This is why 'Ozark' season 4 was split into two parts

Virgin Radio

14 Jan 2022, 10:42

It's been described as one of the tensest shows on TV, but fans have to wait for the second part of season 4.

Now, showrunner Chris Mundy has explained why the final season was split in half, much to the annoyance of viewers.

The Netflix series is coming to an end this year, and the first part of the last season airs from January 21st.

Showrunner Chris Mundy told TheWrap that the idea came from Netflix: “We always thought five [seasons] was the outside number”

“It just felt like after that – we didn’t want to repeat ourselves, we didn’t want the show to feel like it was continuing because it was a TV show and it had to continue."

He added: "So really the decision has always been between is it four [seasons] or is it five [seasons], and then Netflix hit upon the idea of saying, ‘We’ll do four but we’ll make it long and split it in this way,’ and that felt perfect.”

The writers soon realised that 10 episodes wouldn’t be enough to tie up all of the loose ends.

“We could make these seven [episodes] feel complete and make the second seven feel complete, even though it’s all one continuum. I think 10 wouldn’t have been enough to tell the story in the way we wanted to. So any number over 10 and under 20 was gonna be good in my book.”

He said the fact it was one season split in two changed how they approached the writing process too: “When we worked in the writers’ room on it, we called them 401-407 and 501-507, because we wanted to think of them the way that people were going to be experiencing them"

Mundy added: "Knowing that at some point someone’s gonna watch them all together and they needed to feel – it’s a bit of a trick in that way, they’ve gotta feel of one piece but they’ve also gotta be satisfying when you sit down to watch the 7 and you’re gonna have to wait months for the next, we wanted to make sure they felt complete.”

Netflix hasn't yet announced when the second half will be aired, but Mundy says they are finished and completed.