The second season of the hit Netflix original Ozark was released August 31 of this year and is on track to be as popular as season one. To summarize the plot of season one, Marty Byrde, a successful financial planner in a business partnership with two other men. whose best client happens to be the Mexican drug cartel. Then Marty soon finds out that his partners made some very bad decisions regarding the cartel’s money, so in the show’s first surprise of many, The cartel holds them hostage kills Marty’s partner. It was looking like Marty would end up just like his partner he was able to talk himself out of one problem and into another.  After convincing the cartel that he could take the entire operation down to the Lake of the Ozarks, way below the radar of the Feds and where there’s plenty of opportunities to launder their money, he promised to “clean” $8 million quickly, with the promise of millions more over the next few years. It was a good enough pitch to save Marty’s life, but then starts all of Marty’s troubles.
Ozark season Two starts off with Marty and the snells making a deal to cover up the murder of Del. Ruth’s ex-con father Cade (Trevor Long) gets released from jail and immediately alienates almost everyone he interacts with, peeing on his parole officer and ticking off his daughter at the same time. Cade wishes to move forward with plans of stealing the cartel’s money from Marty. Also introducing Chicago-based drug lawyer Helen (Janet McTeer) is a menacing attorney straight out of countless legal dramas as Del’s replacement. She is always behind Marty and keeping things running smoothly.  The Byrds big plan to build a casino runs into repeated bumps along the way and end up having to get a law changed in with the help of Robert Mercer-like political string-puller Charles Wilkes (Darren Goldstein) an influential politician. The legislation is passed allowing the construction of the casino in the Ozarks so the Byrdes can move forward with their plans. The snells are reluctant to let Marty use their land to build on, but shortly after Wendy burns the snells opium farm to the ground to prevent the feds from finding it has no choice but to proceed with the casino. The FBI is hot on the Byrdes tail and gets a search warrant on their house and raids it at four in the morning. Luckily the byrdes moved the money into a mausoleum for one of their friends. Cade tries attempts to steal from Marty’s funeral home where the money used to be stored.  In the end, Cade took money from the club and was leaving town when the cartel got word of it and shot Cade dead in the street. Danielle poisons Jacob because Jacob was planning to kill Danielle. All operations for the casino are ready and construction begins, and that is where the season lets off.
Season two is built around the casino in Lake of the Ozarks. Everything about this season feels darker than season one. For instance, there’s a lot more murder and death this season and criminal activity. Also in this new season, it seems it is juggling storylines and we just don’t know how to follow it all. Including characters such as Agent Petty (Jason Butler Harner) where Ozark tries to give you all this background into his life with rather graphic scenes, which really are completely irrelevant to the main plot of the season. The Mexican cartel is much more involved this time around with the drug lawyer Helen who makes sure everyone working with Marty knows what they’re getting themselves into. Ruth was one of the first who had to face the cartel when she was seen talking to the FBI. The Cartel went to her house and waterboarded her ensuring she knew what she was involved in.
The plot of season two compared to season one is a little less intriguing because in season one it’s a lot more out on the water and involving the lake with the plot. Where is season two barely takes place on the lake and just focuses more on the hick redneck parts of the Ozarks. Also, season two is just a formula for things that should go a certain way, but don’t and end up going badly. This is all of season two one thing after another. For example, when they want to build a casino they can’t because there is a law, and they get a boat but there’s no engine, or how they want to build on the snells land, but they’re so reluctant to it.
Overall season two of Ozark is an all-around pretty solid season. I would give it a rating of seven out of ten being compared to season one.