Ozark is one of Netflix’s most popular series out there. It has always been noteworthy, but when the pandemic hit, it became one of those shows many people caught up on since there was nothing to do, and it took off. Season 3 ended on a massive cliffhanger featuring a Run the Jewels song, and you know it gets serious when Run the Jewels makes an appearance! How will season 4 continue this?
Netflix announced season 4 of Ozark would be the final season. The twist? It will be broken into two parts, seven episodes each. Now historically, this sucks. Whenever movies do this thing of splitting a finale into two parts, it usually doesn’t work. The first part always feels incomplete and unnecessary and then when we get the final part you wonder “well why didn’t they just give us the whole thing”? You know what? You’re usually right. The same goes for this season of Ozark. Part 1 truly feels like a long tread to get to part 2. I’m sure once everything is out, it’ll feel more complete, but what we got mostly plays along to the same thing these multiple-part finales suffer from. I am all for cliffhangers, put me right up on that cliff if the bottom has perfection afterward. However, it sucks when you feel like we’re taking unnecessary steps to get to that cliffhanger, which is what we have in Ozark.
As far as the contents of season 4, for the most part, it is more of what we love. The Byrde family is now core members of the cartel they work for, but the Byrdes want to get out. When drug kingpin Omar Navarro decides he wants to get out of the business, he tells Marty and Wendy to use their FBI friend Maya and set something up for her to get him out. All this is happening while Omar’s nephew Javier is meddling in the business and wants to take over. His impatience makes things difficult on the Byrdes. Meanwhile, Ruth is becoming business partners with Wyatt and Darlene whose heroin dealings collide with Javier’s interests. Oh and also Jonah hates his family and chooses to work for Ruth which leads to a confrontation with Wendy. It feels like a lot is going on this season, which there is, but none of it feels like enough to justify 7 episodes and then 7 more upcoming.
All of our favorite actors are returning here, and they are just as great as usual. Jason Bateman is the glue that holds all this together and his presence always seems to calm things down. As an actor, Bateman is somehow always able to convince me of whatever he has to say. Laura Linney as Wendy has just become darker and darker as the show has gone on. She gets off on power and that does get in the way this season. Julia Garner as Ruth is going through it all this season and she particularly is let loose in the seventh episode to a degree I didn’t know was possible. The only uncanny person here is Skylar Gaertner as Jonah who is pissed at his mom because she had her brother Ben killed. What’s weird about Skylar is that the actor has gone through puberty and now is super tall and has a completely different voice. It takes some time to adjust to the new Jonah.
Ozark season 4 part 1 is exactly what we love about the show, just very drawn out. All the elements are there for an epic finale, it just feels like we’re dragging our feet a bit unnecessarily. I don’t understand why they did it this way, perhaps it’s a play for awards? Competing against Succession is a tall task and if you are more recent, it doesn’t hurt. Regardless, I cannot wait for the second part of this and to see how the Byrde’s story wraps up.