Men’s Mental Health Month: Why Marcus’s breakdown in Ginny & Georgia deserves attention

When Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia first aired, it was easy to dismiss it as yet another off-beat teen drama: OTT, chaotic, and laced with small-town scandals. But three seasons in, the series has proven that it’s not afraid to tackle real, weighty issues. Season 3, in particular, has made headlines for its honest handling of abortion and mental health issues, but perhaps the most searing storyline is Marcus’s descent into depression and the quiet unraveling of his mental health.

Warning: Spoiler alert!

The show portrays Marcus’s mental health struggles and the way those around him respond with nuance and sensitivity

Marcus, played with by Felix Mallard, has long been one of the show’s most brooding figures. But this season, Ginny & Georgia dives deeper into his internal world, exposing the painful, isolating reality of male depression. It doesn’t sensationalize it.

It simply shows what it looks like: long hours spent holed up in his room, the withdrawal from friends, the emotional volatility and ultimately, the desperate cry for help that ends with a trip to rehab.

What makes Marcus’s mental health crisis even more heartbreaking is how it’s handled, or rather, mishandled, by those around him. His parents, well-meaning but deeply flawed, keep telling themselves “we’re handling it,” even as Marcus spirals out of control.

He’s sneaking out to drink in Brodie’s basement, turning up drunk to school dances, and yet, the alarm bells are muffled under parental denial. They pressure his sister Maxine to keep tagging him on social media, to include him, to keep him "normal," but fail to ask if she’s okay as well. His suffering becomes her burden too.

The story is a grim reminder that teenagers often don’t recognize when they need help. It’s up to parents to step in, sometimes even when it means risking their child’s trust or privacy. In Marcus’s case, that intervention came far too late.

His friends enabled his behaviour time and time again

One of the more disturbing aspects of Marcus’s story is how his friends respond. Abby drinks with him. Silver, who briefly dates his sister, even buys him alcohol, brushing off any responsibility by claiming, “It’s not my concern.”

These are teens, yes, but the lack of concern is jarring and reflects a real-world truth: we’re often unequipped to recognize or respond to mental health red flags in young men.

There’s a casualness with which Marcus’s pain is treated by his peers, a normalization of his destructive behaviour that’s masked as ‘letting him cope in his own way.’

We can't pin the blame on the women around him all the time either

Ginny & Georgia doesn’t shy away from showing how women are often blamed for men's issues. Sophie Sanchez, Marcus’s ex, and Silver, his rebound, aren’t solely responsible for his decline, but you can bet some viewers will blame them anyway.

It’s a cultural reflex: pinning the emotional unraveling of men on the actions of women around them, while excusing the lack of accountability from the men themselves.

But what Ginny & Georgia subtly highlights is how male mental health exists in a vacuum of unspoken pain.

While there’s growing attention around young girls’ mental health (and rightly so), the numbers for boys are just as alarming. According to NHS England, 22.3% of boys aged 8–16 have a probable mental health disorder. Suicide remains the leading cause of death in men under 50 in the UK.

Ginny & Georgia may be wrapped in sarcasm, sass, and small-town drama, but its portrayal of Marcus’s mental health crisis is one of the most honest depictions of male depression on mainstream TV right now. It’s not perfect, but it’s powerful and it's an important reminder of how much men around us struggle without us really noticing.

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