“Ozark” was the jumping-off point for Julia Garner in her acting career. Garner has become a star playing the role of Ruth Langmore on the program. Now, she just starred in the new Netflix film “Inventing Anna” in the lead role. “Ozark” already broke first-week streaming records for the network this year and “Inventing Anna” was no different.
The series had 196 million viewers, per Deadline, for the week of February 14-20. Now, it has become the streaming service’s most-watched series for a week with “You” just behind it at 179 million.
Laura Linney on ‘Ozark’
Now, Ruth may have met her match in Wendy Byrde on the Netflix program. Wendy and Ruth have been at odds with one another from the beginning. Their relationship has only grown more strained in recent months after she left the Byrdes and went rogue. This had to do with Wendy allowing her own brother to be sacrificed to the cartel. Ben, of course, was Ruth’s boyfriend at the time. It was a heartbreaking end to his story and only added more vitriol between the two women on the show.
Laura Linney told GQ, “I don’t know if she’s the villain. She certainly does not behave well (laughs.) It is not a character who you aspire to be, I hope. I don’t know if she’s the villain because she’s not trying to hurt her family. She’s trying to save her family. I think if she were actively, intentionally trying to derail her family then she would be a real villain. Normally, the villain is the person who goes after the protagonist, tries to thwart the protagonist. That’s not who she is. I don’t know quite what she is but she’s not that.”
Wendy Byrde is complicated. In her mind, she is helping her family. Here she is a more complicated figure. She wants to save the family and get her family out of a terrible situation, whatever that may be.
Wendy vs. Ruth
She concluded, “I think she knows how to survive. [She’s] someone in the political arena who doesn’t come from an academic background, who doesn’t come from a historical background, who comes from someone who’s trying to survive, who believes there is something better for everybody. I think she really does believe that. It’s just her. She doesn’t have the tools to do it in an ethical, dignified way. She does it in a messy, hot mess, really warped way.”
It’s different for her than it is for Ruth. Wendy is more politically-savvy and knows how to go about taking care of things. Ruth is more emotion-driven. Now, the two could be on a collision course in the final seven episodes because she got Jonah involved in her own heroin trade operation. You can watch “Ozark” on Netflix.
