We don’t know about you, but we love LOVE. No – we’re not coming over all Tom-Cruise-jumping-on-Oprah-Winfrey’s-sofa on you. We’re talking about the Netflix Original series that dropped its second season last month, starring Gillian Jacobs and Paul Rust and produced by voice-of-generation Judd Apatow. Fittingly about, well, ‘love’, the show follows the stop-and-start romance of its two leads Mickey and Gus – polar opposites living in L.A. (she’s a hot mess radio producer, he’s Mr. Nice Guy working as a tutor on a film set).
While we’ve already waxed lyrical about how much we like Mickey’s wardrobe (it’s serious #goals) we’ve yet to tell you about the second reason that we’re so hooked on the show – and that’s Claudia O’Doherty, the Australian comedian playing Mickey’s new roommate Bertie.
A frequent scene-stealer, she’s a breath of fresh-air in the Love-osphere. Why? Well, unlike the two main characters, she’s neither too nice or too not-nice. She’s a perfect balance of the two. While she’s undeniably sweet and kind-hearted, she’s also got an edge, and she’s not afraid to speak her mind, either.
For example, when she’s spoiler alert breaking up with Randy. She goes over to his place to break the bad news – albeit, she presents it as good news – and when it all goes a bit wrong and his family get involved to guilt trip her, she just leaves. So far, so badass. Later on in the episode, when she inevitably falls back into bed with him, she’s full of self-loathing. Perfect? Not so much. But that’s why we dig her.
She also provides her fair share of the show’s comedy. One of our favourite scenes in the second season was when she joined Tinder (which occurs in the same episode as above, maybe that’s our favourite episode…) and swiped right to absolutely everyone so that she would ‘feel popular’. Another great moment occurs when her and Mickey go on a tour of the movie set Gus works on, and she accidentally commandeers the whole thing, explaining the plot of The Holiday – despite the fact that it wasn’t even filmed there. When she’s left high and dry by Mickey later on
She’s also the perfect foil to Mickey – their growing friendship is one of the real highlights of the show – and we love how she provides a raised eyebrow and a look of disdain when Mickey’s behaviour is a little unsavoury. She’s the moral compass of the show in many ways, without being too annoyingly goody-two-shoes about it.
What’s more, Claudia’s got Amy Schumer’s seal of approval and backing, after the US comedian saw clips of her online and hand-picked her to star in her film Trainwreck (and she’s set to appear in the new series of Inside Amy Schumer). Pretty cool huh? She’s also won a ton of comedy awards, including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Best Newcomer Award, the Melbourne Fringe Best Comedy Award and the Brisbane Comedy Festival Award, natch.
Claudia/Bertie, be our friend?
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