Last night I finished season 1 of a series that I binge-watched over the course of 3 days. I would have done it much faster but I was staying with someone that had to go to work in the mornings and well, she wanted to watch the episodes as well and it would have been NOT COOL for me to cheat and watch them early.

As you might expect season 1 of Osark is 10 episodes and for the most part they managed to keep them relatively clutter free. There was some unnecessary filler but not a great deal of it. Clutter (completely unneeded content that is there just to take up time) is one of the most irritating things to me in a show and is normally a good indication that the writers don't really have a story.

This aspect of "clutter" is something that made me quite upset while watching The Haunting of Hill House - which is a series that looked like it had potential but the story simply wasn't big enough for the 10 episodes and I don't know if it was a budget thing or what, but after the first 4 episodes or so, that entire show was filler and there was no real story anymore.

This did not happen with Ozark. The story keeps moving and for the most part the aspects of it that are important for us to know, we are told. Money laundering is a complicated ordeal (I worked in accounting so I understand it) however i actually kind of like how they didn't explain it in great detail because this isn't a college course.

basically it involves putting a bunch of money in a wall

So, I enjoyed the series and am really looking forward to watching the rest of them, likely before I fly back to Thailand. Before I do that though, I want to vaguely talk about characters i really like and some I don't care for in the series.

Marty Byrd

It should come as no surprise that Jason Bateman's character is awesome. He isn't tough and has virtually no street smarts, but he is exceptionally clever and a tremendous negotiator. He is also able to make the common man relate to his "college thinkin'" by way of examples that are easy to understand.

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Ruth Langmore

Ruth is a hillbilly that is introduced to the family by way of conning them and getting caught but also appreciated by Marty for her intelligence. She is what Marty isn't in that she knows the area and has a tremendous amount of street-smarts. She is a valuable asset to the Byrds and also has a quick wit.

Characters I don't like

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Wendy Byrde

Her character screws up almost everything that she is involved in and is a whiny, depressed mess for a great deal of the things that she manages to do correctly. I know we can't have her ALSO being a manipulative genius like her husband, it would get boring, but i don't know if it is the script or Laura Linney's acting, but scenes that she is heavily involved in kind of get on my nerves.


It just occured to me that I felt the same way about Skylar from Breaking Bad so perhaps this has more to do with me than it does with Wendy. Perhaps I just don't like people getting in the way of the necessary gangster moves the father of the family is forced to make.

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The Preacher

His importance in the series is overstated and his background story was one of the main pieces of filler or "clutter" that I have a problem with in the first season. Perhaps he becomes more relevant later. For now, i would prefer if he just went away. ___

Well there you have it folks. The season is through. IF you have seent it and have an opinion about your favorite and not favorite characters I would be interested to hear your thoughts. If you are keeping score here is the final tally

Phase 1 (ep 1 - 3) - 9 / 10
Phase 2 (ep 4 - 7) - 7 / 10
Phase 3 (ep 8 -10)- 9 / 10

Overall score be

9 / 10

I think this is the highest I have ever rated a series and that seems like a big deal until you understand that I have only ever reviewed one other one.