One of the most thrilling shows on television doesn’t have any dragons or superheroes. Instead it centers around a severe accountant, his whip-smart wife, and the massive pile of money they have to launder for a cutthroat cartel. Ozark is almost back, and this new season promises to be crazier than ever before.

Ahead of Season 2’s premiere on August 31, Decider had the chance to talk to the man responsible for Ozark‘s unforgettable look, Director of Photography Ben Kutchins. The Emmy-nominated cinematographer explained why the look of Ozark feels so intimate, and outlined what went into creating two of last season’s most visually aw-dropping moments — that time Laura Linney whipped a dead opossum into the air and that other time when a cartel bigwig ripped off Jason Bateman’s toenail. Spoilers and one graphic GIF ahead.

Even in this crowded television landscape, Ozark has one of the most distinctive visual languages on television. Defined by deep blues, dark corners, and intense close-ups, the crime drama can often feel almost claustrophobic as it outlines the Byrd family’s law-dodging saga.

“We really pushed an aesthetic and I’m glad that people responded,” Kutchins said. Though several different directors and cinematographers have worked on Ozark‘s now 20 episodes, both he and creator and star Jason Bateman had constant conversations about the look and color timing of the show.

“If you think of the camera as the audience, I want to put the audience in the middle of the conversation rather than the outside watching the conversation,” Kutchins said. “I want a subjective viewpoint into this world because I think that that just brings a level of engagement, and it’s sort of giving … the audience the idea that they’re respected enough to be part of the conversation.”

That intimacy is felt in one of Wendy’s (Laura Linney) most memorable scenes. By Ozark‘s third episode, “My Dripping Sleep,” Wendy is in a bad place. She’s exhausted from trying to keep up with her husband’s many lies, stressed from her forced move, and frustrated with her daughter for never listening. That’s when she sees it — a dead opossum in her yard. Fried and terrified, Wendy interprets the corpse as a threat from the trouble-making Langmore family and decides to get even the only way she can think of: by throwing it onto the Langmore’s roof.

“How does a person throw an opossum? We just had no idea how it was going to actually work,” Kutchins said of the scene. After talking to Linney and director Daniel Sackheim about the episode, the cinematographer went to work, literally using his head to determine what the best position for the scene would be. As Linney and Sackheim practiced swinging a dead animal, Kutchins laid on the gravel and climbed on the roof, trying to find the best angle.

It’s a silly scene that does an excellent job balancing both the humor of the action and the gravity of Wendy’s situation. “She’s doing this because she’s terrified. So how can we play both angles on this and not just shoot it as a broad comedy but let the comedy elements come out? And simultaneously respect her character enough to make sure that the audience still sees her as a human being and somebody that’s doing it out of fear?”

“[Linney] has a mean underhand throw,” Kutchins added.

However, the most shocking moment of Season 1 doesn’t have anything to do with dead animals or even the pastor’s nearly-drowned baby. It has to do with a toenail.

“The Toll,” Ozark Season 1’s finale that earned Kutchins his nomination, sees the Byrd family in their most dire situation yet. Determined to figure out what happened to one of his cartel operatives, Del (Esai Morales) captures and tortures Marty in one of the gut-wrenching ways put to screen.

“That was something that actually took quite a bit of time to shoot,” Kutchins said. The nail ripping scene was achieved completely through practical effects with absolutely no post effects. Because of this, Kutchins and the crew basically had to repeatedly film someone ripping Bateman’s toenails off (though of note, they were prosthetics, not Bateman’s actual nails).

“[Bateman] wants things to feel real for the audience. I think him and I both lean into an honesty in filmmaking that respects the audience enough to give them credit that they know when something looks hokey,” he said. “When something looks stupid, when something looks fake, the audience knows it.”

As for Marty’s piercing screams during that scene, those were real too. “We did [Bateman’s] close-ups first,” Kutchins said. “He knew that he was going to blow out his voice doing it, and he did.”

“That was a painful experience to shoot, and it’s super painful to watch,” he added. Completely agree. Now let’s see how Season 2 can top it.

Stream Ozark on Netflix