Well, there you have it. With the final seven episodes of Ozark season 4 now available to stream on Netflix, the acclaimed crime drama has come to an end.
It’s been quite the journey since Marty (Jason Bateman in the Ozark cast) made his family up sticks to the Ozarks to launder money for the cartel, with so many twists and turns it’s hard to keep track.
The show has been a bona fide hit for Netflix, with the first part of season 4 reaching the best viewing figures for any streaming title in almost two years.
So why did the show end with four seasons, and who’s decision was it? Read on for everything you need to know about why there won’t be an Ozark season 5.
Why there won’t be an Ozark season 5
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It was announced in June 2020 that the show would be returning for a “supersized” fourth and final season, made up of 14 episodes and split into two parts.
At the time, showrunner Chris Mundy said: “We’re so happy Netflix recognised the importance of giving Ozark more time to end the Byrdes’ saga right.”
Since then, in an interview with The Daily Beast, Mundy explained that when to end the show was always Netflix’s decision, but he’d made clear to the streamer that he wanted advanced notice, so he could bring it to a satisfying close.
However, it seems that in the end, the decision to end with four seasons was mutually beneficial, with Mundy explaining: “I’ve been talking to them about trying to end it in five [seasons], and they weren’t sure if they wanted to do four or five, and Netflix is the one that hit upon the idea of doing four seasons but a longer order, with the idea always being that it would split.
“My gut feeling is that they have an appreciation for letting things run the right amount of time for them, and creatively. I know for us, creatively, we didn’t think it would go past five. Knowing where we wanted to end it—at least emotionally; we didn’t know all the mechanics of it—it felt like somewhere in that four-five season range was kind of perfect.”
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Meanwhile, in an interview with Collider for the show’s third season, before the final season was confirmed, Bateman explained that “I think there’s always been the presumed area [of] three seasons, four seasons, five seasons, something like that.”
Bateman’s reasoning for this was not wanting to “jump the shark”, saying that given Marty and Wendy’s intelligence, and the rate of escalation in the danger and the play “they’re either going to be killed or put in jail.”
“The alternative is to flatten out that pitch so that you don’t end up jumping the shark,” Bateman continued, “but then you start stalling just for additional episodes and seasons.”
So there we have it. It seems that a combination of creative decision making and, ultimately, Netflix’s final say, is why we won’t be returning to the Ozarks for any more crime and chaos.
All four seasons of Ozark are available to watch on Netflix now. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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