Emmy Episodes: Ozark

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. For the third year in a row, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

Ozark: Season 1, Episode 10 “The Toll” (B-)

This show is certainly more engaging than I had expected it to be, but I do have some issues with its plot. The notion that there’s an untouchable criminal couple in town that could cut a baby out of a woman’s womb and make her disappear without anyone knowing and then be questioned by a cop for exactly that crime may not be all that far-fetched, but you’d have to assume that they know what they’re doing and how to control it. Evidently, that’s not the case with Darlene, who shot her newest business partner in the head when he called her a name she didn’t like. Her husband seemed completely okay with this development, ready to clean it all up, but there’s a limit to the believability of all this. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with Del and the likelihood of him being arrested the moment he left the Snell property, and Marty emerging instead managed to get law enforcement very angry. Jason Bateman is up for two Emmys for this episode, both for directing it and starring in it. While I initially contended that he wasn’t a good fit for a dramatic role like this, I guess there is something about his comic nature that makes him a solid choice for the part. Watching him pitch his latest scheme to his prospective business partners was a high point, and there’s definitely a case to be made for Bateman being the right actor to anchor this show. I don’t even know what to say about Michael Mosley’s troubled priest, other than to be relieved that he chose to baptize rather than drown his baby. Watching these two episodes didn’t inspire me to start watching this show full-time, and I’ll only sample season two episodes if the show ends up being nominated again next year.

What I’m Watching: Justified

Justified: Season 5, Episode 11 “The Toll” (B+)

This episode changed the direction of many things on this show in big ways, and it’s going to be hard to recover from an installment that doesn’t feel like it should be followed by two more hours this season. Art and Allison bonding over their shared frustrations with Raylan was fun, and it was a deceptively calm beginning to an unexpectedly violent plotline which found Art faithfully defending Allison only to realize that she had blood all over her, which turned out to be his. That final haunting shot of Raylan visiting Art at the hospital says it all, and this hour certainly gave him a lot to think about. Calling the interim chief out on making him a right-hand man was entertaining, and while it’s not too surprising to learn that Art’s choice to be his replacement was Rachel, it’s definitely going to change things. Daryl surrendering to ensure that Raylan wouldn’t outright kill him was probably smart, though having Kendal implicate himself in Art’s shooting demonstrates his pitiful nature. While Ava was busy amassing a loyal following in prison, Boyd managed to gain the upper hand in a tricky situation by returning to his roots and putting a bomb in a cigarette. I’ve always said that these criminals are fantastic creatures, and that’s never been truer. With the Crowe family almost out of the picture, Mary Steenburgen’s Katherine Hale seems like a perfect nemesis for the law, even if she hasn’t yet gotten under Raylan’s skin, just Vasquez’s.