Emotional survival dominates a blood-soaked 'Ozark' Season 2

Light spoilers for Ozark Season 2 lie ahead.

Come for the cartel crime drama. Stay for the emotional train wreck.

Complete with a family man at the center of a heroin ring, Ozark's freshman season earned the Jason Bateman-led Netflix project the reputation of a Breaking Bad rip-off. Its return on August 31, however, proved the gritty tale of money laundering is far more than retread territory.

If you're familiar with AMC's story of a chemistry teacher turned meth aficionado (at this point, who isn't?), you know Walter White's journey was a facial hair-fueled evolution. Fans watched as the Breaking Bad antihero gradually morphed from a gentile next-door neighbor to an unrestrained monster over a five-season slow burn that built to utter destruction.

In Ozark, audience members aren't asked to wait for consequences or changes of heart. Instead, the series delivers near-real-time fall out. With each passing episode, actions and reactions are carried out swiftly—and violently. The resulting tornado of psychological carnage moves from character to character like a biblical plague.

Like The Sopranos before it, Ozark takes the time needed to unpack the realities of coping with crime politics.

No, I'm not just talking lingering looks over placid lakes—though there are a few of those. I'm talking full scenes and storylines dedicated to these people trying to keep it together.

For instance, Marty Byrde spends the vast majority of the season strategically putting out fire after fire with stunning levels of composure. (In almost every episode, Marty casually grabs his car keys to go "handle" another near-death development like he's picking up groceries.)

However, when he becomes directly responsible for another character's death, that facade crumbles fast. We quickly see Marty in a fetal position clutching onto his wife and doing breathing exercises. This dark Lamaze class reveals that, unlike Walter White, Marty Byrde wants out. Consequently, his situation becomes more sympathetic and more precarious.

Similarly, the torture of Ruth Langmore midseason gives way to dozens of poignant, methodically-placed flashbacks. Despite the rapid fire development of the show's plot, this reflection on trauma is given room to breathe and its subsequent influence on Ruth's behavior makes more sense.

These contemplations on coping exist for most characters in at least some capacity. Rachel struggles with drug abuse, Wyatt writes of his family history, Jonah and Charlotte talk their parents eminent divorce, and so on.

The ever-moving puzzle pieces of cartel and Missourian "diplomacy" rarely take a backseat to these emotional reflections. Instead the plot's gravity is bolstered by the psychological unpacking. It quickly becomes clear that if these characters can't keep their heads on straight, they could lose them altogether.

While Breaking Bad remains a crown jewel of character psychology, Ozark is a different kind of emotional rollercoaster—everyone is on it and they're providing their own seatbelts.

Ozark: Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.