Here’s when Ozark is back, so you can cancel all your plans

Ozark, one of the best new Netflix crime dramas of recent times is set to return for a second season very soon. 

Starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, the show follows the Byrde family who, following a disastrous money-laundering scheme, find themselves relocated from a pleasant middle-class suburban lifestyle to Missouri, working off a debt to a drug lord and becoming embroiled deeper and deeper in the crime world. There’s incredibly graphic violence, toenails being ripped off feet with pliers, and all kinds of general messed-upness. It is, as they say, edge-of-your-seat stuff.

Ozark is something of a tonal shift for Bateman who has previously been better known for his comedy roles, including fan favourite Michael Bluth in Arrested Development, however he has been heavily involved with the critically acclaimed Netflix crime series from the off, directing four of the ten episodes and also executive producing.

Bateman and Linney are both returning for the new season, as are the brunt of the rest of the season one cast – not all of them, as some of them got SHOT through the HEAD with GUNS – and they’re also to be joined by British actress Janet McTeer, (who has been in loads of stuff, like Tideland, Sense and Sensibility, Into the Storm and Maleficent, plus was Mrs Claus in an M&S ad two Christmases ago) who will be playing a lawyer from the Byrde’s old home of Chicago.

The first season drew comparisons to Breaking Bad, garnering Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Bateman, a SAG Award nomination for Linney, and winning the, er, Location Managers Guild Award for Outstanding Locations in Contemporary Television, which we didn’t know existed but go for it.

Sneak-peek reviews of season two suggest it may somehow manage to be even darker the the first outing, which is quite an achievement.

There’ll also be the delicious return of Ozark’s clever credit sequence – featuring four little icons within a big letter O both giving tiny hints as to what will happen each episode and just about spelling ZARK. It’s very clever, in that it manages to foreshadow stuff without outright giving everything away (like, for instance, Battlestar Galactica used to infuriatingly do). Here’s the whole lot from season one:

Clever innit? So, the big question is, when is it dropping? Season one was all the way back in June 2017, and that was aaaaaaaages ago. The new season will be with Netflix subscribers all in one go on Friday August 31. If you properly can’t wait, it’ll all be up there round about 3am, so set an alarm and don’t make any early brunch plans for Saturday.