Ozark is like the love-child of Breaking Bad and Bloodline

JASON Bateman is turned to the dark side, playing the antihero in Netflix’s new crime drama.

IMAGINE the less-good love-child of Bloodline and Breaking Bad and you have a pretty good idea of what Ozark is.

Netflix’s new crime drama is a slow burn with great performances but it’s saddled with a script that doesn’t match the calibre of its talented actors.

The name of the show is a reference to its setting, the Ozarks region of Missouri, a somewhat-hicksville area with a massive lake and lots of trees.

Unless you’ve seen that particular episode of Anthony Bourdain traipsing through the woods and watching locals skin squirrels, Australians have probably never even heard of the Ozarks. And after watching Ozark, it’s probably not going to be on your holiday wishlist.

Much like the freshly finished Bloodline before it, Ozark relies on its locale to set the atmosphere, only it doesn’t capture and use it quite as well.

Bloodline’s focus on the repressive heat and natural beauty of the Florida Keys was crucial to the series but it feels like Ozark could be set anywhere with an overabundance of trailers and boats. Maybe it’s because the series was actually shot in Georgia.

It’s a far cry from the Chicago from which Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman, who also directed four episodes) and his family fled after falling afoul of a Mexican cartel boss.

Jason Bateman also directed four episodes of the first season.

Marty is a gifted financial adviser, he knows all the ins-and-outs of the federal tax code and any loophole or law to do with money. He and his business partner had been secretly laundering money for crime lord Del (Esai Morales) for years.

Unbeknown to Marty, his partner had been skimming millions off the top. Del finds out and gets trigger-happy. In a last-ditch effort to save his life, Marty makes a proposition to Del: He and his family will move to the Ozarks, a cash-rich holiday spot to continue the laundering operation, and pay back the millions his partner stole.

Marty, his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) and their two kids ups and moves to the Ozarks in a matter of days with only a few months to prove what Marty promised can be done.

The locals are a colourful bunch, including the old dying man (Harris Yulin) whose house they moved into — he prefers to wander about in the nude.

Then there’s the Langmores, a local skeezy family of petty crooks whose only brainpower is Ruth (Julia Garner), a whip-smart teenager aspiring to dangerous criminality.

Ruth’s got Marty’s game good.

Ozark is another series with a white, male antihero whose terrible decisions land him and his family in a sh*tstorm. Those were dime-a-dozen not five years ago so in a well-trodden genre, there needs to be a spark that ignites your interest.

Ozark doesn’t quite get there, even though it has all the right ingredients.

Bateman’s foray into a dramatic role feels natural, as he’s often played the “straight man” in a comedy and his acerbic, sarcastic edge serves him well here. Linney is a chronically underrated actor who’s not given enough to do in Ozark, certainly not in the first half.

But the real scene-stealer is Garner (best known for playing Kimberley, one of Philip’s marks in The Americans). Garner’s on-screen presence is magnetic, even against more seasoned actors such as Bateman.

The series was created by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams. Dubuque, who clearly has a thing for CPAs, also wrote the script to the dreadful Ben Affleck vehicle The Accountant. He makes some of the same mistakes here as he did with that clunker, though Ozark is much better.

Because you’re not sure you care all that much about these characters, except for Ruth, or their fates and it all feels a little soulless. And that’s not good enough in the era of peak TV.

Ozark is streaming on Netflix now.

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