Clash of the Ozarks Online

Garbage such as "Amish Mafia" needs to be vigorously condemned -- not analyzed. But "Clash of the Ozarks" is such a cleverly done time-waster that analysis is justified.

It's tempting to think someone at Discovery watched "Justified" (especially the second season) and thought "We need a reality show like that." Well, they have it.

The story lines are roughly similar. Both involve economic battles among locals, with a "grand dame" pulling strings from her web. In "Ozarks", the principal antagonists are Kerry Wayne Evans and "Crowbar" Russell.

Evans scrabbled his way up from poverty to become a major property owner and developer. He sees the development of business and industry as a benefit to everyone, even if it destroys their traditional lower-class way of life -- indeed, //especially// if it does. And what does it matter if Kerry Wayne Evans gets rich in the process?

Russell is content for things to remain as they are. His problem is that the bank is about to put up his farm for auction, and he needs $70K to cover a down-payment. (//Why// the property is going through foreclosure has not yet been explained.) Given the bad blood between the Evanses and the Russells, Kerry Wayne wants to get the property, hoping it will force Crowbar (and family) to leave Arkansas, seeing their exodus as a good thing for everybody.

Neither Evans nor Russell is particularly "nice", but my initial sympathies are with Russell, if only because someone is trying to "improve" the community, whether or not its members want it, while profiting greatly from the change.

This is a plausible story, but it seems all too convenient. How much of what we see is "real", and how much is Discovery's manipulation of an existing situation?

Some of the manipulation is obvious. The producers have gotten the participants to speak in such a direct fashion about what's going on that there's no need for third-party narration! Other events leave one wondering. When Russell visits "the Baroness" to ask for a loan, she's cutting up rabbits (!!!) with (I assume) her grandson. The child asks why they have to cut off the rabbit's head. "It isn't needed." Talk about double-whammy subtext!

"Ozarks" often looks as if it were the work of a brilliant screenwriter. "It can't possibly be", but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. I'll be back with further comments, but for the time being I've rated the show an 8, simply because it's a calculatedly clever entertainment.

FURTHER COMMENTS: There have been no new episodes. "Edge of Alaska" is thematically identical, and more plausibly real.