Ozark

[sjankis630]

This is the new Netflix show with Jason Bateman as a financier who is laundering drug money for a Mexican Cartel. He has a nice house in the Chicago suburbs and a wife and two kids. His wife (Laura Linney) is cheating on him and he finds out about this because he hires a private detective to follow and film her. He tries to deal with the issue by not confronting his wife about it initially with the evidence which he obsesses over.
Anyway the Cartel boss - Esai Morales accuses Bateman/partners of stealing from him and kills his partners off and threatens to kill Bateman.
This forces Bateman to plead for his and his family's lives and for the Cartel guy to give him one more chance on making it good by laundering more money for him down in the Ozark country. (Chicago has gotten to hot at that time)
He is forced to pack up his family and move that weekend and get established down in the Missouri Ozarks.
There he has to look to open up/buy several businesses in order to launder the money in the 3 months that the Cartel boss gives him.
What he finds out though is that the Ozark locals are far from pushovers and they have their own crime/corruption problems that Bateman will have to weather and adapt to before he can get his family safe.
The premise is a little far out initially but the acting (from Bateman, Linney, the kids and the rest) is very well done.
The location is a mixture of paradise and nightmare with a little bit of redneck/hillbilly thrown in for good measure.
There are 10 episodes in all and a lot happens and there is everything here. (violence, sex, cheating, threats etc.)
If you have Netflix I highly recommend you give this a try.

[mrspickles]

The young woman playing Ruth is outstanding. The character of Ruth may be the most evil woman written since Kate in East of Eden.

[sjankis630]

You are correct Ruth is - no pun - ruthless. However I believe she acted the way she did at the end because Jason Bateman and Laura Linney's characters showed her the only respect that she has had possibly in years. (as messed up as that sounds)
Still I am curious about how they are going to handle the second season.

[MrsOldManBalls]

I did not see what happened to Del coming. Don't disrespect the locals. Got it!

[riosamba]

I enjoyed Ozark, and found the performances very engaging. The mystery/thriller aspect was well done with twists I didn't see coming, and I thought Jason Bateman and Laura Linney did great work subtly exploring what marriage and family can mean. I can't think of what else to say without spoiling what I think is a show well worth watching, so I'll stop with saying that I am looking forward to Season 2.

[sjankis630]

I just remembered who Ruth's character reminded me of. She is like the little girl from the Bad Seed except without the cute pigtails and is now grown up. Lol.

[hamhock]

Love this show, I'm glad to see some other people watching!

[LAX]

I just finished the whole season in a 2 day marathon. Excellent work by Bateman and Linney. Last episode contained one of my biggest cringe things, anything to do with nails is like my nails on chalkboard. <shudder>
takeaways:
I've never been too keen on Bob Seger but hearing Still The Same in the show warmed me up to it.
Dang, is it really that easy to buy a high powered rifle in Missouri? Twice, no questions asked?
If a nice woman from Missouri offers you some cold lemonade, run away quickly.

ETA: If there is ever a biopic on Hillary Clinton I think Laura Linney would be killer in the role.