Created by Bill Dubuque ("The Accountant," "The Judge"), this drama series stars Jason Bateman as Marty Byrde, a financial planner who relocates his family from Chicago to a summer resort community in the Ozarks. With wife Wendy and their two kids in tow, Marty is on the move after a money-laundering scheme goes wrong, forcing him to pay off a substantial debt to a Mexican drug lord in order to keep his family safe. While the Byrde's fate hangs in the balance, the dire circumstances force the fractured family to reconnect.
In the first episode of Ozark, Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) is in a kind of existential midlife funk: His wife, Wendy (Laura Linney), is cheating on him; his kids are growing into entitled nightmares; and his job as a financial adviser appears to be lamentably unfulfilling. Then, suddenly, the show flips everything on its head. Marty’s business partner has apparently been stealing millions from a Mexican drug lord and is murdered in front of him. Marty’s only recourse is to plead for his life and propose a new plan—he’ll launder $500 million in drug money by moving to the Lake of the Ozarks, a man-made reservoir in Missouri and a popular holiday destination that he argues will be less conspicuous to the FBI.