Entourage – Even the “Godfather” homage sucked

Just when I thought Ari’s story on Entourage was about to get back on track, along came Amanda Daniels to knock him back down to mildly tolerable. At best.

I’ve always been a fan of Mrs. Ari’s. I think she’s an underutilized character who plays against Ari perfectly, oftentimes providing us with some great moments of drama or comedy. But this season I just want her to recede into the darkness that her lack of a first name has always kept her partially hidden behind. She has become infuriating, inhibiting Ari’s ability to do his job because word broke on news that wasn’t news to her or to anyone else. Should we label her magnanimous for handing her phone to Ari at the bowling alley? Had he been able to manage his job, maybe the explosion at the restaurant never would have happened.

Up until Amanda responded to him I was starting to feel good about Ari again. I thought he’d be spending the rest of his time on the show fighting against Amanda and trying to woo the NFL back — with the revelation that it wasn’t Amanda who leaked the tapes (which doesn’t really clear her of anything in my book), and the NFL execs witnessing Ari’s blowup, neither of those thoughts of mine seem likely to happen. So is Ari’s grand series arc to claw his way to the top only to fall off the other side gloriously?

Nevertheless, cool sightings of Richard Branson and the twins (interestingly, Branson and Mark Cuban, who was also on the episode, have both had their own Apprentice-like shows, The Rebel Billionaire and The Benefactor, respectively), plus Dana Owens, OKA (only known as) Queen Latifah. What was with the “Dana” thing?

Vince is a mess, and this might be the first time in the history of the show that I’m not enjoying seeing him on screen. I do still hope that somehow Peter Berg falls out of the directors slot, because Billy’s the man for the job, but this Sasha thing is enough.

As is Turtle and his tequila stupidity. He does bring out some good guest stars — Miguel Sandoval as Carlos, Ethan Suplee (Randy from My Name is Earl), Mark Cuban — but it doesn’t make sense that he’d be so involved in this tequila enterprise, NOR does it make sense that a businessman like Carlos would turn to a US-based, A-List movie star sponsor without being prepared for the results. His reactions to Turtle make it sound more like the tequila was something Vince came across and fell in love with while in Mexico, with Turtle seizing on it as his way to make bank. But with the actual way this came to be, Carlos’ story doesn’t make any sense.

Is Johnny’s thing with Eric’s secretary Jennie (Janet Montgomery) supposed to seem sweet? Because it feels creepy, from both ends. At first I thought Jennie was just doing as Eric asked, but now it seems like she has some ulterior motive planting herself next to Drama on his “Johnny’s Bananas” project. And, of course, Johnny’s old enough to be her great-grandfather, so there’s that.

I don’t know what else to say. I am loving the guests, and Billy’s awesome … that’s about it.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Aug 30, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT