Netflix's Popular Series Hits No. 1 Upon Return of Final Season
Ozark is doing big numbers on Netflix. Variety reported that the first half of Ozark's final season debuted in the top spot at the streaming service. Season 4, Part 1, of Ozark premiered on Friday.
Season 4 of Ozark, which stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, may have premiered only a few days ago, but it's already making its mark on Netflix. Following the premiere, Ozark landed in the No. 1 spot on Netflix's English-language TV Top 10 list for the week of Jan. 17 to Jan. 23. The season has been watched by many, as Variety noted that it has garnered over 77 million hours viewed since its release.
Due to the latest season's premiere, the first season of Ozark also landed in the streamer's Top 10 of the week. Season 1 of Ozark took the No. 5 spot, having been viewed for over 24 million hours. While fans haven't wasted any time in watching Season 4, they'll have to wait a bit longer to see how the show comes to an end. Season 4, Part 2, of Ozark is set to be released at some point in May of this year.
It's been quite some time since fans have been able to watch new episodes of Ozark. Season 3 of the series launched in March 2020. Months after that release, it was reported that Ozark would be coming to an end with a "supersized" Season 4. The final season will consist of 14 total episodes, the first half of which were released on Friday. An official synopsis for the final season reads, "The new season will mark the final chapter in the Byrde family's journey from suburban Chicago life to their criminal enterprise in the Ozarks."
During an interview with The Wrap, Ozark showrunner Chris Mundy explained why they decided to break up the season into two parts. He explained that the idea actually came from Netflix after the production team shared that they were deciding whether to end the show with Season 4 or Season 5. Mundy said that they originally felt as though five seasons would be the "outside number." He added, "It just felt like after that – we didn't want to repeat ourselves, we didn't want the show to feel like it was continuing because it was a TV show and it had to continue. So really the decision has always been between is it four [seasons] or is it five [seasons], and then Netflix hit upon the idea of saying, 'We'll do four but we'll make it long and split it in this way,' and that felt perfect."