As the danger rises on ‘Ozark,’ so does the brilliance

Jason Bateman is a world-class deadpan dialogue stylist, never more so than when he’s playing Marty Byrde on the critically acclaimed, award-winning Netflix series “Ozark.”

Case in point: The moment in Season 3 when a character you’d never expect to be driving a new mustard-yellow Lamborghini comes roaring up to Marty’s house in ... a new mustard-yellow Lamborghini.

“What’s this?” says Marty.

“It’s a car,” comes the reply.

“It’s a Transformer, and I spoke to you about conspicuous spending. Send it back … get in the toy and leave.”

Classic Marty. Even when the body count is piling up and the feds are all up in his business and the walls are closing in, he’s not going to sheath his rapier wit, not if Jason Bateman has anything to say about it.

After an explosively great first season instantly catapulting “Ozark” into the conversation as arguably the best show of its kind since “Breaking Bad,” there was a bit of a stumble in Season 2, but with Season 3 (premiering March 27), I’m pleased to report we’re back in business.

The money laundering business. The Mexican drug cartel business. The Kansas City mob business. The ugly business of kidnappings and shootings and beatings and betrayals, most of it taking place against the backdrop of the misty, putatively peaceful, lush and gorgeous mountains and streams and greenery of the Ozarks (with Georgia standing in as the actual filming location).

Like Walter and Skyler White in “Breaking Bad,” Marty Byrde and his wife Wendy (the always extraordinary Laura Linney) were once living a normal, quiet life. (Before moving to the Ozarks, the Byrdes actually lived in Naperville, how about that.) But that was eons ago, as they’ve since become inextricably entangled in a vast web of criminal enterprises.

“Ozark” retains its distinctive visual style, bathed in slightly unsettling, oversaturated tones of blue and green, as if we are forever trapped in the opening scenes of a horror movie. The Season 3 premiere picks up the story six months down the line from the conclusion of Season 2, with the Byrdes as always neck-deep in complicated and potentially disastrous fixes.

The Byrdes are attempting to expand their legitimate businesses brand beyond their thriving casino boat by adding more casinos and a horse farm, and even establishing a charitable foundation. No easy feat, given Marty is still laundering drug cartel profits through the casino; a very pregnant and very savvy FBI agent named Maya Miller (Jessica Frances Dukes) is pressuring Marty to take a plea deal or face decades in prison; the volatile son of the Kansas City mob boss is out for bloody vengeance against the Byrdes and in particular Julia Garner’s Ruth Langmore, and oh yes, Marty and Wendy are seeing a therapist who winds up blackmailing them.

Janet McTeer’s ruthlessly efficient cartel attorney Helen Pierce becomes a more prominent presence in the new season. (That’s a really good thing, given how McTeer kills in this role.) The divorced Helen’s daughter Erin (Madison Thompson) escapes Chicago and her dad’s ridiculous new girlfriend to spend the summer with Mom in the Ozarks and becomes friends with Charlotte Byrde (Sofia Hublitz). What could possibly go wrong?

Season 3 wanders a bit whenever we drop in on Lisa Emery’s Darlene Snell, the backwoods crime matriarch who was such a memorable villain when she first appeared on the show but has now struck up a weird and not entirely plausible bond with Wyatt Langmore (Charlie Tahan), who has cut his cousin Ruth out of his life after learning Ruth was responsible for his father’s death.

Another wild card development that doesn’t come across as entirely integral to the overall storyline: the arrival of Wendy’s handsome and charming but erratic younger brother Ben (Tom Pelphrey), who is bipolar and has gone off his meds.

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But Joseph Sikora has a Brando-esque intensity as Frank Cosgrove Jr., the aforementioned son of the Kansas City mob boss. The drunken, brooding, thuggish Frank Jr. is a powderkeg who is forever causing scenes at the casino and being put in his place by Ruth. And Julia Garner, who won a Best Supporting Actress Emmy for her portrayal of Ruth in Season 1, continues to deliver shattering work as the whip-smart, fierce and tough but also vulnerable Ruth, who remains the most sympathetic character on the show.

As events spiral out of control in typical “Ozark” fashion, Marty and Wendy continue to display an uncanny ability for self-preservation — teaming up to fend off one threat after another to their freedom and their very lives, even when they can’t stand to be in the same room with one another.

Still, they’ve never faced this much danger from so many different forces at the same time. Maybe they’ll get out of this thing alive and out of prison, but even the casino wouldn’t take bets on the survival and freedom of everyone else on “Ozark.”