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" In his new show The Following British actor James Purefoy (who, by the way, wears spring clothes really well) plays a serial killer with a short temper and a Poe-inspired wit. It turns out he can be a bit harsh in real life, too. Purefoy told Empire that his former Rome costar Kevin McKidd feels &amp;quot;HBO did Game of Thrones instead of us, so they stole our show. I kind of agree with him.&amp;quot; The logic here is that Rome, a hugely ambitious historical epic, was unceremoniously canceled in 2007, three years after which HBO ordered the hugely ambitious fantasy epic Game of Thrones, in which people also fight with swords in front of bodies of water. Let&amp;#039;s get beyond the fact that Purefoy may wish he hadn&amp;#039;t said this publicly. I understand how he feels. Sort of. I haven&amp;#039;t seen Rome (or, for that matter, Game of Thrones), but when HBO announced that it would air Girls, I could not help but feel some animosity: Bored to Death, another half-hour comedy set largely in Brooklyn and concerning people with too much time to think about their lives \u2014 and, I still think, one of the network&amp;#039;s funniest shows ever \u2014 had just been cancelled. I reasoned that the network only had room for one such show. This is what happens with a relatively slim programming schedule catering to fiercely niche audiences: Shows are pitted against another. But McKidd and Purefoy and I will have to let it go. No one cried for Rome or Bored to Death. Anyway, they might get movies. Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a18287/james-purefoy-game-of-thrones-15008418/>