So long, sayonara, and thanks for all the fish as Jason Bateman has farewelled his hit Netflix series Ozark with a very sizable bamg, bringing home one last award at the 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Ozark did the impossible for a Netflix original. It not only lasted more than one season without cancelation, but was given free reign to do whatever it had in mind and finish its story arc. Imagine that, not axing a show in the middle of a massive, multi-year arc. Bateman has picked up this particular gong for himself from Ozark, scoring the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series gong.
Few would’ve predicted twenty years ago Bateman of all people would be behind such a scintillating series from both ends of the camera, but he’s surprised many. Ozark’s fourth and final season was split into two parts across Jan. 2022 and April 2022, receiving strong reviews and again seeing Bateman nominated for performance awards individually.
Bateman beat out Jonathan Banks and Bob Odenkirk from Better Call Saul, The Old Man’s Jeff Bridges, and comedic gem Adam Scott from Succession. Yet again, Odenkirk has been trumped despite Better Call Saul perhaps living a bit longer in the memory of audiences.
The series has been a consistent honeytrap for audiences since release, and very much has made up the Mount Rushmore of Netflix’s original content. The one positive of Netflix’s approach is also they’ll never reanimate the corpse of Ozark to get more viewers, instead they’ll just greenlight another 30 shows and axe 28 of them. Isn’t television a wonderful industry?