Ranker Spotlight: Ozark

Much to the excitement of TV fans everywhere, Netflix’s Ozark is returning to home screens everywhere for a fourth and final season on January 21. The series follows a crooked financial adviser who’s forced to take part in a money laundering scheme after getting in over his head with a drug cartel, and it’s been celebrated by both audiences and critics for its strong writing and for memorable performances from stars Laura Linney and Jason Bateman. 

The new season comes at an opportune time for fans across the country as the current surge in COVID cases triggers new lockdown restrictions, creating a need for new content to binge while staying safely indoors. But this moment is likely as bittersweet for those at Netflix as it is for Ozark’s fans: as one of the streaming service’s most popular shows ever, the absence of Ozark will leave Netflix without a similarly dark, critically lauded crime drama. Just as Ozark filled the gap left by Breaking Bad’s disappearance, Netflix will likely be looking for new series to satisfy the needs of viewers drawn to the service by Ozark.

But Netflix will have to recognize the show that can fill Ozark’s shoes before the network can greenlight it. What really drives Ozark’s popularity, and what other series tend to excite its audience? Insights is taking a dive into the Ozark fan base to answer these questions and better understand the qualities that made it such a beloved drama.

How Ozark Ranks on Ranker

One thing Ozark’s rankings tell us is that TV fans agree the series is among the best of its current era. It ranks particularly high on lists that emphasize the last few years, including The Best New Shows of the Last Few Years That You've Been Missing Out On (3K votes), where it ranks #4, and The Best Drama TV Shows Airing Now (25K votes), where it ranks #6. Perhaps most impressive, it’s #7 on one of Ranker’s most competitive TV lists: The Best Shows Currently On The Air, which boasts 277K votes. 

 Ozark isn’t just seen as pure entertainment by fans, either — it’s regarded as a prestige show from creators with real talent. The series is specifically well-liked for its writing and acting, as evidenced by its #5 spots on both Newer Shows With The Most Impressive Writing (4K votes) and New TV Shows Of The Last Few Years With The Best Overall Acting (5K votes). If nothing else, Netflix can bet that shows from creator Mark Williams and shows starring Jason Bateman or Laura Linney will continue to draw viewers. 

Finally, fans view Ozark as one of Netflix’s crown jewels. It ranks #7 on the list of Best Netflix Original Drama Shows (6K votes), beating out favorites like Narcos, The Witcher, and even the Emmy-winning phenomenon The Queen’s Gambit. The end of a show so beloved by subscribers is both a loss and an opportunity for Netflix, which will likely be working to find new, gritty crime dramas worthy of taking Ozark’s place.

What Do Ozark Fans Love?

What should Netflix be looking for as it seeks a replacement for Ozark? Will the show’s fan base be seeking out more series about the business side of drug trafficking, or will they be interested in any view Netflix offers into the violent criminal underground? Do they want simple stories about bad guys fighting good guys, or do they want complex, nuanced characters whose morals change over time? These are questions we can answer by looking at other shows Ozark fans love, allowing us to gauge their interests and guess what else they’d be interested in watching.

One thing we can assume from looking at these fans’ taste is that, when it comes to what they watch on TV, a little violence never hurts. Ozark viewers are 8X more likely to also enjoy Netflix’s other drug trade drama, Narcos, a show that tells the true, extremely bloody story of Colombia’s narcotic trafficking industry. Similarly, they’re just as likely to love Boardwalk Empire, the turn-of-the-century period piece about the mob’s role in the bootlegging industry. It’s clear that any quality new series from Netflix about illicit trades and violent criminals is going to attract Ozark fans, regardless of the time and place of its setting. 

That said, the new Ozark wouldn’t necessarily need to be violent — the show’s fans seem to find morally ambiguous heroes to be just as important. For instance, Goliath, a show about a disgraced lawyer who seeks redemption by taking on cases against huge corporate defendants, is 8X more likely to attract Ozark viewers. Insights says those viewers are similarly likely to enjoy both Breaking Bad and its spinoff series Better Call Saul — both shows that track the gradual corruption of their main characters. The fact that Ozark fans are slightly more likely to be drawn to Better Call Saul than its more violent predecessor supports the idea that you don’t need harrowing brutality to hook viewers of Netflix’s big crime drama. 

Netflix can learn just as much from the crime shows that Ozark fans aren’t drawn to, which could help the network avoid the potential misfire of assuming any dark crime show would be a fitting replacement. Ozark fans are neutral on the traditional NBC crime procedural Law & Order: SVU, for example, and they’re slightly more likely than not to dislike CSI: Cyber, a 2015 spinoff of the massively popular CBS franchise. They’re 4X more likely to dislike Bones, 6X more likely to dislike Rizzoli & Isles, and perhaps most interesting, 7X more likely to dislike the immensely popular Lucifer, a supernatural crime show that now calls Netflix home. 

So what is it that Ozark fans don’t like in a crime drama? Judging from these shows, you could argue they dislike series that focus on the police rather than the criminals, but that’s not entirely accurate. After all, Ozark fans are 7X more likely to love both Netflix’s Mindhunter and Amazon Prime’s Bosch, and they’re 6X more likely to love the British crime shows Broadchurch and Luther. The clearer theme that emerges is Ozark fans like their television to be complicated, full of moral ambiguities and examinations of humanity’s capacity for evil. Straightforward morality tales about good guys chasing bad guys tend to fall flat with this audience.

It will certainly be sad to see Ozark go, but provided Netflix is attentive to the needs of the show’s audience, it shouldn’t take the behemoth streaming service long to find something new to keep the fan base happy. Writing, performing, and producing a show that matches Ozark’s quality will certainly be difficult, but recognizing that show’s value won’t be. 

These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.

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