Home Entertainment Ozark getting expanded fourth and final season released in two parts

Ozark getting expanded fourth and final season released in two parts

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Confession time: I was very, very late to the Ozark party. When Netflix first unveiled its 2017 crime drama series, I was hesitant as it sounded like a Breaking Bad ripoff: Actor best known for nice guy comedic roles (Jason Bateman here as opposed Bryan Cranston) playing a straight-laced family guy with marital issues who gets involved in the drug business to make ends meet. But then I actually watched the first two episodes and was blown away. I thought my wife would be blown away as well so I told her to catch up on those two episodes and then we could watch together… and she totally didn’t. Without having seen a single frame of footage she proclaimed it looked boring and passed. And having waited for her to catch up, I had moved onto other shows as I just didn’t have the time to go back.

Fast forward to more recently when I had finally had enough of that “Continue Watching” tab on Netflix taunting me, and I just told my wife that we’re watching Ozark. We blazed through the first two episodes together with my wife proclaiming “Why didn’t you make me watch this sooner?!”. That was just under two weeks ago. On Monday night we finished the last episode of season three (what a cliffhanger!). And my timing could not have been more perfect as last night we got the announcement that Netflix has renewed Ozark for a fourth and final season!

The twisting, crazy tale Bateman’s Marty Byrde and his wife Wendy (Laura Linney acting the crap out of every scene) and their desperate scheme upon scheme as they’re forced to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel, is finally coming to an end. And it’s being given all the room it needs to do so properly as the episode count has been upped from 10 to 14, with the season being aired in two 7-episode parts. In an official statement about the renewal, Bateman, who also serves as a director and executive producer on the show, said that “A super-sized season means super-sized problems for the Byrdes. I’m excited to end with a bang(s).”

Showrunner Chris Mundy also commented on being allowed enough time to bring this story to a close properly.

We’re so happy Netflix recognized the importance of giving Ozark more time to end the Byrdes’ saga right. It’s been such a great adventure for all of us — both on screen and off — so we’re thrilled to get the chance to bring it home in the most fulfilling way possible.

There’s no word yet on when the first part of this “super-size” fourth season will air, but it probably won’t be until mid-to-late 2021 given the current COVID-19 production lockdown.

Since 2017, Ozark has scored two Golden Globe nominations and 14 Emmy nominations with two wins – One for Bateman for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, and one for co-star Julia Garner (who plays the foul-mouthed, no-nonsense Ruth Langmore) for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. It’s also earned six Screen Actors Guild nomination split between Bateman, Linney, and Garner. The show’s third season has been even more of a critical smash than before and is expected to be one of the big front-runners during the next awards season. The third season has also seemingly been drawing huge viewership numbers. While Netflix traditionally doesn’t release these stats, Bateman did comment on them saying that the lockdown has really helped to boost their audience.

We are very proud of what we did, but we would be lying if we said we didn’t have a little virus aid. We had some gratuitous timing with the show coming out when everyone had nothing to look at except their walls and television. Hopefully people liked what they were looking at.

Trust me, Mr Bateman, we really, really liked what we were looking at and cannot wait to look at some more!

Last Updated: July 1, 2020

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