---
title: "Ozark"
year: 2017
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/ozark"
fi1m_score: 70
critics_score: 69
critics_reviews: 12
published: "2026-09-17T13:37:49.123068+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-17T13:37:49.944667+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Ozark (2017)

Created by Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams · MPA TV-MA · Crime, Drama

**Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 69 from 12 reviews

*In a sentence:* Four seasons of a man doing his accounts at gunpoint, lit like the bottom of a lake

> Bateman and Linney’s laundering saga is gripping for two seasons and merely efficient for two more, shot in a blue murk that becomes a joke and held together by Julia Garner, who is the best reason to keep watching.

## Synopsis

Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) is a Chicago financial adviser who has spent years quietly laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel. When the cartel discovers his partner has been skimming, Marty survives the night only by promising to move the operation to the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri and wash more money there than ever. He uproots his wife Wendy (Laura Linney), who has been having an affair, and their children Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), and buys a lakeside house from the dying Buddy Dieker (Harris Yulin). Local thief Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) robs them within days, the Blue Cat Lodge run by Rachel Garrison (Jordana Spiro) becomes his first laundry, and FBI agent Roy Petty (Jason Butler Harner) follows him south.

## Review

Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) is a Chicago financial adviser who launders money for a Mexican drug cartel, and when his partner is caught stealing from it, he saves his own life by talking. His pitch is the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri: a resort region full of cash businesses and short of anyone looking. Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams built four seasons and 44 episodes on that one desperate improvisation, and for about half of them the improvisation holds. *Ozark* is a good crime drama that runs longer than its ideas, and it is worth your evening if the genre is yours.

Bateman plays Marty as a man who never raises his voice because he is always adding something up. He negotiates with killers in the tone of someone querying an invoice, and the series is at its best when that tone is the only weapon he has. Laura Linney’s Wendy starts as the unhappy wife who has been having an affair and ends up somewhere we will not describe, but Linney lets us watch the appetite arrive by degrees, and it is the most interesting thing the show does across its full length. Bateman also directs, and his episodes are the most controlled: long, still shots of people deciding whether to lie.

Then there is Julia Garner. Ruth Langmore comes from a family of petty thieves living in trailers by the water, and she meets the Byrdes by robbing them. Garner plays her with a jaw set against the world and a voice that sounds dragged over gravel, and every fourth word is unrepeatable. We did not expect to care about anyone in this series and we cared about Ruth almost at once, because Garner gives her a want the writers barely need to spell out: to be taken seriously by the one man in town who does sums for a living. Whenever the show flags, it puts Ruth in a room with Marty and comes back to life.

The look is the thing everyone remembers, and not always kindly. Armando Salas, Ben Kutchins, Pepe Avila del Pino and Manuel Billeter shoot the lake in a blue so deep that a summer afternoon looks like the inside of a fridge, and the interiors are lit as if the electricity were on a meter. For a season it works: this is a holiday town with the holiday drained out of it. By the fourth we were squinting, and the murk had stopped being a mood and become a habit. Derek R. Hill, David J. Bomba and Roshelle Berliner do better, with Buddy Dieker’s (Harris Yulin) wood-panelled house on the shore and the Blue Cat Lodge that Rachel Garrison (Jordana Spiro) is running into the ground, both built to look like money somebody else spent. Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans keep the score low and stringy, a hum under the floorboards; it does the job and is never once noticed doing it, which for this kind of series is the right call.

The trouble is the machine. Each season introduces a new threat, tightens it, and clears it in the finale so that the next can begin, and by the third time round we could feel the gears turning. Jason Butler Harner’s FBI agent Roy Petty, Janet McTeer’s cartel lawyer Helen Pierce and Jessica Frances Dukes’s forensic accountant Maya Miller are each sharply played and each arrive as, in effect, the season’s problem. McTeer is superb, dry and unhurried, a woman who bills by the hour for other people’s terror. Tom Pelphrey’s Ben Davis, Wendy’s brother, gives the third season its one stretch of real unpredictability, and it is the best run of episodes the show has. The fourth season is 14 episodes and needs about ten.

Set against [*Breaking Bad*](https://film.one/tv/breaking-bad), which it resembles and knows it does, *Ozark* is missing the argument. Walter White’s fall was about pride, and that series had a view of him. Marty and Wendy are doing what the plot requires to survive, and the show’s ideas about money, family and America are delivered in speeches rather than shown in choices. Nobody here is much fun, either, which over 44 hours matters.

We would still send you to the first two seasons without hesitation, and to the third with a nod. After that you will know whether you are staying, and the show will not make it easy to leave. It carries an 18 for good reason.

*Fi1m score 70, published 17 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like Ozark, and the praise gathers around two things: the plotting and the leads. The reviews describe a tightly sprung thriller that is hard to stop watching, with menace simmering under the lakeside scenery. Jason Bateman’s quick-thinking money launderer is widely admired, and Laura Linney gets her share. The one name almost everyone mentions, admirers and doubters alike, is Julia Garner, whose Ruth is repeatedly singled out as the character who stands apart from the rest.

The reservations are consistent. Breaking Bad comes up in nearly every review, and for the sceptics the resemblance is the problem: a familiar story of a decent man doing bad things, told in a dour, self-serious tone that some find monotonous. The AV Club finds the central performances uninteresting, and The Times goes further, calling the series ridiculous and unbelievable. The spread is wide, from raves to outright dismissal, though the doubters are outnumbered three to one.

### Reviews we read (12)

- **IndieWire**, Ben Travers (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the series a stunner with pins-and-needles tension and shocking payoffs from the first episode through the finale. They highlight the premiere episode's immediate power and the intense familial strife throughout. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/ozark-spoilers-review-netflix-season-1-episode-1-finale-ending-jason-bateman-1201857380/)
- **Variety**, Sonia Saraiya (85/100, inferred): Ozark is a smart, sharp drama that engages prestige tropes without falling into their trap and is one of the most compulsively watchable debuts of the year. It features Bateman's strongest work yet in a taut thriller that is part-thriller, part-caper. [Read](https://variety.com/2017/tv/reviews/ozark-review-netflix-jason-bateman-laura-linney-1202491900/)
- **Radio Times**, Jack Seale (80/100, inferred): The series offers a misanthropic vision of a world where everyone is selfish and cynical, adding layers through the family dynamic. It delivers an addictive spectacle of Marty discovering how far he must go to survive. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/ozark-review-jason-bateman-breaks-bad-in-the-mountains-of-missouri/)
- **The Telegraph**, Ed Power (4/5): Despite clichés and a Breaking Bad shadow, the tightly sprung plot makes it deeply gripping, with strong performances from Bateman and Linney. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/on-demand/0/ozark-review-cliches-aside-deeply-gripping-drama/)
- **The Guardian** (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the darkly comic drama for its simmering menace and natural beauty, highlighting Jason Bateman's performance as the quick-thinking hustler. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/22/ozark-review-jason-bateman-laura-linney-netflix)
- **Vulture** (70/100, inferred): The critic places Ozark between Bloodline and Breaking Bad, noting it is often compelling thanks to strong performances from Bateman and Linney but can feel exhausting and contrived at times. They praise the layered leads and the fish-out-of-water dynamics. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2017/07/ozark-tv-review.html)
- **The AV Club**, Erik Adams (C-): The critic finds the series derivative of Breaking Bad and other shows, with a relentlessly dour tone and uninteresting central performances from Bateman and Linney. They single out supporting turns like Julia Garner's Ruth for praise amid the overall lethargy. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/a-money-laundering-jason-bateman-can-t-wash-the-stink-o-1798191848)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (50/100, inferred): Ozark is pulp masquerading as prestige, self-serious to the extreme with a dour tone and monotonous feel, though never boring. Julia Garner's Ruth stands out as the most original and compelling character. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/ozark-review-1019198/)
- **The Times** (30/100, inferred): The review finds Ozark monotonous, ridiculous and unbelievable, middlebrow awards-bait lacking style or wit. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/article/television-review-top-of-the-lake-china-girl-ozark-the-last-tycoon-game-of-thrones-mc752fm0q)
- **Den of Geek**, Catherine Pearson (80/100, inferred): The critic deems it a must-watch for crime drama fans, praising the believable raw performance from Jason Bateman and the intriguing narrative that intertwines many characters. They note the depressive tone but highlight the strength of the central performances. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ozark-review-netflixs-latest-original-drama/)
- **Paste**, Amy Amatangelo (7.2/10): The critic finds Ozark a familiar story of a good person doing bad things, like Breaking Bad, failing to stand out with too many disparate storylines and clichés; praises Julia Garner's performance as Ruth but notes the show doesn't explain motivations well. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/ozark/netflixs-ozark-starring-jason-bateman-and-laura-li)
- **The Ringer**, Alison Herman (70/100, inferred): The critic finds Ozark's brazen embrace of post-antihero crime drama clichés its greatest strength, turning predictability into entertainment. They single out Julia Garner's savvy and ferocious performance as the standout character. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2017/07/25/tv/ozark-jason-bateman-netflix-81e2e584547d)

## Details

- **Created by:** Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams
- **Creator:** Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams
- **Director:** Jason Bateman, Alik Sakharov, Andrew Bernstein, Amanda Marsalis, Ben Semanoff, Robin Wright, Ellen Kuras, Cherien Dabis, Phil Abraham, Daniel Sackheim, Melissa Hickey, Laura Linney
- **Writer:** Chris Mundy, Martin Zimmerman, Paul Kolsby, Miki Johnson, John Shiban, Ning Zhou, Laura Deeley, Ryan Farley, David Manson, Whit Anderson, Alyson Feltes, Michael M. Chang, Jed Rapp Goldstein
- **Story:** Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams
- **Teleplay:** Bill Dubuque
- **Cinematography:** Armando Salas, Ben Kutchins, Pepe Avila del Pino, Manuel Billeter
- **Editor:** Cindy Mollo, Vikash Patel, Heather Goodwin Floyd, Elliott Eisman
- **Music:** Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
- **Production design:** David J. Bomba, Derek R. Hill, Roshelle Berliner
- **Producer:** Matthew Spiegel, Erin Mitchell, Dana Scott
- **Cast:** Jason Bateman as Marty Byrde; Laura Linney as Wendy Byrde; Sofia Hublitz as Charlotte Byrde; Skylar Gaertner as Jonah Byrde; Julia Garner as Ruth Langmore; Jordana Spiro as Rachel Garrison; Jason Butler Harner as Roy Petty; Charlie Tahan as Wyatt Langmore
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA
- **Release (the US):** 21 July 2017
- **Genres:** Crime, Drama
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hAXVqrljbs

## Where to watch in the US

- Netflix: streaming

*Checked 2026-09-17.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Golden Globes 2023: Best Television Series – Drama (nominated)
- Primetime Emmy Awards 2019: Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (won)

## If you liked this

- *Winter's Bone* (2010), Fi1m 85: The same Missouri hills, no colour grade, and a teenager who really is poor. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/winters-bone.md)
- *Justified* (2010), Fi1m 87: Kentucky crime with wit, which is the ingredient Ozark keeps forgetting to pack. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/justified.md)
- *Gomorrah* (2014): Naples, nobody to root for, and dirty money that never looks like anything else.
- *Animal Kingdom* (2010), Fi1m 84: The Australian crime family the Langmores wish they were, and far more frightening. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/animal-kingdom.md)
- *A Simple Plan* (1998), Fi1m 86: Found money, a Midwestern winter and a decent man talking himself into it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-simple-plan.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/ozark