman’s.
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Ozark, which contains so many fragments and threads from existing prestige shows that it sometimes feels like a particularly grim televisual quilt, is at least pleasingly tense in its first episode.
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“Breaking Bad” had propulsive, straightforward stories that dragged you from season to season. In Ozark, a lot happens, but not much is going on.
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The producers have come up with a somber, plodding, almost entirely humorless mix of Breaking Bad and Justified, when they should have made a show about this spitfire of a character, the only one in the ensemble who isn’t bringing everything down.
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Ozark can be excruciatingly cumbersome. There are many moving parts, none compelled to move with haste. If the characters were more engaging and likable, pace might not even be an impediment. They’re not, so it is.
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Ozark is simply too busy to contextualize its story and surroundings. Having swum out too far in its own murky waters, the show frantically kicks and flails its way to an open-ended conclusion that doesn’t quite feel like it was worth all the trouble.
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Enough is happening in Ozark that it's never boring, which sets it apart from Netflix's recent misguided stab at prestige programming, Gypsy. Instead of being predictable, though, Ozark becomes monotonous.
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Marty and Wendy don’t give Bateman and Linney much cause to stretch. One gets saddled with some sub-Scorsese soliloquies about criminal philosophy; the other has to make subtext into text with lines about vultures circling the Byrds’ and the scrubbing of a damned spot on the family’s dock. ... Derivative and lethargic.
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A lot of this would play more thrillingly if the characters didn’t seem as wooden; if the series felt like it was written to serve more than just a need to present power plays.
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Ozark’s insistence on presenting the grimiest version of its story possible stands in the way of explaining why anything within its universe is happening. The presentation and the characters and the smug tone eventually coalesce into something deeply irritating. ... Ozark is offensive and doesn’t understand why it’s offensive.
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Not only does it feel unoriginal and tired, but it comes across as a vanity project for star/executive producer Jason Bateman, who also directs some episodes.
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What might have felt like a novel idea 10 or 15 years ago--middle-aged white anti-hero does something terrible to help his family, and only gets pulled in deeper and deeper--is now so tired that it would require sheer brilliance to come out feeling as fresh and untainted as all the money that Marty cleans. And Ozark isn’t up to that challenge.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 357 out of 406
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Mixed: 25 out of 406
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Negative: 24 out of 406
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Jul 25, 2017
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Jul 21, 2017
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Jul 21, 2017