That’s why I only nitpicked.
I started watching season one again and there was a reference to Wendy’s bro in ep 3 (I think) that I hadn’t remembered. Did he come up again in other episodes?
The distinction is somewhat undercut by Ben’s refusal to take his meds, and clearly this was not the first time he’s done so. We see him become violent to bystanders on at least two occasions with no provocation. In *practical *terms, certainly, there’s very little difference between him and Frank jr., even less so when we consider that each has a family member who is shielding him from consequences far longer than they should.
This was my favorite season so far.
I don’t get what’s going on with that FBI agent. They figured out a way to get rid of her, and then they bring her back.
WTH is going on? I feel like I missed something.
Just now finished S3. Agree, it was a good one! I guess I’m the oddball here but I don’t really care for Ruth. Her voice is really grating to me and I don’t mind the occasional F-bomb and drop them pretty often myself but Ruth’s inability to get through a sentence without at least one is annoying. One thing that struck me was that Ben really loved Ruth and she seemed to feel the same but I felt like she could have tried insisting he get back on his meds if he wanted to be with her. I understand that he was experiencing impotency because of the meds but there are ways to deal with that in a committed relationship. Guess that wouldn’t have served the plot. I wasn’t surprised by Helen’s end. I was thinking that would happen and was pretty sure when Nelson immediately got in position when they got out of the car. When Marty agreed to work with Maya and then immediately got taken to Mexico I was thinking she was working with the cartel too but apparently not.
Been a while since I saw S1 but didn’t Darlene kill the former drug lord at her place when he was in the US? Or was that guy a lower level cartel guy? The show seems to be getting a lot more attention this season than the first two.
So why was Helen shot?
Also supposedly netflix has a habit of cancelling shows after 3 seasons due to licensing issues. I hope they continue this one.
Also why did the competing cartel burn all those bags of money? Why not steal them?
Also that FBI agent seemed way too lenient with Marty compared to how I assume they’d act in real life.
Did they actually show when/where Wendy turned in Ben? And why did Ben go willingly? I assume because he knew he’d fuck it up and to save his sister and her family.
Some folks when they go off their meds can be extraordinarily tough to get back on them; it’s implied this is why he had to be committed years ago.
The Ben subplot works so much betten than I expected, in part because it just spirals beyond everyone’s control in a way that the rest of the show doesn’t. Everything else the Byrdes get stuck in is their fault. It was even said in this season, they’re poison; they ruin things. But Ben was out of their control, out of his own control, it was just a tragedy that blew everything to peices.
This show is different from arrested development. In this show Jason Bateman plays a well meaning, family oriented businessman who is in over his head and surrounded by irresponsible people who keep fucking things up. Totally different concept.
I knew that Wyatt and Darlene would end up sleeping together. Didn’t peg their relationship, though.
My ex-wife was bipolar. When she was off her meds, she’d get a lot like Ben, and I had to have her committed twice because of it. I understood Wendy’s anguish there.
Ruth is great. I hope she never leaves the show. It’d be ruthless.
My guess is her judgement and handling of Novarro’s affairs up north weren’t exactly top notch plus it’s a stark message to Wendy and Marty to straighten up and fly right. The money laundering operation was up and running, yes, but there’s no end to complications. Perhaps the next season will bring us a different type of handler.
Marty is just the money laundering accountant. Taking him down would not take down the Cartel, only make them find a new money launderer.
I found it a bit of a stretch that Wendy would let Ben hang around to begin with.
Here she’s keeping a life or death secret of a lifestyle where exposure of any kind can mean death for her and her family and her liability brother whose behavior she’s known her entire life wants to hang out at her home and business and mingle with everyone involved?
Like taking a bull for a walk in a china shop. What the hell did you think was going to happen?
Well, it’s her or the Byrdes; she is out to get them and already told Navarro as much, and if Navarro doesn’t already know they’re out to get her he knows they soon will be.
So who do you get rid of? The Byrdes have the demonstrated business savvy and money laundering skills, and they already have all the shell companies in their name; transferring everything to Helen is complex and risky and would raise even more suspicions with law enforcement. It’s easier to get rid of Helen. Navarro can always hire another lawyer/fixer.
There is some chatter on another website that is theorizing Agent Maya is a Navarro implant.
One reason could be is that Helen faked a confession from Marty and attempted to take control of the shell companies.
An interesting read: Here
It struck me as more of a bad guy cliché than anything else - like the villain has captured James Bond and points a gun at him, says “This is the price of failure,” and then shoots one of his henchmen, because of course he’s not going to just shoot Bond. I like this show, but it has a tendency to ridiculousness. Under the circumstances, with his drug empire rapidly collapsing and members of his family already killed and others under constant threat, it’s suicidal foolishness to destroy an asset like Helen at a time when she and the Byrds represent the best chance of escaping Mexico and being legitimately rich and relatively safe in the U.S. So Helen and the Byrds were feuding and finagling? Big deal - kill some less-important person in front of them as a warning to get them working together again. As it is, he not only loses Helen’s expertise and all the connections in the U.S. that she has cultivated, he now potentially has to explain her disappearance, creating even more problems, and he has to replace her since the money-laundering operation isn’t just Marty Byrd’s accountancy but also Helen’s legal services.
In some sense it’s like Omar Navarro has the same compulsive self-destructive tendencies as Ben and Frank jr., resorting to violence with little regard for the consequences. It makes for cheap drama and is the reason I like Gus Fring from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul so much, because while Gus is a sociopath and a sadist, he has enough intelligence and discipline to dole out the ol’ ultraviolence only when necessary and for maximum effect.
They’d have the same problem as the basic premise of the show - how to launder/explain having large amounts of cash. Further, the implication was that the killers had to rapidly flee back to Mexico, which is significantly complicated by carrying a duffel bag of small bills, and the mission wasn’t just to kill some henchmen but to create a giant mess for the Navarros. Bullet-riddled corpses surrounded by piles of burning money certainly accomplishes that, attracting attention from the Feds in a way a simple (if lethal) truck hijacking gone wrong might not.
Oh where to begin?
First of all, let me say that I was depressed to read that s4 may not be released until late 2021 or 2022 because of Covid19 delays, Netflix’s late commitment to S4, and/or Jason Bateman’s prior commitments. Geesh.
Secondly, I’m also irritated to read that Chris Mundy, the show’s creator, reportedly said that he originally intended it to last 5 seasons long, but then said, “Who knows? It could be 4 or 7.” Aw geez.
A big beef with me re American television shows (v British shows) is that if they become popular, TPTB extend them another season. And then another season. And then another season. And what this usually means is that what could have been a really great show with tight writing, great character development, and nice storyline arcs, had they known in advance how much time they had to tell the story…slowly transforms into a far less satisfying show with endless filler, dead end plots, and characters who outstay their welcome. “Lost” I’m looking at you.
To complicate matters, this show is very difficult to watch because of the violent subject matter and the fact that I’m quickly losing sympathy for any of the main characters. By the end of s4, everyone pretty much a sociopathic asshole. I mean, it’s bad when Darlene and Wyatt are looking more respectable than the Byrds.
That being said, there ARE some good storylines and great acting. Tom Pelphrey is magnificent. Laura Linney does a good job trying to reclaim a tiny bit of Wendy’s soul. So I AM enjoying the series, but wish it would wrap up sooner rather than later.
Plot holes, from this and prior seasons:
*There are a lot of dead bodies and desaparacidos surrounding the Byrds. I can see them getting away with 1, but methinks people would start to get suspicious after 400, even if they’re somewhat protected by a crooked sheriff.
*HOW was Marty able to switch out the bones? The FBI discovered the bones, not the sheriff. If it was that easy to switch out bones from a federal forensic lab, everyone would do it.
*While auditioning to be a stripper in s1, Ruth gave her age as 19. She wouldn’t have been allowed in a strip bar or casino that serves alcohol, let alone manage it.
*The psychologist was nice comic relief for a bit, until they decided to paint her as a cunning manipulator. Then they made her too stupid to believe. And how stupid of the Byrds to go to a psychologist in the first place, knowing that the cartel would not appreciate their need for a confidante.
*Oh, and the plane trips back and forth to Mexico? Yeah, that wouldn’t happen. A plane that size wouldn’t even have enough fuel to make it to Mexico from the Ozarks, and even pilots of puddle jumpers have to declare their route ahead of time, etc.
*The FBI doesn’t catch on that Marty owns a funeral home and can cremate people at will. BTW, where’s there’s fire, there’s smoke.
Wendy later said to Marty, (paraphrasing) “I asked him what he wanted in five years. Why did I do that? I had already made the phone call.” So it was definitely Wendy who gave up the location. And depending on exactly when she made that call, could also explain how Nelson got there when he did.
With Helen trying to push the Byrdes out, and Wendy requesting not to work with Helen anymore, Navarro knew the situation was untenable. Either Helen or the Byrdes had to go, and he made his choice. (And shooting her in the head is much more dramatic than, say, reassigning her to Miami.)
She’s after a bigger fish, and she sees Marty as her ticket to Navarro. I have no idea how such a situation would go down in real life, but in the context of the show, I buy it.
In fact, that’s pretty much my feeling on all of the implausibilities listed in this thread. Unrealistic or not, the show has a very strong internal logic, and it works for me.
Here’s a sample of why Ruth is my favorite character:
Green. Lots of green.
I’ll go into plot and characters later… maybe… but there came an time in S3 where my most studied thing was the color choices. There were scenes where everyone was wearing the same colored clothes, all of it that ‘dusty’ dark (olive? Not really…) green which permeates the show. Once I was like ‘ok, the wall is the same colored green as her blouse and his jacket. WTF?’ It got to the point where I would call out the occasional red item (flowers on Christina’s dress, a book) which wasn’t in the Tardisino just because red items are so rare in this world.
Plotwise, none of this makes any sense. None of it. Doesn’t matter for my enjoyment, though… within the Ozark world itself it appears the rules are consistent… but there is no way Ruth attains the station she holds, no way that Marty hasn’t suffered a massive stress-related coronary, no way that Cosgrove doesn’t retaliate on his sons behalf, I could go on and on and on. In the end, the old rule still applies: even the stupidest bullshit works if it is well-written.
I like the psych, a bit of comic relief which ended up badly (for her). But… did she really make quickbooks entries for the fucking bribes? As soon as that yellow car appeared, I knew, I fucking knew it was her. One thing we can definitely say about her past:
- She never watched The Wire (or missed the scene where Stringer Bell said ‘you taking notes on a mother fucking criminal conspiracy?’)
- She never watched Goodfellas (or missed the scene where the guy pulls in with a big pink Caddy only to get smacked down by DeNiro).
Ben was awesome. I usually don’t like the ‘new crazy relative’ plots which some shows have (I hated the crazy brother in Six Feet Under, for example), but I will say his mental decline was the most believable thing in this most unbelievable of shows. Fantastic job.
Ruth is fine, but her going from 19yo stripper applicant to running a casino (she might be 21 by now) is the most eye-rolling character development in the show full of eye-rolling character developments. Also:
RUTH, YOU’RE MAKING SOME REAL MONEY NOW… ISN’T IT TIME YOU UPGRADED YOUR HOME?
… is a thought which occurs to me every time she is at her trailer.
Gonna buy some stock in the “Maya is working for Navarro” idea. It’s what makes the most sense, to be honest. Her slow-rolling the investigation, what happened to Helen, why Marty needed her back (Navarro doesn’t want a non-compromised agent in there), etc. The theory ties a few plot threads together rather nicely.
Also, have NO IDEA why the writers made her pregnant. Knowing the baby is due in 6 weeks means that the crazy timelines in this show need to now make sense… and I don’t see how that’s going to work, if she is going to be a regular character. She (and the baby) will probably end up dead at the end of all this.
As the OP mentioned, I bought Marty’s character for the first time.
The shows weak link, acting wise, is Novarro. After watching Lalo Salamanca in Better Call Saul, I find Novarro’s (well, the actor’s) rather understated performance to be a little flat.
Helen was awesome. Her character’s eyes had the perfect mix of exhaustion, brains, and nervousness. Not too sure about her mothering skills, but Erin seems to be written out, so enough about that.
More later. Probably.
Laura Linney’s violent, unpredictable brother shows up out of the blue after a scrape with the law and needs money. But he wears out his welcome with his irresponsible behavior.
Shouldn’t the brother have been played by Mark Ruffalo? 
I loved season 3.
One observation was that Ruth still lives in this trailer and could move anytime she wanted. She’s not motivated by money at all. She proves this when she learns how to steal from that casino only in an effort to help it. She needs to know that she belongs somewhere. She’s a cold hard bitch as a default but things get tricky with Ben. She’s on an emotional quest.
Wendy surprised me. At first it seemed like she was trying to save her family but she ended up so corrupt by maybe the power? There’s so much mystery as to why she acts always against her own interests and then blames her husband. …for me anyway. There are so many teachable moments there.
Marty all along just wants a way out (IMO) and she continues to make this impossible for him. Marriages and families are complicated.
The kids are incredibly well adjusted no matter what. I keep thinking, how is any of this all worth it for the Byrds? They surely can be protected bu the FBI. They’re living in an above average home in the middle of nowhere to save this somehow salvageable family. Just GO!!
And I wonder, do the Byrds get out? I know they’ve paid dearly.