Ozark: The 10 Most Cringeworthy Parts, According To Reddit

Netflix’s crime drama Ozark follows an accountant who moves his family from Chicago to remote Missouri as part of a scheme to redeem himself to a drug cartel for which he was laundering money, a scheme that goes sour at the start of the show. What follows instead is an increasing entanglement with the criminal underworld that has devastating ramifications for his family and associates.

While Ozark has received acclaim for its performances, storyline, and the cinematic quality of its overall creation, Redditors have still found many parts of the show to have a heavy dose of cringe.

Ruth’s Line About DEFCON 5

Redditor Kevin-Bossa is a fan of Ozark, but has one very specific complaint regarding the portrayal of Ruth. In one episode, she asks “Why would DEFCON 1 be worse than DEFCON 5?” This was a bit too out of character for Kevin-Bossa.

Ruth is “not the kind of character to ask silly and dumb questions like that.” It seemed to this Redditor like a joke out of a Marvel movie done solely for laughs, “but Ozark isn’t a comedy”, Kevin-Bossa points out. Considering how dark Ozark is, no wonder it seems cringe-worthily out of place, especially because Ruth has some iconic scenes in Ozark.

Zeke’s Treatment In Season 2

Zeke Young is the son of Mason Young, a duplicitous preacher involved in the heroin trade, and his wife. After Mason’s heartbreaking death in Ozark‘s second season, Zeke passes through the hands of Social Services to Marty and eventually ends up with Darlene.

As a parent, this storyline made Redditor SirCharlesEquine cringe, in a way that tore their heart apart. Zeke is “almost treated like property” in the storyline, and “literally [was] in the room when [his father] died.” It’s definitely fiction, as the user admits, and it goes with the tone, but even without children, storylines like this can make one uncomfortable.

The FBI Scenes By Season 3

“Wheel-spinning” is when a story tries to give the appearance of danger or plot progression while not actually letting anything happen. For Redditor GundoSkimmer, that’s exactly what happens with the FBI in Ozark‘s third season.

“The FBI is doing the thing they’ve done the entire series basically”, this Redditor complains, by questioning Marty and seemingly having him cornered, but if this has been the status quo for the entire series at this point, how is the audience supposed to believe he’ll really be caught this time?

Ben’s Lack Of Chemistry With Ruth

One of the key components of a compelling show is the chemistry between the characters, and while some of Ozark‘s performances have been called superb, performances in isolation aren’t the same thing as having good chemistry with co-stars, although they’re closely related.

Redditor MightyAxel had several complaints to lodge with the character of Ben in the show, but his relationship with Ruth is what’s cringe-inducing: “There is absolutely no chemistry between Ruth and Ben” yet “the director just loves throwing [in] love scenes between the two of them.” You can’t force chemistry, and this is a great example of why.

The Acting Where Jonah Has Helen At Gunpoint

As a drama, it’s critical for Ozark to be able to bring the audience into a scene and make them believe they’re watching real people in actual danger. Acting is the most important tool in the playbook for accomplishing this, and bad acting can ruin all of it.

Reddit user twright3373 found Janet McTeer’s acting when her character is held at gunpoint in Season 3’s “All In” to be “very cringe”, elaborating that McTeer “does a terrible job in my opinion in this scene”, although is more consistent in the rest of the show. Sorry it brought you out of the scene, twright3373.

Wyatt And Darlene’s Relationship As A Whole

Let’s be honest, the idea of a late-teenager having a sexual relationship with a woman in her fifties brings up a serious moral quandry and is bound to make many uncomfortable by not only the age difference but, more importantly, how young Wyatt is in the first place.

Redditor ElegantYam4141 found this to be “the worst relationship in the show”, calling the relationship “cringe inducing” and pointing out that even if one ignores the age-gap question, Darlene is also a murderer, and it seemed out of character for “a smart young man” like Wyatt to fall for her. Darlene is one of Ozark‘s most intelligent villains, however, so maybe that adds to the charm.

Wyatt And Darlene’s Sex Scene In Particular

If Wyatt and Darlene’s relationship was already cringe-inducing, then the sex scene between the two of them brings it up to a whole new level of cringe that some viewers may find too much to bear, just like Reddit user spacemonkster.

For this Redditor, this scene was “SUPER cringe”, so much so that they hosted a poll with the options “My eyes are watering” and “I loved every second.” The eyes-watering option won the vote with just under 71%, meaning that the other one had a surprising 29% support among those who responded. The poll was certainly informative, to say the least.

Marty and Wendy’s Sex Scene In “Book of Ruth”

It seems that while Ozark succeeds with its plotlines and with the acting (for the most part), the depiction of the most intimate of moments has more than once fallen short for those on Reddit, and this scene between Marty and Wendy in the show’s sixth episode was cringe-inducing for Redditor allistar34.

This user viewed the first season of the whole as the weakest, and gave their post in response to a question about whether or not watching the show with one’s parents would be uncomfortable. “There’s a real cringy sex scene in S1E6,” they said. Scenes can be memorable for being good, but also for being bad, and in this case, it was evidently the latter.

Marty Being Stupid When Breaking Into The Therapist’s Office

In Season 3, both Nelson and Marty end up breaking into the office of Sue Shelby, the therapist for the Byrdes. However, as Reddit user jerdub1993 pointed out, the two went about it with very different levels of competence for not leaving a trace.

“Nelson was very meticulous not to leave any trace and Marty comes in and leaves his grimy fingerprints all over the place,” they point out, saying they were “cringing” the whole time Marty was going around the office. You would expect that Marty, having been in bed with organized crime for years, he would be more careful.

Wendy

Although Laura Linney’s performance as Wendy is one of the aspects of Ozark which has attracted the show considerable praise, her character is far from adored by Redditor ThorntailHollow. “Every time she appears on screen I just cringe,” they say. “She seems to think she’s more bad a– than she is.”

ThorntailHollow created an account just to make this comment, which speaks to a whole different level of distaste. Everyone has their opinions, but it’s also disappointing to hear that a central character is unlikeable, because Wendy transforms a lot throughout Ozark.

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