I like Jason Bateman and Laura Linney as much as the next entertainment consumer, but someone needs to arrest, kill or elect to higher office their "Ozark" characters, Marty and Wendy Byrde. And they need to do it today.
The money-laundering Byrdes have been in flight for three seasons now, having left Chicago for the Lake of the Ozarks in an attempt to outrun law enforcement while fulfilling a deal Marty made with wrathful drug lord Omar Navarro (Felix Solis). The first season was refreshing and delightful mix of cartel thriller and "Green Acres" — the Byrdes did not so much hide amid the unlikely charms of Lake of the Ozarks as infect it, bringing Big City high finance and cartel violence to the local mix of petty criminals, homegrown heroin dealers and (very rare) innocent bystanders.
That the FBI agent tracking them was a near-Lynchian mess of perseverance and personal demons certainly helped the Byrdes survive the first season, as did Marty's realization that local firecracker Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) was key to their (and the series') success.
