I'm viewing Ozark as a comedic burlesque. That's its saving grace, as far as I'm concerned. Whereas I've found similarly themed shows like Mayor Of Kingstown and Tulsa King to be simply a waste of time, with their insistence on cartoon "gritty realism". They have sex/dope/money/violence sensationalism galore, but someone would really have to be comfortably out of touch and enclosed in a bubble of material security to imagine that the social or cultural dynamics of those shows remotely resemble how those scenarios actually play out in the outside world. What makes the Byrde family-against-the-world saga worth watching is that it's so outlandish. In the nonfiction reality of the news headlines, Byrde wouldn't have made it to the second episode. But the show isn't even attempting believability. It's hokum. It's We're The Millers gone to Cranktopia, with Swarthy Foreign Cartel Murderers circling in the background. By contrast, I found Breaking Bad to be plausibly crafted, by and large. The close calls of White & Pinkman really did resemble some events and scenarios I've actually heard or read about. It got more and more implausible in the last season or two. But it maintained a consistent illusion for quite a while. The writers came up with some brilliant schemes, worthy of a true genius criminal mastermind. The story of Walter White's tortured years of concealment of his illicit career from his family and friends had the ring of truth. Whereas Ozark doesn't even bother with complications of that sort.
Not sure why you are you going to bother watching it if that’s how you feel about it. Frankly, the payoff isn’t worth the investment even if you felt differently.
Funny. You feel that way already? Wait until you get into season 3 and 4. I enjoyed the first two seasons, and after I wanted to scream: WTF? You are welcome
I just watched two more episodes. Probably going to bail on continuing steadily. I may watch another episode or two tonight. After that, strictly comic relief. Ozark is a show that doesn't know what it is from scene to scene. Most picaresques limit themselves to one main rogue-adventurer protagonist. Ozark has around a half-dozen, and it keeps introducing more of them. Even the most picaresque saga has to stop growing branches at some point. And while I anticipated gay soap opera content in my first post, I didn't anticipate it taking a turn like that one (no spoilers.) It's like a scene from a John Waters movie got spliced into the proceedings. I wonder if there's an online critical review site that unpacks all of the parody aspects of Ozark. It's like every au courant PC Transgressive trope in the world is on parade, or will be soon. Petty nit-picking is hardly necessary to detect all of the false notes and cavernous plot holes. Despite the sheer off-the-charts unbelievability of the plot and its still-multiplying subplots, all of the characters continue to play their parts with a semblance of grimly serious determination. Not a raised eyebrow in the entire troupe of performers, faking their way through this crock of ****. Which I view as the result of a flaw in the scripting; Breaking Bad was much more plausible, while simultaneously allowing ample room for camp. Audiences loved it. Anything to keep from meeting up with the truth, face to face...(hmm, back in the real world- how did all of those people show up in droves, crossing the Texas border? Like, just the other day, out of nowhere...what could possibly account for it?) All that said, there's still enough trash entertainment appeal in Ozark for me to be tempted to indulge in a wallow once in a while.
