Ozark’s groundbreaking geriatric villains…and heroes
Finally, a show with original, non-stereotypical older characters
This is the midweek what-to-watch edition of Snarky Senior — the newsletter from Erica Manfred, which you can read about here. If you like it and don’t want to miss an issue, you can get it in your inbox by subscribing.
I got hooked on Ozark on Netflix last week and have been staying up till the wee hours bingeing the three seasons available of my latest addiction.
The show had been on my list for a long time. When I finally tuned in to start watching, I had a senior moment. I’d actually seen the first three episodes and totally forgotten them. (Has this happened to you?) I wasn’t sure why I’d dismissed Ozark the first time around. Maybe it was the whole snobby urban family forced to move to the boonies vibe. Maybe I thought it was some kind of dramatic version of Schitt’s Creek, which I disliked.
Ozark was originally compared unfavorably to Breaking Bad, which, for those of you who have been living under a rock, is a crime drama about a chemistry teacher who becomes a meth dealer when he has to pay for an expensive cancer treatment. Ozark is a hillbilly version of Breaking Bad, but in a good way.
Both shows feature ordinary men who are just trying to support a family and live a normal life but get seduced into working for murderous drug cartels when hit with hard times.
But there is a crucial difference. Bryan Cranston’s character in Breaking Bad, high school chemisty teacher Walter White, enthusiastically becomes a bad guy himself, while Jason Bateman as financial advisor Marty Byrde in Ozark, keeps trying to escape from the cartel and go back to some version of ordinary life. Meanwhile their wives and children get caught up helping them launder money and start nurturing their own ambitions.
Both sets of parents try their best to stick to their family values but are inevitably corrupted by colluding with evil. It’s hard to be a good mom or dad when you’re fingering wayward family members for a cartel hitman.
Ozark actually makes you think about how one bad decision can destroy your life, and what you would do to save your family if you had to.
Family life in the mob was a lot easier for Tony Soprano. The Italian mafia had rather quaint old-fashioned codes of conduct—they only killed each other, or anyone who pissed them off—they didn’t wipe out your whole family. Decisions are a lot tougher for Marty and Wendy Byrde.
Ozark’s casting breaks new ground. Unlike Breaking Bad, which is basically a boys club--Ozark is a showcase for brilliant female actresses, most of them over 55. While Bryan Cranston is the undisputed star of his series, Jason Bateman’s character takes a back seat to the powerful women in his orbit.
The series stars Laura Linney, 56 as Wendy Byrde, Marty’s charming, though scheming, ambitious wife; Janet McTeer, 59 as the cartel’s ruthless fixer and Lisa Emery 68, as Darlene, a psychopathic local landowner who manufactures heroin from homegrown poppies.
The breakout star on the show is a charismatic young actress--26 year old Julie Garner--as the tough/vulnerable hillbilly Ruth Langmore, who rises from petty criminality to casino manager. She has already won an Emmy for the role.
They are all magnificent in their own way. Linney is alternately steely and adorable, using her dimples to charm politicians and her resolve to impress the head of the cartel.
McTeer is unlike any crooked lawyer/cartel fixer you’ve seen— tall, mannishly dressed and quietly menancing. She’s more intimidated by her teenage daughter who she’s afraid will find out who she really works for and reject her, than by Hector Navarro, the head of the cartel, who has her tortured.
Lisa Emery is the snarling, menacing Darlene Snell, the Medicare-eligible killer who manages to get whatever she wants, including a baby, and defy the cartel while she’s at it. All signs point to her days being numbered in season four.
The creator of Ozark, Bill Dubuque, didn’t start writing screenplays until his forties, so maybe that gave him some perspective on who really runs the world.
Even bit parts are played by memorable older actors. The biggest standout is Marylouise Burke, 79 as a dotty elderly therapist whose greed gets the better of her therapeutic technique, eventually putting her on the cartel’s hit list.
Burke is not even the oldest actor on the show. Harris Mullen, 83, plays a major role in seasons one and two as eccentric Buddy, a former teamster and associate of the Kansas City mob, who is stuck alone with a bad heart in his big house on Lake of the Ozarks until the Byrdes come along and buy it—with the proviso that he gets to live there until he dies. His only non-negotiable demand is that he’s allowed to keep skinny dipping in the lake. Eventually he becomes part of the family, befriending their lonely son and introducing Marty to the Kansas City mob boss.
Among its many claims to originality, Ozark distinguishes itself by quietly breaking a huge taboo. Season three features a love affair never seen before on American TV, between sexuagenarian Darlene and sensitive, teenage Wyatt, a misfit member of the white trash Langmore clan.
This is not a sugar mommy/boy toy situation. They are genuinely—and publicly—a couple, a relationship that will last as long as he doesn’t piss volatile Darlene off. She has an unfortunately habit of killing anyone who does. Their relationship is presented very matter-of-factly—sans tittering--with a bedroom scene thrown in. Even though Ruth makes fun of Wyatt for sleeping with Darlene, he makes it clear that he loves her.
I remember being shocked by Harold and Maude in the 60s (still worth watching if you haven’t seen it), but Darlene and Wyatt are somehow just one more deliciously bizarre plot twist in this twistiest of shows.
At the end of season three Darlene was planning to introduce Wyatt to her own mother and Wyatt was nervous about what kind of impression he’d make. One can only imagine what a mother in her 80s might say when her 60-something daughter brings home a Gen Z boyfriend? I can’t wait until season four to find out.
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