Ozark Season 4 Part 1 Review: The Beginning Of The End For The Byrde Family An Intense Crime Drama
Creators: Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams
Starring: Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz
Streaming Platform: Netflix (click to watch)
Filmyhype Ratings: 4/5 (four star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Ozark Season 4 Part 1 Review: Five years after its debut on Netflix, with two Emmy Awards won by Julia Garner for Best Supporting Actress and several and important nominations in the most important awards in the sector, Ozark by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams is preparing for its natural conclusion. The first part of Ozark 4 will debut on January 21st among the Netflix series of January 2022. A show that has always shown a wise and conscientious progression of its characters and criminal events set on the West Coast of the United States of America, whose narrative center have been and still are the Byrde, a middle-class family from Chicago who finds themselves involved in the illegal trafficking of a dangerous Mexican drug cartel.
If in a first phase the plan was to return the money lost by Martin and then return to the previous life, over the seasons the Byrdes have proved – some more and some less – a real miracle in money laundering and in the broader spectrum of delinquency, including betrayals and murders, finally ending up collaborating closely with the leader of the Lagunas Cartel, Navarro, who in this first part of the final season expects the Byrdes to help him clean up his image to have definitively saved his life and enjoying their dirty and hard work in the Ozarks (also catch up on our Ozark 3 review for a quick fix.
Ozark Season 4 Part 1: The Story
As the plot progresses, the rift between the Byrde citizens and the Missouri rednecks widens in Season 4. The meeting point between the two cultures, the more sophisticated one of the original Chicago family, and the rough one of the locals, was represented by Ruth Langmore (a Julia Garner increasingly convincing) who has won a leading role by swearing and proving to have courage to sell. A Byrde employee and accomplice, petite Ruth resigned after the death of Ben Davis, Wendy’s brother eliminated from the cartel with her complicity. Left alone, Ruth has reconnected with her cousin Wyatt and this move has created two new sides in the field: on the one hand the Byrdes, the foreign conquerors, and on the other the locals Ruth, Wyatt and the unpredictable Darlene (Lisa Emery).
This team is joined by the Byrde’s youngest son, Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), who does not forgive his mother for the death of Uncle Ben. The other daughter, Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz), after a feeble attempt to emancipate her from her crime family, has decided to conform in all respects to the maternal attitude, a narrative turn never explained that partially undermines the narrative coherence and the care of the excellent script. If the shadow of Ben continues to haunt the Byrdes even post-mortem, extending over the entire first part of the fourth season, we point out the increasing centrality of the FBI agent Maya Miller (Jessica Frances Dukes) and of the new entry Javi Elizonndro (Alfonso Herrera), Navarro’s nephew and new villain.
Ozark Season 4 Part 1 Review and Analysis
Episode after episode, the quality of Ozark is confirmed in constant growth. We do not doubt that the last seven episodes will reserve us fireworks, but the first part of the new season is already full of twists, solid dialogue and increasingly convincing interpretations. The decisive and unpredictable female figures stand out above all. While the clash between Wendy and Ruth unfolds, with Darlene the usual crazy splinter, Jason Bateman steps aside a little, carving out for his Marty a role as a calm mediator and observer worried about the evolution of the situation. Wendy’s psyche is ever more dense and complex, as she sees Laura Linney incredibly at ease in the role of the novella Lady Macbeth, but the most consistent exploit is that of the character of Ruth, real added value to the show thanks to the extraordinary interpretation of Julia Garner.
It must be admitted that the series produced, interpreted and partly directed by the good Jason Bateman always has something to give. In specific terms, the surprises are never few during the episodes of Ozark, and the piling up and intersection of the protagonists and the old and new characters almost never gives a way to carefully and confidently predict the plot twists well established by the writing , which even in this beginning of the end it remains punctual and well calibrated, centered on the breaking bad -style evolution of Martin and Wendy – above all – and on the all-round destruction of a family unit that is now irrecoverable, which has become poisonous and constricting for everyone, despite the stainless love that binds the main ones involved.
The situation is not the most rosy, on the other hand: the Byrdes must in every way convince the FBI to reach an agreement with Navarro, who wants to get out of the games of drug trafficking, having at the same time to deal with the aims of the greedy, a young and dangerous nephew of the latter, Avi, and being able to stop all drug dealing activities with the tenacious Darlene. The jokers in the field are also different: we have the shrewd and fierce Ruth (an always incredible Julia Garner) who goes to place herself where it is best, Jonah Byrde now grown up and aware of the most despicable soul of his mother (Laura Linney is born for this role) and a persistent, toxic private detective set to investigate Helen Pierce’s disappearance.
The cinematographic yardstick of the product remains solid and indisputable, centered in a two-headed sense on the dramatic introspection of the protagonists but also on the quality show, often interested in constructing sequences very well (sometimes much less) steeped in tension and surprise that every aficionado of the show will know recognize it as the beginning of a tragic domino of consequences that in one way or another will lead to nothing good.
And basically, with circumspection and character, Ozark tries to penetrate with personality into the black soul of America, in a moral corruption of ideals and humanity that sever almost every positive and ethical link to aim for something more concrete but concretely distorted. A punitive series where no one is ever safe, in this last season even those who thought themselves untouchable.
Net of a succession of surprises fueled by good writing, punctual and focused on the right evolution of relationships and narrative elements at stake, perhaps that extra gear is missing capable of modifying the pace of history and situations in a different and “new” sense, something truly compelling capable of injecting strong adrenaline into the body of a story that remains, after all, a more of the same of previous seasons, albeit growing targeted. It also remains to be seen how this final cycle will actually end with the remaining 7 episodes, even if then the small prologue with which the season opens allows us to glimpse the hand of a negative fate for the Byrdes, waiting to understand how the criminal ascent will end. of one of the most twisted families of the current serial generation.
In terms of violence, Ozark doesn’t discount. In keeping with the past, the show hits the accelerator pedal and takes the viewer by surprise with bloody twists and pulp scenes. Some moments are so excessive that they risk undermining the realistic basis of the series, but to keep it all together is that mix of drama and sarcasm and characterizes the unique tones of the show. And on the humorous dimension, Jason Bateman’s character continues to have something to say. But behind the apparent ease with which the characters delinquent, let’s not forget that Ozark is first of all a drama and the various deaths that have piled up in previous seasons begin to weigh on the psyche of the characters. The moral dilemmas that the series raises prevent the Byrdes from sleeping peacefully and place them in front of choices that will determine their fate and those of the show. The end is approaching. Who will be able to save themselves and save their conscience before it is too late?
Ozark Season 4 Part 1 The Last Words
Ozark returns to Netflix with the intention of completing the Byrde criminal history with consistency, quality and knowledge, kicking off an ending where perhaps the hand of fate will be pressing. The series continues to prove to be one of the serial products with the most character and content on the Netflix list, perhaps devoid of a significant human soul but cold, direct and concrete as the best thrillers can be, son of the icy Ozarkian setting, still interesting and valid. Perhaps a more of the same narrative of the previous seasons remains, despite the ongoing evolution of the interpersonal relationships of the protagonists involved and the collaborative relationships with the Lagunas cartel, but we are really curious to find out how this adventure with the black soul of this one will end corrupt.
