Sunday, January 14, 2007

My mind isn't completely changed yet, so let's not do anything hasty

The second best gift I got for Christmas (behind Guitar Hero II, natch) was a video iPod, and at first I thought I'd never buy a tv show or movie I couldn't watch on my tv. But, as the well-trained consumer I am, I ended up browsing the tv show section of the iTunes store where I found that the first epsode of the second season of HBO's Extras was available for free. So of course I downloaded it, because 1. I have recently fallen in love with BBC America (Coupling? The Robinsons? The original Office? YES.), which is where the main characters of Extras are from and 2. I have that continuing love affair with HBO series which is what rendered me a sickening tv addict in the first place. I thought, this is a good idea!

And the show was funny, even though I missed the entire first season.* The episode centered around an extra on the set of an Orlando Bloom film, and no matter how hard he tries, Orlando simply can't impress this woman with any of his movie star charms.

I spend a LOT of time teasing my sister about how much I dislike Orlando Bloom (more than penguins, people) but if this was the only thing I'd ever seen him in I would totally have believed she was right. Maybe it was because he was playing himself and couldn't screw it up, or maybe British dialogue and humor suit him better than American writing. Whatever it was, I was surprised to find that his presence on the screen wasn't revolting to me. In fact, I liked his scenes.

So I guess you could say that this is my apology to this actor. Although it is also my plea for him to keep himself on that side of the Atlantic. Because seriously, you do much better work over there. No--don't argue. I mean, did you see Elizabethtown? Or Troy? I certainly wish I hadn't.

*On a side note, I learned through my new BBC obsession that most British sitcoms only have six episodes to a season, which didn't put me too far behind.

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