Walking television institution Jason Bateman is known for playing dry, witty characters. His on-screen persona darkened in 2017 when he starred in Netflix’s “Ozark” as Marty Byrde, a finance expert who is blackmailed into laundering money for a drug cartel. Bateman earned four Emmy nominations playing Marty, but early on, critics weren’t all impressed.
In December 2025, Bateman told Esquire that one negative review in The New York Times actually made him smile. “Mike Hale basically said I was so boring to watch, it reminded him of the person that he buys a ticket from in the airport.” Bateman said. “I laughed my a** off. I appreciate those that get creative with it.” To be precise, Hale wrote that Bateman was playing Marty with “the aggressive blandness of an airline gate agent.”
Jason Bateman’s Ozark performance proved more deliberate than critics first thought
By the time the “Ozark” series finale aired in 2022, Bateman’s awards success had largely quieted early criticism. His “aggressive blandness” in Season 1 earned him a 2018 Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actor in a drama series, followed by another nod in 2019. That same year, he won an Emmy for directing the Season 2 premiere episode, “Reparations,” and as an executive producer, he shared in the show’s three nominations for outstanding drama series in 2019, 2020, and 2022.
The restrained approach that initially drew criticism was, by Bateman’s own account, intentional. In a 2020 interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” he described his characters as “the somewhat tortured or unsettled Everyman or protagonist,” adding that he serves as “the portal that the audience receives all the craziness.” This deliberate choice positioned Marty as the audience’s entry point into the show’s escalating chaos, reframing the very restraint that some early critics dismissed.