Ozark's Wendy Byrde: Gangster No. 1

When Ozark premiered I had no idea what to expect. I like most everyone else noted that it bore trite similarities to Breaking Bad, but it looked just interesting enough to make for comfort television..except it never got comfortable and neither did I. Over its four seasons Ozark tightened its screws each time sending us whirling through a labyrinth of interwoven plots, personal traumas, shocking deaths, and seethingly cruel rivalries. The shows quality of ensuring we saw the Byrde's for what they were, and the viciousness of this capitalistic landscape combined with its ability to be extremely creative creating great ticking time bomb scenarios one season after another helped make it one of the few truly great Netflix offerings, BUT, of all the things that truly made Ozark great, the thing or rather persons that most made this show stand out was the characters. Julie Garner's resident smuggling prodigy firecracker Ruth Langmore who touted a ferocious tongue and temper. The even hotter tempered Darlene Snell, the wife of Jacob Snell, THE crime family of Osage beach before the Byrde's arrive and turn everything upside down. The snake like Roy Petty, a bit of an unhinged FBI agent determined to get the upper hand on the Byrdes, and then there is of course the Byrdes ; Marty, Wendy, Charlotte, and Jonah, when we meet them, unlike most shows they are already broken, their marriage is failed, fraught with unspoken of trauma, miscommunications and latent fantasies, they are also already money launderers, it is when they end as full on co-leaders of the cartel we see this family come fully together and that is Ozark's sad, stark genius as a show, its stern look at the actualities of the American dream under capitalism, what it costs, and who it costs, and casts out. In that tapestry of interwoven threads of charismatic corporate and political evil doers the shows standout, the shows center is Wendy Byrde, and that’s saying alot in the Ozarks. The shows most accomplished character was challenging, polarizing, and difficult to watch or hear throughout the run of the show all whole being the hardest to keep your eyes and ears off of her. A captivating anti-hero of sorts just that side of Laura Dern's Renata Klein in “Big Little Lies” she was as vile as she was compelling and funny, the most revelatory aspect of Wendy's character was how she morphed from a limb to the head of the Byrdes ascension into gangsterdom essentially making her the subversive matriarch and gangster no 1 in that family.

Wendy like any other great character is the product of both great writing and acting. As written Wendy Byrde is a complex woman. She philanders, but deeply loves Marty, she values family but like many gangsters before her she values them in many ways as a prop for her own ambition. Like Michael Corleone in Mario Capuzo's gangster saga “The Godfather” she continued as long as she could under the guise that as she once said “We’re not looking for a way into more crime sweetheart, we're trying to get out of it” all while making constant decisions that drove them deeper into it. In Laura Linney's own words she is “Shrewd and smart, but not very mature”. Her reactive nature even while calculated and highly intelligent made her a very dangerous person, a-la folks like Bugsy Siegel, and Al Capone. Though she might not have been the person to do it, she didn’t mind being the person who ordered it, and the self delusion of going straight, well that’s straight out of the book of Michael Corleone.

From an acting standpoint Laura Linney shaped the clay of the script into something so acutely tangible it seemed as if it were based on someone real. The “everyman” as a gangster is not as popular as the more romanticized slick tough type but he has been there in the canon, from Lefty Ruggiero in “Donnie Brasco” to Mike Sullivan in “Road to Perdition” to “Knucky Thompson” (Boardwalk Empire ), “Tony Soprano”, and “Walter White”. If and when they’ve depicted women as gangsters its always as elegant, fierce, vulnerable only in places where it serves them to trick you into getting bit, like Salma Hayek's Elena Sánchez in Oliver Stone's “Savages”. Linney and the writers of Ozark though present Wendy as a highly ambitious, calculating, spiraling, loving, vulnerable, traumatized, but tough woman preening behind “soccer mom” energy. Linney pops,with gleeful satisfaction when shes right, britsles with vulnerability when shes wrong, and slices through her enemies with stillness..especially in the eyes something Linney shares with other great actors, and Wendy shares with great male gangster characters like Jimmy Conway (Goodfellas ) and Michael Corleone. Once again like Michael Corleone regardless of where she started, the actual Wendy (or Mike Corleone) was always this person. They were their least selves before the events that made them into who they are, and they don’t want to ever go back, so for both the idea is always moving forward. Wendy also like Mike, ( or rather Laura Linney like Al Pacino ) had a very particular talent to hide rivers of bile behind a facade of politeness, especially when they're being threatened..pay attention to their visual reactions when being audibly threatened and besmirched by their enemies on the straight side..The movements are slightly, but visceral and brimming with disdain. There is discomfort, but a certifiably stone will to barely let it be seen, and the one tells on the other…

Coiled but composed is what I would name the energy these two actors and subsequently their characters emote. That should say enough about Linney’s acting that she can match Al Pacino like for like in this regard and many occasions this powered Ozarks story of who was actually head of this family ( A fact later reiterated by their children consistently about how Marty just does what Wendy says ). Ozark overall is no Godfather but Linney is for sure one of the best thing we’ve seen since in the genre and I do not say this lightly. When any other element of this show failed, writing, pacing, arc, an uneventful episode I could always just watch Linney. It covered so much of what were or could be this shows warts that I don’t think I’ll ever know how much it was this show I loved or just watching her work. The journey of Wendy Bryde from ill suited mal content role player to Queenpin was a magnificent thing to behold, partially because it came both subtly and obviously, aparrent, and imprecise. The things Linney did with her face furthered this as she could be very forthcoming and genuine, but was also so good when she wasn’t genuine it made it believable as to why it was so hard to deal with Wendy. She never REALLY surprised or hid her emotions or thoughts but she did throw just enough fog around to make you unsure of your footing.

In the end Ozark ended up a fantastic feat. A show that didn’t compromise what it set out to do. Which on my mind is to say that Gangsterism is capitalism, that neither is as glamorous and charismatic as it has constantly portrayed and that there is a reason that Organized crime and gang culture preys on and lives off of the institutionalized idea of family in the same way capitalism does. It did this without showy gimmicks and constantly pointing to and or admonishing fromself righteousness, even while definitely never glorifying it. It all seemed as anxiety inducing as any our lives are under this system, and for all of the Byrde's apparent charm and geneality they and especially Wendy were ruthless and cruel time and time again from threatening pregnant women to having a family member killed. That cruelty was evident in even the chosen hues for the show, the cold blues and greys maintained the shows purposeful distance from warmth and at the heart of that coldness, that cruelty, that gangsterism was Wendy. The history of film and television taught and instructed us that in these families the male patriarch was the one to keep our eye on, and Ozark played upon that, introducing us first to Marty and the subtle joy’s of watching Jason Bateman skiddishly fox his way out of one hellish situation to another, but the show didn’t take long to reveal that Wendy was not only a helpful co-conspirator, but the true heart of this growing operation. She wasn’t just hiding coke or a gun for her husband when needed, (Karen Hill ) or begging for this to “All end” (Kay Corleone/Adam’s) nor was she portrayed as a hindrance like Skyler White or Maggie Pistone ( Anne Heche in Donnie Brasco ) Wendy was only a thorn in Marty’s side because she was an impediment to his fantasy of himself as a good guy that didn’t want any of this. To his insistence on making believe that his burrowing was to a way out rather than further in, and to the realities of their situation. She was a thorn in our side for the same reasons and that’s the brilliance of this show. That it reminded us of what the greed, avarice, and deterioration of empathy inherent in capitalism looks like without much of the gloss. That the whole time it subverted our expectations for this family as a patriarchal institution when in reality it was a matriarchal one. It even ended with both the cartel and the Byrdes being ran by women. The Don's ring unceremoniously and without pomp had been passed by the end of Season 2. Ultimately, if Ozark was a reincarnation of sorts of Breaking Bad be it superficially or deep, our Walter White was not Marty but Wendy Byrde.