Ozark (Netflix)

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by dmiller458, Jul 22, 2017.

  1. George Co-Stanza

    George Co-Stanza Forum Resident

    Location:
    America
    Yep. I can't say I am surprised.
     
  2. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    In a show that featured a teenage boy teaching himself to become a professional money launderer, and a mild-mannered American accountant flying down to Mexico to boss around members of a drug cartel, with no blowback or resistance to his leadership, that Ruth didn’t hire some bodyguards doesn’t strike me as the biggest howler in the plot.
     
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  3. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    There ya go. I'm glad somebody sees the same things that I do.

    I said at the time to friends of mine who watch the shoe: "I'm a nobody, but if I won De Lotto and had a few hundred million bucks, I'd try to have armed security available 24 hours a day." You never know when some nutcase might try something violent. You figure all major corporate CEOs get that: Tim Cook of Apple had to divulge in the corporate filings that they spend upwards of $750K a year just on security for him.
     
  4. citizensmurf

    citizensmurf Ambient postpunk will never die

    Location:
    Calgary
    Was I the only one rooting for Navarro?

    The show was dark, yes but I liked the tone. I feel like the last half of the final season was a bit of a let down, but I'm not sure what I expected.

    The whole foreshadowing of the car accident made everyone think the Byrds all died, and then it was just a minor scene and they went right back to business. I don't get that decision.
     
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  5. Steve Baker

    Steve Baker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia, Maryland
    Laura Linney excelled in this role. Wendy Bryde is without question one of the worst people on the planet and Ms. Linney played her to perfection. I actually hated the Wendy Bryde character. Julia Garner initially annoyed the hell out of me as Ruth, but she grew on me. Both of these actresses nailed their parts. When I watched the finale I was sure of the outcome. I was wrong.

    This show was a lot of fun, dysfunctional, evil, manipulative, stupid, and power hungry characters. It rivals some of the best, but the ending will hurt it in comparison. Breaking Bad, The Sopranos are still the best series' I've watched. Ozark is around the same level as Justified. I do hope dramas of this kind continue to be made.

    Now to finish Peaky Blinders.
     
  6. Szeppelin75

    Szeppelin75 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Panama
    I do agree about Breaking Bad and The Sopranos being the best series i have ever watched.
     
  7. Dr. J.

    Dr. J. Music is in my soul

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    Ozark is not in the top tier of shows like BB, Sopranos, The Wire, etc., agreed, but it is much higher than a show like Justified. As critics have been writing about the Sopranos and the Wire of late, those shows portended something about America that we didn't really quite appreciate at the moment: the decline of our country at the moment when we thought we were the lone superpower in the world who had it all. Ozark doesn't portend anything but shows us exactly who we are at this moment, and that is frightening to watch.
     
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  8. NettleBed

    NettleBed Forum Transient

    Location:
    new york city
    Agreed generally, though IMO Breaking Bad failed so much in its final season that - though still very good overall - it disqualified itself from the discussion of best TV shows.

    Ozark is just fun pulp.
     
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  9. Steve Baker

    Steve Baker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia, Maryland
    I think I was on point. You disagree. Opinions both, carry on.
     
  10. jwstl

    jwstl Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    That’s how I feel about Ozark: 3 excellent seasons followed by a terrible 4th so badly written it ruined the entire series.
     
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  11. NettleBed

    NettleBed Forum Transient

    Location:
    new york city
    I actually preferred Season 4 to 3; I hated the Ben character and his whole storyline.

    I wish there was a way to go back to Season 2 and then start the show forward from there; I feel like there was a lot of potential to improve the story from that point, than what we got.
     
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  12. DigMyGroove

    DigMyGroove Forum Resident

    I finished up the series last night. A few things struck me this morning:

    Who owns the Belle now, and all that land and wealth? Wouldn’t it all go to probate?

    Wasn’t Camilla’s inevitable course of action with Ruth in the finale a really bad business decision on her part?

    Wouldn’t news of what happened to the owner of the casino hosting the gala that very same night cast a huge shadow, if not ruin the Byrde Family Foundation?

    Well at least they still own that crematorium. What kind of cookie jar do you think the recently departed would enjoy spending eternity in?

    Ah, TV logic!
     
  13. Veltri

    Veltri ♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪

    Location:
    Canada
    Probably her Cousin Three
     
  14. DigMyGroove

    DigMyGroove Forum Resident

    Of course, I forgot about him. Poor kid, there goes his life.
     
  15. Plinko

    Plinko Senior Member

    Agreed
     
  16. mr. steak

    mr. steak Forum Resident

    Location:
    chandler az
    The acting overall was top notch especially Thomas. Writing and plotting though was mediocre for most of the season. Watching Marty as cartel boss was really bad. The Mel/cookie jar bit was complete meh. The car crash payoff..:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:.

    I feel like this show is one big metaphor for the current state of housing in the USA. Investment money rolls in, squeezes out the locals and then profits/devours/profits. The government (FBI) doesn't care.
     
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  17. CusBlues

    CusBlues Fort Wayne’s Favorite Retired Son

    Ed Sullivan over here. :)
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2022
  18. MrSnoid

    MrSnoid Well-Known Member

    Location:
    NC
    :thumbsup:
     
  19. razerx

    razerx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sonoma California
    Yes indeed. Progressive liberals with a dark immoral past like the Kennedys. Wendy have repeatedly said how much good they can do in Chicago with all that money and power. She did redeem herself somewhat in the end with the voting machines.

    Finished the series last night and the ending was ok sort of anti climatic. In the final Ruth scene there was a long camera shot from a high vantage point and I thought Rachel was up there with a rifle to save the day. If I lived in that trailer and days earlier buried some hitman under the pool and I see a black SUV in my drive at night I don’t think I would have stuck around.
     
  20. Silverwolf

    Silverwolf Occasional Esoteric Freak

    I’m currently re-watching Breaking Bad having seen it once, and not seen it since it first concluded. I watched The Sopranos for the first time last year when I had Covid, and did the whole thing!
    Breaking Bad still remains one of the best tv shows I’ve ever seen, regardless of genre. The Sopranos was excellent, but for me (and last series excluded!) The Wire sits between B B and T S for me. Justified (mentioned just before your post) utterly charmed me, and although I know it’s long story, and poss even it’s production values (which maybe shouldn’t be too relevant for a show like this) , I enjoyed it more as an experience to watch than T S and O. Ozark for me sits with The Sopranos equally in terms of my enjoyment - again T S has a better plot, but Ozark I enjoyed equally. All IMO of course, and although each of these series have a very different tone, they’re all kind of in the same ballpark for me, so the comparisons feel valid. If you’ve not seen any of them, I strongly recommend you do!
     
  21. Szeppelin75

    Szeppelin75 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Panama
    After Better call Saul finished last week, im goimg to start rewatching Breaking Bad again.
     
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  22. Speedmaster

    Speedmaster We’re all walking through this darkness on our own

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    While the finale redeemed it somewhat, I was pretty dissapointed with S4. This show was always pushing it, believability-wise. But S4 had me roll my eyes several times each episode. Wendy just had to tilt her head and someone would change their mind about something, anything.

    With 14 episodes, it was too long. Finely built up (supporting) characters got to be parodies of themselves (Darlene for example).
    Marty the Druglord ad interim?

    Granted, S1 and S2 were insanely well made so hard to keep up that level, but S4 was ultimately forgettable, for me anyway.
     
  23. formu_la

    formu_la I'm not a robot

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    They ran out of ideas early. Started bringing Wendy's relatives, first Ben, later father. Pretty weak.
    A teenager living with old woman was a puky, awkward line as well. Made me cringe.
    And like someone said already Marty running cartel was painful to watch.
    Killing Ruth wasn't cool either.
    I enjoyed the first two seasons much more. A bit of letdown towards the end.
    Acting was great though. Ruth was a star.
     
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  24. Just started checking this one out; I'm three episodes in. My take is that Ozark is the Hogan's Heroes of the Drug War. It's a comedy, right? Not remotely realistic, more like a collection of tropes. Nonetheless, watchable. I'll keep on with it as long as it stays that way. Bewilderingly well-acted, considering the massive holes in the plotline, the scripting, and the casting. I don't know how Jason Bateman and Laura Linney manage to pull it off, but they play it straight without a single wink.

    Then there's the portrayal of downscale Ozarkians: the males in the Langmore criminal dynasty are troglodytes, and the brains of the outfit is a teenage girl. The whole fam is mocked up from a Hollywood stereotype of methheads, yet as of the third episode, the scouring powder itself has yet to make its debut appearance onscreen, not even as a reference in Langmore clan criminal records. As if that wasn't enough unreality, I didn't notice a single tattoo! Granted, the total and complete absence of them on the female characters definitely helps the watchability index, from this guy's point of view (Ozark is also part Baywatch, after all.) But as far as an accurate depiction of current-era Young America, we might as well be in another galaxy, light-years in the past. Perhaps in an effort to indemnify itself from being summarily convicted on Xwitter for the offense of Heterosexism on account of the high quotient of scantily clad females, the only sex act (semi)explicitly depicted in the show so far is male-on-male. There's even a promise of gay soap opera content in the plot unfoldment. So there's that.

    Meanwhile, our Villain-Hero has a seemingly impossible--and entirely literal--Deadline to meet, tout suite! Maybe Batman and Robin will show up, hurtled through a time tunnel from 1965, to properly extract the Byrde family from the disaster looming at the hands of the murderous cartel and/or the FBI. I plan to stay tuned for the next thrilling episode.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2024
    Boswell likes this.
  25. other than computer porn, that is.

    To get back to the show premise: I have to wonder how far in denial this country is, to have a plethora of popular movies, TV, and video- including real-life series featuring police raids, customs enforcement, and prison life- that are entirely about the economy of illicit drugs, with the criminal monopoly over that (now) immense industry practically taken for granted as an endemic part of American life, now and forevermore.
     

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