Missing Breaking Bad? Netflix made its own, and all four seasons are there to binge
Netflix’s answer to Breaking Bad goes big on ambition — and while it never matched that show’s clout, it’s a cracking watch.
If you were one of those people glued to Breaking Bad when it first aired, you weren’t alone. It completely upended what audiences thought telly drama could get away with – turning a high school chemistry teacher into a cold-blooded meth kingpin, with millions rooting for him every foul step of the way. Turns out, watching someone spectacularly ruin their life (and everyone else’s) is utterly gripping. It’s the sort of show that leaves the industry scrambling to duplicate that rare lightning-in-a-bottle feeling. No surprise, then, that Netflix took its shot at the formula just a few years later with something that did more than just follow in Breaking Bad’s footsteps – it bloody stomped all over them and then veered off into its own strange territory.
Ozark started its run in 2017 and wrapped the full story in four tense seasons.
Ozark arrived in 2017, not all that long after Vince Gilligan hung up his meth lab goggles at AMC. A lot of 'prestige' crime telly tried and failed to borrow from Breaking Bad’s magic, but Ozark really was different. It took the ‘normal family chucked into criminal chaos’ concept and ran miles with it, even if the cast isn’t quite as sheepish as Walter White on day one. Marty Byrde (played by Jason Bateman, who’s always been best at looking like the only adult in the room) doesn’t exactly start off as a naïve bystander. He’s already waist-deep in dodgy money-laundering for a Mexican cartel by the opening episode, so we skip straight past the how’s-he-gonna-pay-the-medical-bills stuff and land in serious hot water from minute one. If Breaking Bad was a slow boil, Ozark is a pan left on high with no one watching it.
The Family Business, But Meaner
That said, the backbone of the thing is pure Breaking Bad. Marty isn’t alone in this mess. His whole family gets yanked into the criminal underworld, and unlike Walter White’s brood, the Byrdes get stuck in fast. Laura Linney’s Wendy isn’t some begrudging spouse – she’s soon plotting right alongside her husband and gets her own proper descent-into-darkness arc. Skyler White never got anything close to this much to do.
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On top of that, there’s an alliance at the heart of the show that echoes the Walt-and-Jesse partnership without being a direct rip. Marty teams up with local firebrand Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner), who’s got more bite than half the Breaking Bad cast put together. Their dynamic is properly unpredictable, and Ruth pretty much steals the show half the time.
Ozark doubles down on the family business theme, actually exploring what happens to the kids rather than keeping them out of sight until dinner time. You get to watch the whole crew get pulled down together, and the show never tries to romanticise their choices. It’s a bit grimmer than Breaking Bad, and definitely not as obsessed with shock twists, but the tension just keeps dialling up.
Why It Works (When So Many Didn’t)
Despite all the comparisons, Ozark really doesn’t ride Breaking Bad’s coattails too much. If anything, it finds its feet surprisingly fast. There’s none of that wobbly first season feel that plagues so many Netflix productions – it actually gets more gripping as it barrels towards its ending. At just four seasons, there’s no flab or marathon filler episodes. The pace is brutal, everyone suffers, and there isn’t a single easy out. Even when you’re screaming at the TV (fair warning: you will), it all still makes a warped kind of sense in its own universe.
It’s got to be said, Jason Bateman and Laura Linney make the whole thing work far better than you’d expect from a pair of actors best known for deadpan comedy and Oscar dramas, respectively. And Julia Garner’s Ruth genuinely might be the biggest one-woman force on telly since… well, Jesse Pinkman, but louder. In the end, you're not necessarily rooting for anyone, but you can't stop watching as the cartel, law enforcement, and the Byrdes themselves push everyone to the brink. It's a relentless spiral, and by the time it ends, even the audience feels like they've been through the wringer.