A number of "Ozark" viewers shared their criticism of Javi's first "Ozark" appearance in a Reddit thread dedicated to discussing Season 4 Episode 1. First, user binger5 wrote in a comment that "Dude is playing Ozark's Lalo, the charming psychopath" — Lalo being a villain from AMC's "Breaking Bad" prequel "Better Call Saul." Their comment was upvoted more than 500 times, indicating that this sentiment was seemingly shared by a significant number of those who saw it.
User etchuchoter wrote in response that Javi is "just not as charming as Lalo, or as scary," and received 150 upvotes. Attempting to contextualize the nature of this comparison, user Hanguarde replied that "people have described Ozark as a watered-down Breaking Bad so it makes sense to have discount Lalo." Meanwhile user dev1359 isolated the moment in which Javi most closely resembles Lalo in Episode 1, recounting how they "kept thinking from the moment he said 'let's get pastries' how he 100% feels like a Lalo ripoff."
Fortunately, with the second half of "Ozark" Season 4 forthcoming, there's still room for the series to set Javi apart from his "Better Call Saul" counterpart before it reaches its conclusion.
