Season Three: Ozark Meets "Love Actually"(SPOILERS)

I''m not quite the fan of Laura Linney that others are...her acting is strong and intense, but has always seemed a bit mannered to me. And on Ozark, I NEVER believe her when she smiles and acts nice before turning evil if she doesn't get her way. I've never understood why characters fall for her smile -- its so false. Though fellow Female Psychos Darlene the Killer Redneck and the Giant Lawyer Lady always see through her -- evil knows evil.

Which brings me to "Love Actually" (2003.)

"Love Actually" was a mild hit in 2003 but seems to have gone on to become a cult Christmas classic on DVD, cable and streaming for years after. The film is British in origin, London in setting, and sprinkles a paltry few Americans among the British actors.

Laura Linney was one of the Americans. The film intersects about 10 concurrent tales of love -- some sad, some happy, some funny -- and Linney's is the saddest. Famously, her attempts to connect in sex and love with the Man of Her Dreams is dashed by the fact that she has a bi-polar, dysfunctional brother who -- even though he is in an institution -- has taken over Llinney's life practically every waking moment of the day -- and often in the middle of the night, waking her from sleep. The thing is that Linney's character has a cell phone, and when the bi-polar(possibly all the say to schizophrenic) brother calls -- she answers and comforts him. At work. In the middle of the night.

And when just about to have sex with her Man of Her Dreams. And she loses him.

Their parents are dead, they are the only two siblings, Linney feels that she HAS to take care of her brother, even though he is destroying her life. Laura Linney gets the one sad ending in Love Actually -- unless, perhaps, her true love(platonic) IS her crazy brother. They embrace near the end(even if he tried to hit her.)

Somebody -- perhaps Laura Linney herself -- evidently knows how famous "Love Actually" and the Laura Linney Story is in that movie, how many millions have seen it and know it by heart(and rather hate it more than any other story in the movie.)

So somebody --perhaps Laura Linney herself -- had a bi-polar brother written into "Ozark" for Season Three . This new version of the "Love Actually" brother is more young, handsome, fit and mobile than the one in "Love Actually" -- but just as destructive to Laura Linney's life, and just as hard for her to shake.

Maybe....