Entourage – Did the episode title need to be almost literal?

There was something about last night’s episode of Entourage that was so very … un-Entourage, if you know what I mean. I’m not quite sure what it was, because I don’t know that there was a specific moment or scene that I can point to, but when the thirty minutes were up I turned to my wife and said, “What show was that?”

Drama’s more or less his old self, being an idiot and overreacting to Phil’s stroking by walking off the set of “Johnny’s Bananas” alongside Dice. We’re used to watching as he either ruins a good thing — see “Five Towns” — or fails to land anything in the first place, but his desperation here smacks of some amount of finality to his career. I think it’s telling that Jamie Kennedy, who’s playing Dice’s replacement, not only isn’t playing himself but doesn’t even have a name; it frames the entire series as very “bottom of the barrel.” Kennedy’s character may suck, but so did Dice … and so does Drama.

That said, I do love how serious Kennedy’s character takes it all: “I’m in here making choices, you’re just making voices.” Take that!

Eric and Melinda Clarke? It was a horrible choice to sleep with her, even if I don’t know what Sloan was talking about when she whined, “You didn’t think to ask me?” Why would he? I wish Eric didn’t seem destined to spend the last few episodes of the series tangled up in a relationship that ended four of five seasons ago, but it’s looking likely that he’ll close out the show by running to New York after Sloan.

Vince’s interview with Sophia Lear (Alice Eve, who’s ready for more than She’s Out of My League) was SO BORING. And when has he not aced an interview? My wife and I came up with a half dozen examples just off the top of our heads. I’m not sure why the writers decided to give Vince nothing to do in the show’s final season, but saying he fell hard for Sophia after their pathetic encounters is really grasping at straws. I’ll begrudgingly accept it if it alters his outlook on relationships and determines him to find something meaningful … but if he spends the next few weeks chasing this woman who he had no chemistry with?

The one interesting thing from their two conversations was the focus on Vince’s father. Is there a chance that we’re going to meet him before the series is up?

I think the only happily ever after for Ari is with Mrs. Ari, but their fight in front of their family home made me wonder if, as a match, Dana might not make more sense for him. She places a priority on work too, and she wouldn’t be offended if he wasn’t around for everything or cancelled at the last minute … she’d be doing the same (possibly more often). I don’t think Mrs. Ari is wrong, and I’m sure she’s unduly suffered in their marriage, but listening to her get on him for his parenting now, when it’s no longer her “right” to rag on him, made me wonder if Dana wouldn’t be who Ari should find himself with as the curtain goes down. Interesting that Dana and Ari seem to have possibly reached that conclusion as well.

Just as a side note, I hate when a show like Entourage, which can clearly land stars left and right, feels the need to name-drop a celeb they don’t/can’t even bring onscreen. I don’t need to see the overexposed Lautner, but if you can’t cast him then don’t mention his name. That just seemed beneath what the show has achieved after all these years.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Aug 22, 2011 @ 17:09 EST5EDT