The story
When a laundering job for a Mexican cartel goes badly awry, Chicago financial adviser Marty Byrde tries to make amends by promising something bigger: a new laundering operation around Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks. He uproots his wife Wendy and their two children to a summer resort town, where cleaning cartel cash through local businesses soon tangles the family up with home-grown criminals, the FBI and, later, the Kansas City mob.
Why it matters
Ozark became one of Netflix's mainstay crime dramas, earning 45 Primetime Emmy nominations across its run, three of them for Outstanding Drama Series. Jason Bateman won for directing and Julia Garner took three supporting-actress Emmys, evidence of how firmly streaming dramas had joined the awards conversation.
Notable facts
- Creator Bill Dubuque based the setting on a Lake of the Ozarks resort where he worked as a dock hand while at college. (source)
- The writers brought an FBI agent who works on financial crimes into the writers' room to keep the laundering plausible. (source)
- A restaurant called "Marty Byrde's" opened in Lake Ozark, Missouri, in February 2018. (source)