Machinima Prime’s ‘Tainted Love’ Channels Scott Pilgrim (But Bloodier)

Orlando Jones is no stranger to online video; the former MADtv performer previously starred in MysteryGuitarMan Joe Penna’s Meridian web series. Now, Jones has been given a chance to show off his own creative skills with Tainted Love, an action comedy that recently took off on Machinima Prime.

Tainted Love stars Jones as Black Barry, a hitman who gets tied up with a small potatoes thief named Jezebel (Deanna Russo) after he impregnates her. Things take a hairy turn after Barry incurs the wrath of his boss (Eric Roberts), and a fast-paced bloodbath soon ensues.

A comment from Machinima on the series’ trailer describes it as “Scott Pilgrim with guns,” and this seems like an accurate enough description. Like Pilgrim, Tainted Love moves at an extremely fast pace, featuring plenty of quick cuts and embellished by the same colorful on-screen comic book decor that made Pilgrim

a success. Tainted Love might not be quite as funny as the Michael Cera cult hit, but it’s running on the same caffeine high. The first episode is embedded below; I would recommend keeping your blinking to a minimum.

Tainted Love (which looks like a fairly big-budget production, no matter how much the YouTube Original Channel actually spent on it) continues Machinima Prime’s recent trend of exploring topics beyond video games. As with other recent series on the channel (Omega comes to mind), there’s nothing about Tainted Love that actually deals with video games; however, in line with Machinima’s current strategy, the average teenage boy will find Jones’ eye-bulging antics and the whooshing comic book effects to be right up his alley.