Where to Start With Julia Garner: Ozark, Inventing Anna or The Assistant

Start with Ozark if you want to see what Julia Garner can do with a supporting role. Pick The Assistant if you have one evening and want a workplace drama that unfolds over one day. Inventing Anna makes the most sense when you want Garner at the center. Use the first hour to ask what each character wants from the people around her: what a business partner needs from a family, what a junior assistant needs from an employer, and what someone claiming to be an heiress needs from the people she hopes to persuade.

Ozark: Start with Ruth Langmore

Garner won three supporting actress Emmys for playing Ruth Langmore: in 2019, 2020 and 2022. The Television Academy's biography page for Garner puts all three wins next to the same role. Netflix describes Ruth as a business partner of the Byrdes, the family at the center of the series. That gives you a useful question to bring to the story: how much space can a supporting player take up in a drama built around somebody else’s family? If you want to see what Garner does with a supporting role, try Ozark first.

Ozark runs for four seasons, though you do not have to commit to four seasons. A financial adviser moves his family to the Missouri Ozarks, and in Season 1, Episode 4, Marty Byrde hires Ruth for a heist. You can use that episode as a test of your interest. If you find yourself more curious about how Ruth will handle a job than how Marty will get out of trouble, you have probably found your Garner show.

The Assistant: Give Jane one evening

Kitty Green's The Assistant takes place over one workday. Garner plays Jane, a junior assistant who wants to produce films. Bleecker Street's official film page describes how ordinary office duties add up to a picture of abuse in the workplace. I would pay attention to the ordinary work first. It gives you a way to follow the story before you know how Jane will respond to the office around her.

Choose this one if you like watching an actor make small decisions in real time. Listen for the moments when you want Jane to say something, and ask yourself what you would expect her to say if you were standing next to her. Then consider what that might cost a junior employee. That can make for a hard evening of viewing if you came for a distraction, and a rewarding one if you want to look closely at Garner’s choices.

The workday gives you a viewing plan. Set aside time to finish the film in one sitting, and look for how office routines affect your own sense of time. The question to carry into the film is whether a task you would barely notice in another movie feels different when you spend the day with the person expected to do it.

Inventing Anna: Listen to how Anna makes her pitch

Inventing Anna puts Garner in the title role as Anna Delvey. In the limited series, journalist Vivian Kent pursues the story of a woman who persuaded wealthy New Yorkers she was a German heiress. Garner received a 2022 lead actress Emmy nomination for the performance. It is the better choice if you want the story to keep circling back to what a Garner character says about herself and what other people are willing to believe.

Netflix's Tudum quotes Garner saying the accent was key to playing Anna. It gives you something to listen for besides the plot. Try asking which part of a pitch you would remember if you were the person hearing it: the story Anna tells about herself, or the way she says it. That is a different viewing task from following Jane through her working day, and a good reason to put the two roles next to each other.

Anna is the attraction, but Vivian gives you a second point of view. When you start the show, see whose story you most want to follow: Anna's account of herself or the reporter’s attempt to make sense of it. If you enjoy switching perspectives, keep going. If you would rather spend the evening inside one character's immediate problem, Jane's workday is a closer fit.

Pick a two-title pairing

Two titles are enough for a comparison. Pick the order based on the kind of contrast you would like to see and how much time you want to spend.

The sampler with a free evening: The Assistant, then Ozark. You get a contained introduction first, and if the performance works for you, the awarded television role is a natural next step. The risk is that the film's workplace subject sets a mood you do not want to repeat, in which case go straight to the television.

The viewer who wants the most recognized performance first: Ozark, then Inventing Anna. This sequence moves from a supporting role to a lead role, which lets you see how Garner handles being the center of the story instead of part of it. The risk is fatigue. Two television commitments back to back is a lot of hours, and the film is the contained option to slot in between.

What to watch for

Pick the right evening. The Assistant is structured around one workday, so it probably plays best in a single uninterrupted sitting. Notifications and half-attention are the likeliest ways to waste it. Ozark and Inventing Anna are television series, so they tolerate being split across nights. With Ozark, try getting to the Season 1 heist episode. With Inventing Anna, see whether you want to stay with Vivian’s attempt to make sense of Anna.

Carry one question between the three titles: who has the most to lose in a conversation? In Ozark, ask what power Ruth has as a business partner. In The Assistant, consider what Jane’s junior position means for what she can say at work. With Inventing Anna, listen for what you would need to hear to believe Anna’s story. You can see a wider range in Garner’s roles by asking the same question of each than by trying to decide which performance is best.

What I’d put on first

For one free evening, start with The Assistant. Put Ozark next if the office drama made you curious about Garner in a larger cast. If what interests you most is how a central character can command a room, use the two-series pairing: try Ozark, then Inventing Anna. When you switch, bring along one question about how much power the character has over the people around her. It gives you something more specific to notice than whether Garner is billed first.