Ozark: Cringe-Inducing Cliches and Uneven Ensemble Somehow Make For a Great Binge

The reason “Ozark” is such an easy and relatively pleasant spectacle is that it milks the bullet-proof TV success formula to the point of complete exhaustion: great talent on-screen, lots of ominous music and every possible cliche you can think of. Here you’ve got your “Free Bird” t-shirt-wearing redneck, an unhinged FBI agent with a weird sexual appetite and a taste for true justice at any cost, the classic Mexican cartel guy – you get the idea. 

On the front, it’s a fairly standard American family drama where an upper middle class unit with two kids (the youngun is “exploring” while the older 15-year old girl is “acting out”) struggles to stay together after Mom’s terrible betrayal. But, since this particular conflict is just so damn overplayed by every possible measure over the last 70 years of TV history, sprinkling it with criminal drama does the proverbial trick. With lots of beer breaks and plenty of fast-forwarding, “Ozark” even makes for a half-bad binge.

Behold a cartel looking for a money manager (for some reason, the Mexicans are doing it way the hell up north, in Chicago). Having gone through some fifty candidates, the cartel’s recruiter Del (Esai Morales) lands on Martin Byrde (Jason Bateman) because of Martin’s professionalism, honesty and unwavering loyalty to his business partner Bruce (Josh Randall). Just to make sure the pair of bookkeepers knows who they’re dealing with, Del executes their predecessor right in front of them. He was stealing, you see. At that moment the movie buffs among us quickly recalled the scene from “Casino”, in which DeNiro implores Pecsi to stop pestering the Banker over failed dealings and accrued losses: “…What are you doing, he’s a legit guy, he’s gonna run to the FBI!” 

Well, the “legitimate guys” from “Ozark” had decided not to run to the FBI, but to become gainfully employed by the “second largest drug cartel in Mexico.” As you can imagine, things didn’t progress smoothly from there…

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