Sean Hayes takes Laura Linney’s place as Marty’s wife Wendy in a new clip parodying the Ozark couple’s therapy scenes. The popular Netflix crime drama ran from 2017 to 2022, with the final season split into two parts and wrapped up in April of this year. Created by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams, the series rose to prominence due to its directing and powerhouse acting performances. Ozark follows Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman), a financial planner turned money launderer who uproots his family from their home in Chicago to the Lake of the Ozarks.
Bateman, Linney, and Julia Garner in particular have been praised for their work on the show, with Garner winning two Emmys for her role. Linney, despite being nominated thrice for her role as the ambitious Wendy, has yet to take home an Emmy for the show. Regardless, she is well known for the nuance she brings to the table as Wendy, making her a worthy adversary to her scheming husband. Never allowing the Ozark character to be reduced to typical crime drama wife tropes, Linney plays Wendy with equal parts of ferocity, coldness, and charm.
In a new Jimmy Kimmel Live! parody clip, Hayes takes up the mantle as Marty’s wife and sits in couple’s therapy with Bateman, whose clips from the show are intercut with Hayes’ reactions with amusing results. The therapy session mirrors plenty of conversations between Marty and Wendy in Ozark, chiefly about Marty making unilateral decisions and Wendy attempting to circumvent him. See the full clip below:
The jokes in the clip, including the visual gag of Hayes’ Wendy doing a spit-take, drinking a martini and smoking, and flicking the cigarette at Bateman’s head, work well to exaggerate the couple’s dynamic in Ozark. In this parody, the therapist’s assessment is not far off. Over the course of the show, there were plenty of times where the Byrdes’ marriage was shown to be dysfunctional and dangerous for one another and those around them. However, season 4’s ending proved that even with the characters’ many flaws, they weren’t lying about their emphasis on family.
The Ozark parody clip may cause viewers some nostalgia for earlier seasons of Ozark when marital drama and dysfunction built to quietly gutting confrontations that were marvelously acted. Though Hayes pokes fun at Linney’s emblematic emphasis on her words and repetition, Wendy’s darkest scenes provided some of Ozark's most memorable moments, especially when paired with Marty’s quiet frustration as in the parody clip. Though Ozark has ended, the series lives on as a fan-favorite critically acclaimed drama, and this sketch demonstrates its lasting relevance ahead of its final Emmy run.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live!