Netflix’s Acclaimed 8-Year-Old Crime Drama Dubbed Very Realistic by Expert

An expert on drug cartels breaks down how realistic Ozark was with its portrayal of the criminal underworld. Ozark was a Netflix crime drama that was created by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams and ran for four seasons between 2017-2022. The series starred Jason Bateman as Marty Byrde, a financial advisor who moves his family to central Missouri to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel.

Ozark was an Emmy and Golden Globe-winning series. The show was praised for its writing, direction, and Ozark‘s stellar cast. The series filled a void left by Breaking Bad and was a hit for Netflix. Years after its conclusion, the show is still influencing other programs and creating conversation.

Per Netflix Tudum, journalist Sam Quinones breaks down the realism of Ozark. Quinones has decades of experience covering Mexican cartels and used that to analyze Ozark. He confirms that people like Bateman’s Marty Byrde do exist in the real world, as cartels have lower-level people working for them that assist with laundering large sums of money. He also notes that the Missouri setting is realistic as cartels use “locals to be their conduits for the dope to the local population.”

Tudum: In all of your years covering the cartels, has there ever been anyone like Marty Byrde?

Quinones: I’m going to say yes, there has been. This whole drug trafficking world works because they’ve got people on the lower level working with them and people finding ways of laundering money.

One way that they’ve been doing a lot of this lately is through the Fashion District in Los Angeles. It’s called a peso exchange, where you pay for products here and then you have them made in Mexico and you sell the products and you get the money.

It’s a complicated, convoluted thing, but it’s been used a lot. Markets, money-wiring services, whatever is in immigrant communities that’s [a] cash business — restaurants, all of that kind of stuff. I would say, though, if you’re asking someone to launder $500 million, it would be difficult to do that in any kind of rapid way without a bank.

Tudum: How realistic is it that a vacation town in Missouri could be home to drug trafficking, money laundering and local drug kingpins with opium fields?

Quinones: It’s a pretty realistic situation. Frequently, folks in Mexico, particularly higher-ups, are looking for locals to be their conduits for the dope to the local population, and then also businesses, particularly cash businesses, as places to launder the money. They’re constantly looking for those sources.

What This Means For Ozark

The Series Reflects Real-World People

Part of the appeal of a show like Ozark is the audience wondering what they would do in a similar situation. As Marty becomes further entangled with local criminals and the Mexican cartel, realism is important to the narrative. While any show will take creative liberties, having Ozark grounded in reality helped the series be a success.

Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) looking nervous in Ozark.

Apple TV+ Found Its Ozark Replacement, And It’s Even Better Than The Netflix Show In One Major Way

Apple TV+ seems to have the perfect Ozark replacement, which, interestingly, avoids repeating one of the biggest criticisms for the hit Netflix show.

Quinones’ assessment is a reminder that drug-related crime isn’t just relegated to large metropolitan areas, but more rural ones as well. Although Missouri may not seem like the most obvious place for money laundering or other narcotics crimes to take place, real-world people have been sucked in similarly to Marty.

Our Take On Its Realism

Ozark Is A Celebrated Crime Drama

Jason Bateman in Ozark — Custom image by Yeider Chacon

Throughout its run, Ozark was nominated for an impressive forty-five Primetime Emmy Awards, which included three for Outstanding Drama Series. With that in mind, it makes sense that the series would take the effort to create a realistic scenario that would find a financial advisor in an extreme situation.

As Quinones details, the series is an accurate representation of drug cartels in the Midwestern United States. The realism also adds tension to the show, as it is a reminder that cartel-related crime can happen anywhere. It’s part of what made Ozark such a defining show for Netflix, and why it continues to find new viewers to this day.

Source: Netflix Tudum