Netflix's darkly comic 'Ozark' is a gripping yarn: EW review

Crime dramas that audit the cost of morally murky American materialism are a dime a dozen, but Ozark makes a convincing case that this mostly spent genre still has worth. The 10-episode binge from screenwriter Bill Dubuque (who penned the 2016 thriller The Accountant) is a masterstroke for Jason Bateman, who stars and directed much of the season. He plays Marty Byrde, a brainy financial planner who moves dirty money and lives numbly because of it. He’s finally aroused when it all comes crashing down: He uproots his family — including a disaffected, cheating wife (Laura Linney, warming up a cold trope) — and heads to the Ozarks for one last job that can buy him out of Mob bondage. Bateman’s commanding performance powers a gripping, twisty, sometimes spotty yarn that plays like Breaking Bad in reverse, a darkly comic deconstruction of antihero fantasy about a man flailing to rediscover the value of human life.