This week I watched the first week of Ozark and I instantly fell
in love for it. My friends and I instantly were hooked on it. This show is based off of a family with two children, Charlotte and Johan and parents Martin and
Wendy Byrde. Marty
Byrde played wonderfully by Jason Bateman a financial adviser working for a firm
in Chicago with his partner, Bruce.
Marty is conveyed as a very smart man whom is
great at his job but along with that he also likes to hold onto his money. This
is shown well when he denies a $10 donation to his daughter’s friend for
charity and his short rant following about how the daughter needs to learn how
to save her money. Jason Bateman does a
great job of conveying this character’s emotion in his face and voice as well
as the way he carries himself in the scenes. This man is confident in his job
but when it comes to his daily life with his cheating wife he acts as he’s
beaten down. This differentiation is great for really connecting with a character
and the different aspects of their life.
This show starts off by showing
the murder of Marty’s business partner, Bruce. Del, the son of a drug lord suspects his money launderers are stealing
money in the process, which we later find out is a bluff. He shares with Marty
in the episode that it was off a whim, he acted as if he knew and Bruce fell
for it. This aspect of the movie pushes you more towards your relationship with
the Marty and making you feel more connected to him. The man that he is dealing
with killed another man off of a whim. That’s enough to scare anybody, and on
top of it Marty had no knowledge of his partner’s illegal operations. This puts
anyone who has had someone stab them in the back able to put themselves in his
shoes. This lesson is reinforced again when Wendy his wife tries to flee with her
lover after finding out about the incident involving the cartel. She takes as
much money as she can and tries to flee, but Del thinking that Marty is trying
to escape finds out and murders the lover. These moments all establish tension
and fear. All of this is terrifying but
we are all intrigued by his willingness and want to live and not give in.
Throughout
this episode we are constantly drawn closer to him and feel more intrigued and
on his side. We want to see him live and succeed. There are so many factors
against him at this point but for his family he refuses to give in. I intend to
come back and watch more of this season and hopefully love it as much as the
first episode. And I recommend it to anyone who wants a thrilling intense new
show to watch.
This is super interesting. I definitely have to check it out, I love intense shows like that.
ReplyDeleteDoes it take place at the lake of the ozarks at some point? Being from STL I tend to go down there a lot in the summer so that's creepy and also pretty awesome if it's actually tied to the lake.
Interesting role for Bateman, doesn't he generally take on more comical roles? I guess he's a *cue textbook reference* chameleon actor since he seems to have a variety of role types.
In the first episode they start out in Chicago then they are forced to move to the Lake of the Ozarks. It is one of Bateman's more serious roles but he does a great job of it.
DeleteI've heard nothing but great things about Ozark and it sounds like such a thrilling and enthralling show.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your blog, after our class discussion, it would be a good thing to focus on straying away from summarization, as this post in particular is very summary-heavy. I greatly appreciate the conclusions of your paragraphs, where you take the example that you previously presented and offer an analysis of it. I think that you can make the ratio of summarization to analyzation stronger, however. Being a person who has yet to view the series, this was a little distracting, and these events that occur in the series are things that I could go see for myself if I watched the show. I want to know more about how you feel about it, and maybe about how the show affects you or holds some relevance to your life.
There were sentences that were either nonsensical or just hard to follow due to minor grammar and wording issues. I definitely struggle with the same thing and it can be a little frustrating to rearrange words and sentences. This is an issue that is definitely easy to ameliorate with careful revision.