F*ck You, Ozark (Spoilers)

In one of the first posts on this site, I tried to make it clear to the reader that my experience with Bipolar Disorder should not be considered a universal script. I’m fortunate for a number of factors, specifically, resources and support around me from the time I got sick. In season three of Ozark, Wendy Byrde’s (Laura Linney) younger brother isn’t one of the lucky ones.

Wendy’s younger brother, Ben Davis (Tom Pelphrey), is, essentially, a drifter, on the run from the courts and looking for a place to lie low. Unfortunately for Ben, he runs to his sister, a central figure in an international money laundering scheme for a Mexican drug cartel, who’s married to the operation’s de facto CFO, Marty Byrde. As the episodes progress and Ben becomes more accustomed to daily life in the Ozarks, his presence increasingly becomes a liability.

The situation intensifies when Ben develops a relationship with Ruth Langmore, the Ozark-native turned operations manager for Byrde Enterprises. The medication Ben’s been taking to treat Bipolar Disorder makes sex with Ruth complicated, so he flushes his stash and tries to regain his “human impulses.” Wendy finds out and implores Ben to get a refill. Later she has a sit down with Ruth and begs her to reconsider getting involved with her brother.

“He’s bipolar,” Wendy tells Ruth. “Do you know what that means?” Adding,“Things get messy.”

That’s where the show lost me, and it did a disservice to Pelphrey, who does a great job showcasing what it’s like to cycle back and forth between depression and mania while unstable. His character is in crisis and it’s unpleasant to watch. What’s more unpleasant is the show’s insistence on making his untreated mental illness a driving factor of this season’s plot.

The Byrdes are in a whirlwind of shit, primarily caused by their own stupidity. In season three, the narrative established during the first two seasons is bluntly abandoned. The Byrdes are no longer a middle-class family caught up in drug trafficking by a series of unfortunate events. Instead, Marty and Wendy have decided to take themselves seriously as movers and shakers because of their unique access to cash flow. They're not trying to get out; they're trying to become “too big to fail,” as Wendy puts it. It’s Wendy, specifically, trying to pull the strings to make this happen.

Ben’s manic behavior threatens the Byrdes's plans. His love for Ruth puts him in the middle of situations he shouldn’t be in. His instability leaves the family vulnerable and potentially compromised. Ironically, in his own way, Ben is the only character during the season that seems sane enough to grasp how asinine the entire operation really is, which naturally sets him up as the perfect fall guy.

Season three of Ozark didn’t offend me because it inaccurately portrayed someone with Bipolar Disorder. In fact, there were plenty of things the show--Pelphrey’s portrayal, specifically--got right about a crisis scenario. What bothered me to the core was the show’s attempt at illustrating the struggles Bipolar Disorder can cause in the middle of complete chaos.

Ben is supposed to be viewed as a liability to the Byrde family throughout the course of the season. To be clear, Marty Byrde is beyond unstable and Wendy is, as Ruth calls her, a “bitch wolf.” In prior seasons, each characters’ ability to somehow wear convincing public faces is entertaining and, at times, relatable. Sometimes life gets very complicated very quickly and people do their best to keep life moving forward--that’s compelling. What’s not is turning the Byrdes into the Sopranos, Marty into Will Hunting, and Wendy into a “bitch wolf.”

The Byrdes like being criminals. It makes them feel important and removed from what was a boring life. The realization would seem to completely discredit the notion that Marty is a master at calculating risk and staying even-keeled. Marty is a boring accountant with a tremendous skill set. He’s good at calculating others’ potential risk, while completely neglecting his own. Wendy, meanwhile, resents abandoning her political career to raise the kids and uses the family’s access to blood money to play a role she’s always wanted. They’re cold-blooded now, and there’s no time for liabilities like a family member with Bipolar Disorder.

Ben’s character didn’t have to struggle with his condition to portray the Byrdes as disgusting people. The show could have made him a clueless drifter who got too curious and left it at that. If I were to speculate, Bipolar Disorder was made central to Ben’s character to make the audience question the mental health of the show’s most prominent characters. Quite clearly, almost every character in season three is mentally ill in some capacity. Ben’s illness, because he was in crisis, happens to be the most obvious example and is ultimately used to illustrate how cutthroat business has to be to stay alive.

As somebody with Bipolar Disorder, it hurts knowing that millions of people are going to stream this show and their first introduction to a very complicated condition could be Wendy Byrde’s younger brother threatening to implode a drug war after inadvertently involving himself on the front lines of cartel money laundering. The implication seems to be, an otherwise stable person would know how to calmly handle this information without becoming a liability to himself and others. Bull. Shit.

I grant the reader this: being unstable and suddenly finding out that one’s family are perhaps the biggest money launderers in the country for some of the evilest people on Earth would most definitely be problematic. But it’s unclear why a character like Ben had to be a liability because of his mental illness. Everybody in this game is a liability, that’s why there’s a hitman on retainer. But as Ben’s character arc progresses, the show makes it clear that his condition is the central issue that could get everybody killed and that there is no room for Bipolar Disorder in business.

There’s enough there with Ben’s character to create an entire spinoff. Instead, he’s reduced to a low-functioning liability whose storyline focuses exclusively on the worst-case scenario for a person with his condition, surrounded by wannabe gangsters who have zero interest in anything but themselves. All the bullshit Ozark feeds people about doing what’s best for one’s family in extraordinary circumstances is reduced to garbage. This show is now entirely about watching people who get off on being criminals play out their absurd fantasies.

Make no mistake, the Byrdes have options. Marty is being recruited to work for the FBI and Wendy is intelligent enough to do pretty much whatever she wants. They prefer being criminals and putting their family at risk because they like it. It allows them to thrust blame on the shoulders of others rather than audit themselves. This season, Ozark went from a story about survival to assholes playing business because it makes them feel powerful, presenting a world where everybody and everything is corrupt and the only way to make it is to get one’s hands dirty. Sure, maybe. As a Bipolar adult, I know where I’m apparently supposed to fit in this world. Thanks, Ozark, for clearing that up.

P.S.

Dear Marty,

You’re being recruited by the FBI. They’re bluntly admitting to you that they can’t stop you and their best chance is to wait all this out and watch you screw up. Their long game is simple: they have time and you don’t. You still have options: 1) continue working for the Cartel because it’s thrilling, at the expense of any normalcy and safety for your family; 2) parlay your role into a presidential run, destroy the moral fabric of the country, and dare the world to call your bluff; or 3) take an 18-month sabbatical from crazy town, in prison, with federal protection. Collect your thoughts for a while, regroup and be the big swinging dick at the FBI, even if you’re merely an accountant. Hell, with your skill, Marty, you might even be able to avoid jail time. Who knows? You're a genius, figure it the hell out.

After all the shit you’ve pulled, the deal you’re offered is a pat on the ass for all your hard work. It’s all the gratitude you could ever ask for. A strong person, a good partner, and a good father takes the deal and gets the hell out of dodge. After all, you never wanted to be in this position, right? You know what a manic individual in crisis does? He decides, instead of taking the deal, he’s going to try to “turn” the FBI agent assigned to his case by doing the special agent’s work for her while moonlighting as the CEO of a riverboat casino that exists to launder drug money for psychopaths. And when there’s time, expand the operation into horse breeding.

Marty, you’re a liability to anybody who comes in contact with you. All of this is about you and your need to feel important because you’re smarter than the average person. You’re the coolest money launderer in the universe. Sure, your marriage is a sham and your kids will grow to hate everything about you. On the plus side, you clearly have balls. Congrats.