'Ozark' cements its place among Netflix's best dramas with its final episodes

For anyone inclined initially to dismiss "Ozark" as "Breaking Bad Lite," the Netflix drama has exceeded all expectations, steadily building toward a final run reinforcing the idea that getting into business with very bad people is going to have consequences. The fourth season has also become a family affair, adding a deeper hook to the Byrde saga that delivers tension right up until the last frame.

Perhaps foremost, the series has consistently tested the extent to which Marty (Jason Bateman) and his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) are willing to go to survive, as they try to navigate landmines that include drug dealers and the Feds in order to shed their dirty money-laundering business and buy their way back to Chicago.

Through the years, Marty has defined himself as the guy who can talk his way out of any situation, or at least try to, while Wendy has become increasingly ruthless, in a manner that has finally risked alienating their not-entirely-grown-up kids (Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner). In the "Who can you trust?" department, the Byrdes since the beginning have added each other to that calculus, but the question of whether they're working together out of love or necessity seems particularly acute now.