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Ozark: explosively compelling cartel slow-burner excels in series three

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By on Opinion

Ozark (Netflix trailer)

The third series of the Netflix thriller Ozark sees the Byrdes and their accomplices fall deeper, Getintothis’ Lewis Ridley is all wrapped up as the threat intensifies.

Netflix has become a constant in our lives over the past month.

Nights in for the forseeable mean that making our way through a series is probably one of the more productive things we can do of an evening.

When the third run of Ozark dropped into the pool of streaming options last month it propelled itself back to the front page of the site and rooted itself on social media until it was too much to ignore.

For those yet to explore the highly-strung world of Ozark, it’s that classic tale of a family surviving being hunted down by a Mexican heroin cartel whom they are laundering money for using a casino floating on a Missouri lake, and a strip club that doubles up as a shooting range. You know the one.

Our protagonist, Marty Byrde, played by Jason Bateman, who also takes the director’s chair for series three after his Screen Actors Guild Award winning performance in series two, just can’t get the rub of the green.

Alright, the head honcho of shell company Byrde Enterprises has made some questionable decisions that have almost killed his family, but his heart is in the right place.

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We join series three as his wife, the irritable and irritating Wendy (Laura Linney) sees her brother (Tom Pelphrey) come to town after throwing a classroom of mobile phones into a grasscutter.

Meanwhile, lawyer/murdering psychopath Helen Pierce‘s  (Janet McTeer) daughter comes to the Lake, and the thriller dips its toe in coming-of-age as she tries to lose her virginity. Except, because this is Ozark, that can’t help but come with guns and FBI and all that.

Ben and Ruth in Ozark (from Netflix trailer)

Once we’ve got a suitably messed up array of newly introduced characters, operations continue on the Missouri Belle casino as the Navarro cartel become increasingly impatient with the domestic pressures that the one Chicago middle-class Byrde family are struggling to deal with alone. 

Though they won’t quite admit it, they need a hand, and Pierce is only too keen to oblige.

It’s that running theme that makes Ozark so compelling. The star of series three, once again, is Julia Gardner in her portrayal of up and coming entrepeneur yet fragile character Ruth Langmore, who confides with Wendy’s son Ben, a divisive character who is suffering from severe bipolar disorder. 

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The representation of both Ben‘s illness and the way it manipulates him and those around him is perhaps the most gripping storyline throughout. His introduction to the knife-edge only further destablises a family for whom disaster is only ever a blacked out 4×4 away.

Series three effectively boils down to just how the Byrde‘s and their associates can balance their unwavering commitment to their respective tribes while moving forward and, vitally, averting the danger that follows them.

FBI agent Maya Miller (Jessica Frances Dukes) plays a key, grounding role, as does Camino “Del” Del Rio (Esai Morales) in ensuring that the shitstorm surrounding the Byrdes doesn’t distract us from the true aim of their operation, as is all too often the case for Marty.

A quite unsettling relationship involving the widowed Darlene Snell blooms as Ozark can’t help but add another storyline in the pot. Meanwhile, our loveable therapist Sue, trying her level best to resolve what she believes is little more than a domestic, adds light relief.

She is just one of a raft of catalytic characters that surround the Byrdes, numerous plotlines add complexity and depth but at no point does it feel messy or overwhelming as often seen.

A word for a superb score, too, which clouds further over the Ozark world and is pin point accurate every time. 

There are disastrous conflicts, unbearable tensions, and moments that inspire humanity in the depiction of a world that is utterly dehumanised.

Indeed, as one of our characters says: “You can’t quit a fucking drug cartel!”, Ozark has you firmly wrapped up in its explosive, sinister norms. 

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