Another teen-oriented web show brought to us by Anglo-centric social networking site Bebo, Chelsey: OMG! is filled with cute, if a touch too savvy web-bites featuring the spunky, tanned, buxom, and all-American Chelsey Pucks. Just launched this month, the site features the beginnings of a twice-a-week web serial and a handful of “What’s On My Mind…” commentaries (where Chelsey discusses important things all American care about, like Obama, Palin, and Jamie Lynn Spears).
With episodes lasting only a couple minutes and the WoMMs clocking in at about 50 seconds, Chelsey: OMG! is just short enough to make the hackneyed video blogger premise enjoyable.
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Newly arrived in London and staying at the flat of her uncle (whose face and country of origin remain unknown as he hasn’t yet been on camera), Chelsey has landed a marketing internship. Her job features tension-filled clashes with her ‘N.W.E.’ (New Worst Enemy), who turns out to be her boss, and plenty of fawning over the one cute guy, who appears to be dating said boss.
She also suspects that ‘bullocks’ might be the local version of ‘later/bye!’ (England English is confusing, Chelsey! And here’s one to be extra careful of: ‘fanny’ doesn’t mean what you think it means).
Spawned from the same gestalt as the the ground-breaking lonelygirl15, and created by British comedian Nat Coombs and UK production house Channel X, Chelsey clearly has a crew, if a small one, of directors and viral marketers who’d like to stake a web claim of their own.
The actress, Kelly Anne Lyons, has more than ample charisma and on-camera flair to make it happen. The writing is fairly impressive in the commentaries and allows Pucks to personify So Cal, America vis-à-vis a third generation Valley girl accent. But unlike Spencer and Heidi on The Hills, Chelsey’s more funny than annoying and conveys a genuine sense of curiousity as opposed to vapid self-content.
Her performance is about what you might expect from the high end of web television: monologues well-spoken, but with a tinge of self-consciousness, and punch lines delivered a beat too slow that sometimes toe the line of bad acting. When viewed alongside Amy Adams’ portrayal of Ashley Johnsten in 2005’s Junebug, you’ll recognize what separates the women from the girls.
But Ms. Lyons’ professional life seems to have just started, and Ms. Pucks’ European adventure has just begun. There’s no telling what OMG!-warranting occurrences either may have. Stay tuned to Bebo.com to see their careers and travels progress.
