Arrested Development‘s Bluths don’t have the market cornered on TV family dysfunction or on Jason Bateman. In the upcoming series Ozark, the actor, starring alongside Laura Linney, is part of a new family with seriously strange problems. Netflix released an official trailer on Wednesday, introducing viewers to the Byrdes and their tumultuous situation.
Bateman and Linney star as Marty and Wendy, the heads of a seemingly normal family with two teenage kids. However, their lives are anything but ordinary, as we see in the dark trailer. The Byrdes are deep into some dangerous business, thanks to Marty getting involved with money laundering and a Mexican drug cartel.
The chronology of the story seems to skip around in the trailer, but what we can tell is this: After Marty got himself tied up in some very shady business, the Byrdes moved to the Missouri Ozarks. There, life only becomes more complicated and terrifying. The FBI comes calling with questions about Marty’s missing business partner, and a host of other people turn up at different points as well to threaten and possibly actually do harm to them.
If you were hoping to see Bateman in another comedy series, you will have to wait for the return of Arrested Development because Ozark certainly isn’t that; the series has a much more sinister tone. Although the preview is less than two minutes long, it is full of morbid developments, including a man falling from a building, Marty seemingly witnessing a murder, the Byrde kids’ lives being threatened, and much more.
Bateman and Linney are a formidable duo to headline the series. Linney has been nominated for three Academy Awards over the course of her career and she has also won four Emmys, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Meanwhile, Bateman is a fellow SAG Award winner and has his own Golden Globe.
Although better known for his work in front of the camera, Bateman is also a director and he helms some of Ozark‘s 10 episodes. The series was created by Bill Dubuque, the screenwriter behind the 2016 crime thriller The Accountant.
Ozark premieres July 21 on Netflix.
