Maybe the Byrds didn’t want to report it and have the police sniffing around. I thought Ruth eventually told Marty it was her and dad.
Thread will get closed or heavily edited if we don’t move on ... Let’s do so. One other aspect of this season that bugged me was how “the cartel” was represented solely by Janet McTeer’s character alone. Yeah, we saw the Miguel Ferrer looking character once, but that was it. Secondly, it amazes me how dumb they made Ruth’s dad out to be. From our brief knowledge of him from the first season, he seemed no nonsense and hard edged. Then, he gets out prison and becomes a bigger idiot than Russ and Boyd combined. A sad bit of stereotyping and need for a dummy Ozarkian.
Metacritic gives S2 a score of 59. Some comments from various reviews: "The show’s second season provides little thrill of discovery, no amplification of what themes it possesses, and barely any real movement outside the hermetic world the Byrdes share". TV Review: ‘Ozark’ Season 2 "The second season of Ozark, however, is a 10-episode slog of grinding narrative gears, ominous pronouncements about consequences, affectless violence and a monochromatic aesthetic that left me giggling at its miserable pretensions". 'Ozark' Season 2: TV Review About sums it up!
I don't think I'm watching the same show as some of the folks here. The writing and acting are top notch. The story is grim and dark and the characters do not have any redeeming qualities because they are all criminals, from the politicians to the cartel and everyone in between. I loved the initial dichotomy of Darlene and Wendy. Wendy has become the driving force in that couple, just like Darlene was. The men can't control them. I also don't think every plot point has to be explained, like the burglary of the funeral home. Ruth's father was a loser and loser's do stupid things no matter how many times they've been to prison. Ruth's loyalty going forward will be to the Byrdes. I can't wait for next season.
As one who has lived in Kansas City since 1982, and has been to the Lake of the Ozarks many times, I had to chuckle at how Kansas City was portrayed in the first episode of Season 2. I am not aware of any venues or events in Kansas City as formal, stuffy and fancy as the one shown in Episode 1. It reminded me of a scene from the Boardwalk Empire series of a 1920s Atlantic City event for the wealthy. An accurate depiction of an upscale charity event in Kansas City would have set the event in a less formal venue, and the people would have been having far more fun. It is as if the writers and producers were thinking, Kansas City must be another world from the hillbilly Ozarks. We don't know anything about Kansas City, or what kind of other world it is, so we'll fall back on some stock looking Hollywood style footage of rich people at a dull event. Also, in Missouri today, the politics are so bitterly partisan, that virtually anyone from outside of Kansas City or St. Louis is a far right wing Republican who views the Kansas City and St. Louis Democrats as literally evil. If a wealthy political power broker from outstate Missouri realized that he was talking to a Democrat from Chicago, he would break off the conversation immediately, and probably have the Democrats forcibly expelled from the building. The only exception I can think of, is if Mrs. Byrde started her presentation off with a large bribe in the first sentence. That is language that Missouri politicians understand. She had already purchased a $50,000 table at the rich power broker's charity event, but a large direct payment to him as well, would have been necessary. There is no reporting required of gifts to Missouri state legislators from lobbyists or private citizens, for instance. The Kansas City newspaper often reports on how scandalous a situation that is, to no avail.
I just finished Season 2 last night and thought it was excellent. Ozark is now one of my favorite TV shows. It's a lot more than "how he got away with it" as one person said. I enjoyed it more than Better Call Saul so far this season. I see some redeeming values in nearly all the characters, but they are obviously imperfect people and stuck in bad situations they can't get out of. The main characters are struggling with their evil deeds and still try to do the right thing, but it never works out. Also cannot wait for season three!
I really don't get this attitude that if the show isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread, it's not worth watching and should be cancelled. I don't think the second season was as good as the first, but it's still a good show and I'm curious to see where it goes.
The second season is so intense that I can only watch two episodes in an evening. I should be done with the entire season later this week. It is quite a season!
I agree! I watched one or two last week every night! So bummed we have to wait another near to see more (assuming it will get renewed again).
I guess we must have watched different shows. I thought S2 was pretty poor. S1 wasn't without its flaws, but it was much better than S2 imo.
I think this show exemplifies the trouble with the "prestige tv" era. All of these shows look good, are well acted by famous Hollywood stars, are well written, somewhat entertaining, and usually fairly extreme in content. They make the viewer feel like they are watching something more prestigious than over-the-air network programming. It can be very challenging to determine which ones are actually good. It is interesting that Ozark has all of these qualities, but not everyone agrees to whether it's actually a good show or not. Maybe in this case the presentation just doesn't lift the content to a higher level?
I need to go back and re-watch season 1 but I don't remember it being filmed so blue. Am I wrong? Every scene is grayish blue.
I watched both seasons in a row over Labor Day weekend and I remember them being similar. Everything seems to have a blue-green-ish hue. All still photos seem to have that coloring too.
I think the "content" of Ozark is great - interesting story, characters, quality actors and script. Keeps me interested and on my toes. And I also don't have any problems with the production values, which are high IMHO. The cool blue tint is how it should look in the Ozarks with a dark story theme. The look and feel would be totally wrong if all the scenes were bright and sunny like a California beach. This is not Baywatch or 90210. Top notch show!
I totally agree that the production values are top notch. It's well filmed, well written, and well acted. That helps cover up the mediocrity. Just my opinion.
I do not find Ozark mediocre. One thing I have noticed is that Martin's character often reacts to frequent shocking and/or seemingly disastrous events with an unnatural calm, in which he has no change to his facial expression and in which he speaks with unnatural self-control. It is as if this is the only way that he can cope with so much unbelievable stress. I understand that this is a facet of the character, but could he have shown just a glimmer of more personality while exhibiting this character trait? He seems almost robotic. As that happens often over the course of the season, it is a little bit off-putting to me. Otherwise I find Ozark to be an excellent series.
I finished it up last weekend. I'm somewhere in the middle. It wasn't as good as the first season, but it really made me want to know what happens next...so, yeah, I'm in for Season 3. In fact, Spoiler Wendy becoming a mirror image of Darlene is what ended up grabbing me the most. She actually pulls Marty and the whole family back in, which was horrible of her, yet equally a bold direction of the season. I think the bit about Cade Langmore seeming like a hard nosed smart criminal, while in the joint, yet being overtly dumb outside of prison, had a little foundation, but not much. After all, the dude was in prison for a reason, so he has to be somewhat dumb. Now, in this season, we find out how he got into the clink in the first place; he would rather spend all of his time coming up with get-rich-quick schemes, rather than spending that effort on actual hard work. So, I don't think the character really changed; we just saw more of his true colors as a freed man. Otherwise, of course it's contrived that one group of people would get into that much trouble, and experience unfortunate events, one after another. That's the way TV shows work. There has to be a little suspension of disbelief to keep forward momentum. It would be even more dull, otherwise. I liked Season 2. It wasn't an all-time winner, but since I'm not finding very much on TV right now that is well made, or too Hollywood pretty, or doesn't have a long narrative, this one hit the spot at least.
Just finished Season 2 - really - people dying- shot to pieces all over the place - it just got crazier and crazier - No sane person could have coped with that amount of stress ! It was ridiculous. No development of the characters or the story - it was just let's see what we can do with all these characters we have here and pull the plug and let them all circle each other as they go spinning round and round the drain and eventually, down it!
I liked Season 2 a lot, although it peaked about midway through and then limped to the finish. I think the writers showed too many cards early in the season - Petty raiding both the Byrds and the Snells, Rachel getting outed as an informant - to where they had to pull everything back a bit since it is too early to wrap everything up, but it felt kind of weird. Petty went from raiding everyone and being all up in their **** to barely being seen after the bones report from the Snells didn't give him anything he could use...and then he gets killed off at the end of the season in a random and arbitrary way? I didn't like that. I thought he did a great job at playing that role and was bummed to see him go out like that (is a fed really going to mouth off that much at a known felon without keeping his guard up, especially when they are in the woods where no one else is around??). I thought the evolution of Wendy's character was interesting. Mason's death was telling, as she viewed it as a means to an end, while Marty was legitimately affected by it. Should be interesting to see where it goes now with Wendy being what she has become and with the KC mob about to become a much bigger force.
I don’t think Petty would have been around for another season anyway. He was pretty much done due to the rather clumsily portrayed blackmail against his mom and the fact that with such little results he would have been pulled by the agency. As far as mouthing off to a known felon? He’s FBI, he has little respect for criminals and agents can handle themselves. That didn’t seem that unusual. The whole Marty/Rachel thing seemed forced and bringing her back seemed more pandering than to advance a real plot line. I stand by my original comment: not too interested in seeing this continue. S2 was weak for me and I don’t see it getting better. Seems like it’s going to continue to be more of the same. Stone face Marty and conniving Wendy deal with drug cartels and various other baddies. Meh.
I have finished Season 2 and I thought it was excellent. I have lived in Missouri for 35 years. I found the characters and settings and situations plausible, for the way that Missouri culture and politics actually work. There is in fact a lot of corruption and violence in Missouri, and a lot of uneducated meth heads who are dangerous and often violent. Except for the fact that the show does not have them addicted to meth, I thought that the Langmore family was typical of a lot of people in rural and small town Missouri. I found it interesting how the show depicted Chicago people dropped into such a culture. I thought Season 2 was as strong as Season 1, and one of the best things I have seen on TV in some time.
