Season four of the Netflix American crime drama, “Ozark,” was split up into two parts, and the second part is set to premiere on April 29. I, for one, am sad to see the series go. I mean, no one can launder money quite like the Byrde family. The first half of the season’s final episodes were a hit, earning a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes amongst other rave reviews, and fans are eager to feast on season two. So, why exactly is the show ending after such a successful run?
Apparently, ending the show in a two-part run wasn’t always the plan. According to showrunner, Chris Mundy, the idea came directly from Netflix itself. In an interview with TheWrap, Mundy explained they “always thought five [seasons] was the outside number.” He went on to explain, “we didn’t want to repeat ourselves. We didn’t want the show to feel like it was continuing because it was a TV show, and it had to continue.”
Jason Bateman explained why he supported the decision to end the show further, telling Collider, “If you keep going for a whole lot longer, you’re going to go over the cliff, or up over the peak of the mountain and you end up jumping the shark.”
Ending the series after four seasons instead of dragging it out seems like a power move, but what will happen to our beloved Byrde family? Will they finally get what they deserve, suffering at the hands of the cartel? Or will Marty finesse himself and his family out of another intense showdown? In an interview with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Bateman explained that he and the producers went back and forth on the ending for quite some time. He mentioned that Mundy had a semblance of an idea of where he wanted to take the finale, but “didn’t have a specific runway mapped out.” Bateman perfectly summed up the finale by saying, “they’ve threaded the needle between a happy ending – but they’re limping.”
Limp on, Byrde family. I’ll be curled up on the couch watching the drama unfold on April 29th.
