Still Livid about Ozark

HuffPost published an article about season three of Ozark on Tuesday. The headline reads: “On ‘Ozark,’ Tom Pelphrey Challenges The Stigma Of Mental Illness.” I’m gonna push back.

Below is the journey of Pelphery’s character, Ben Davis, the bipolar younger brother of Wendy Byrde, in Ozark

• He nearly beats a maintenance worker to death at the school where he’s subbing, in the middle of a lesson.

• He casually shows up at his sister’s place, moves in on his brother-in-law, niece, and nephew.

• Ben puts his feet up. Ben eats cereal. Ben tells Marty Byrde to chill.

• Ben likes his nephew’s drone. He’s a fun uncle, not the best influence, and oddly the best parent and partner on the show. True, the bar is low.

• Ben falls in love with Ruth Langmore, who works for his sister.

• He finds out what the Byrdes do for a living.

• Ben stops taking his meds.

• He watches a Cartel drive-by execution on the drone his nephew’s operating. Ruth was supposed to pick up the bag, but their surveillance prevents her death.

• Ben freaks out. He crashes a Byrde fundraising event and clocks Marty in his stupid face.

• Ben goes to a psych ward where the Byrdes and the Cartel want him.

• Ben is released from the psych ward through a chain of most improbable events, corruption, and gross negligence.

• He talks to his cab driver about life while in the middle of a manic spiral.

• Ben gets dropped off at a lakefront mansion. It’s where the Cartel’s lawyer and chief douchebag, Helen Pierce, lives with her daughter. He confronts them, enraged. He tells Helen's daughter what her piece of shit mother does. Helen calls him crazy and tells her daughter Ben’s a liar because he's mentally ill.

• Wendy tries to get him out of town. Ben’s manic; he can’t keep his mouth shut. Ben’s a liability.

• Wendy orders a hit on her own brother. Ben’s left at a roadside diner eating pancakes, while her sister drives her god damn minivan back to the Ozarks.

• Ben goes outside to find his sister and comes face-to-face with the Cartel's hitman instead.

• Ben’s body is delivered back to the Byrdes, where it is cremated. His ashes are bagged up and shoved in an efficiently small cardboard box, stored on site.

Along the way, Ben can’t get it up because of the meds he’s taking to treat his condition. His sister tells his girlfriend he's bad news because he screws all his relationships up. Wendy explains that Ben's life is over because he’s bipolar, and Ruth shouldn't let him ruin hers or compromise the business.

In the end, we learn business requires tough decisions. Ben’s mental illness makes him expendable. Wendy had to have her brother murdered because his existence compromised her other family’s safety. Her husband, Marty, suddenly develops feelings again towards his wife. The choice she made was brave and pragmatic.

From what I’ve written, where does the character of Ben Davis challenge the stigma of mental illness? Imagine being bipolar. You haven’t told anyone outside of your team about your condition. You’d like to, but it’s hard, and that’s OK. You binge-watch Ozark 3 like so many in your circle. Would you want to open up to people--who might not get it--that you have Bipolar Disorder?

I wouldn’t want to. While binging, I’ve learned a bipolar person doesn’t have what it takes to a) hold a job; b) isn’t a trusted asset because of his condition; c) likes electronics like a typical slacker; d) needs to sacrifice stability for sex; and e) doesn't deserve any agency. Ben needs to be handled and ultimately disposed of by the show’s protagonists.

Ozark didn’t challenge the stigma of mental illness; it reinforced it. The show is still about a white American family of four scrambling to make as much money as fast as possible while wearing public and private faces. They’re not heroes or antiheroes, but the audience is supposed to want them to win in the end. And they’ve made it clear Bipolar Disorder only complicates things.