Aaaaand I've seen season 2! OBVIOUSLY SPOILERS FOLLOW, D'UH.
You guys weren't lauding it invain, it was amazing! it started fairly in line with Season 1, but midway through the pace picked up and reached levels of intensity never seen since Breaking Bad! (of which Ozark manages to be a similar show, without copying it... it's in the same category but it's not a BB moved to Missouri, for sure).
So many amazing moments:
- The Snells dynamic... you start out with Jacob being the bad guy, with all his convoluted speeches, and then it turns out (not that it wasn't hard to understand given the season 1 finale) that the real batshit crazy one is the wife!!! I've seen her described on Reddit as "Redneck Cersei" and now that's all I think about
what a completely loose cannon... "what do you do when the bride that took your breath away now makes you hold your breath in terror?".... AMAZING LINE.
- Poor Ruth, that girl has to go through so much shit. The waterboarding from the cartel, the daddy issues.... when she screwed up a robbery and started bawling incontrollabily in the car "please Daddy please I'm not a fuckup", I just wanted to reach through the screen and hug her forever. Amazing character.
- Mason.... we have a good guy whose life has been RUINED by the Byrdes and the Snells, and the show made me root against him! granted, he was a stubborn self rightous guy high on religion, but come on, his life was literally ruined, and yet when he kidnapped Wendy all I could think about and that he was better off dead. What a tragic character.
- Speaking of Wendy.... wow! she started out as the reluctlant wife having to go along with the plan, we feared for another Skyler but no, SHE's the one who broke bad. SHE's the "one who knocks"... or that puts an hit on a man now that she's in the good graces of the cartel / the lawyer.
Knowing there was a third season it was more than obvious that they would not escape to Australia, I was continously expecting in the season finale a major unespexted drama to make up a cliffhanger but no, that's why they don't escape - because Wendy WANTS TO STAY and knows she can order hits on people. Wow. The contrast of her evolution and Marty's dead eye stare in the interview after they killed Mason is impressive.
The show is damn good, and some shorcuts can be forgiven (Petty is dead, how convenient.... and why the hell they made the anbush on the Snells if the result of a rain of bullets is ONE MAN hit in the shoulder? come on, that was cheap). I will savor the emotions of season 2 and in a couple of weeks or so (I like to alternate between shows) I will begin season 3