Jason Bateman is your go to guy as your every-man for comedies. He has been doing it as a kid in series such as Valerie/The Hogan Family.
In the opening episode of Ozark he directs, produces as well as being the star in this dark crime thriller.
He plays Marty Byrde a financial adviser for a small firm in Chicago with his partner, Bruce (Josh Randall). The firm is far from legitimate, they are laundering money for a Mexican cartel.
The episode hits it stride with a bloody massacre as gangster Del (Esai Morales) suspects the firm is skimming money and Bruce owes up to it. It later transpires that Del did not know for sure, he just suspected.
While others are killed, Marty pleads for his life with an idea that he can launder more money, up to half a billion dollars in 5 years if he relocates to Lake Ozark in Missouri.
Marty's last minute thinking might have saved his life, he tries to liquidate his assets including withdrawing everything from his bank. However Marty's wife Wendy (Laura Linney) double crosses him by trying to flee with everything with her lover. That porn film Marty kept watching turns out to be his wife with her lover.
Again it is Del who has also found out what Wendy has been up to and dealt with her lover by having him thrown off from a high rise block.
Marty heads to the Ozark with a plan and an uncertain future. Del will not hesitate to shoot him and his family and he cannot trust his wife.
I am not convinced that Bateman has the chops for a dark dramatic turn. It clearly is darkly lit but at least the opening episode was not a slow burner, it really did go out with a bang thanks to Morales conniving gangster.
The biggest problem is you really have no one to care enough about in this episode to root for. Marty and Bruce fleeced a well to do ordinary couple in the opening scenes who came in for some financial advice.