Distraction

Since all of my thoughts on my teams have been horribly, horribly wrong (who knew that Jim Zorn was actually completely incompetent?) I have decided to distract myself from football and write about this past season of Entourage.

This show for some odd reason keeps me interested despite the fact that it's the same thing every single season. There is almost no depth to the show and for the most part it is one inconsequential action after another for the characters. So let's look at it from a character by character basis, starting with the most pathetic leading to the only two interesting ones left. This does contain spoilers.

Let's start with Vince. I'm guessing the show's writers tried to make a season where everything didn't go perfectly just to see what Adrian Genier had to offer us as an actor. While last season was captivating, I don't think the writers were impressed by his acting abilities (much like the director of the ill-fated Smoke Jumpers). So they decided, this show is best when he is doing well, making money to pay for everyone else, and having sex. This is fine with me, but it doesn't make him interesting or compelling.

E comes next. This guy hasn't changed one bit. OK this season they actually gave him success as a manager by putting him in a big firm. And they tried to make us want him to get back/ not want him to get back with Sloane AND Ashley the entire season. YAWN. We're tired of E being the lovesick workaholic. It doesn't count that he "changed" because they brought up a "problem" that he only likes girlfriends on his terms with 10 minutes left in the season and he "fixed" it 2 seconds later by proposing. This is the same E we saw from the second he hit the screen: little Irish guy who wants to prove he can make a living and get attractive, stable women without Vince's help. The sad thing is, Kevin Connelly might be one of the better actors in the series yet he is severely limited in this role.

Johnny Drama almost fooled us this year. But like E, his "problem" was short lived and easily remedied. This year we saw a little more depth with his fierce loyalty to his friends (and their girlfriends) that he was willing to sacrifice his first major success since Viking Quest to uphold their reputation. Unfortunately they played the same anger-issues card they have played ad nausea. We were also led to believe that the man who couldn't find work for so long was now ready to not look for work (brought on by his well documented anxiety, boring). This major decision lasted an episode and a half; are we really supposed to believe that Turtle flying to New Zealand is really enough of a catalyst to make him change his mind? Sure once he realized he was meant to be an actor he found himself in the right emotional balance to nail an audition causing the network to want him to star in his own show, but shouldn't such a powerful and life-altering realization be sparked by something a little greater?

Turtle, surprisingly is the second most dynamic character on this show. This season we really saw that Turtle is not some mooch who hangs around Vince to get chemically altered and laid. He decided he wanted to be his own man, to make his own money, to do some heavy lifting (unlike his failed attempt at being a manager for Saigon, where the first sign of trouble or real work he split). He went back to school to learn how to start a business. In a very related note, we also saw that Turtle can be a one woman man. Jerry Ferrara's real life girlfriend, Jamie Lyn Siegler, actually made Turtle cry when she left to film in New Zealand. The old Turtle would have hopped right onto the co-ed who had flirted with him the entire season without missing a beat. The new, mature Turtle actually couldn't do it (even though he told the boys he did); he missed Jamie too much and went to New Zealand to get her back (even though he failed). This season we saw Turtle grow up as a character and as a fictional person. It will certainly be interesting to see if the writers are able to continue this growth next season. Will they bring Jamie back? If they don't will he fall back into the static, flat character he was in seasons previous, or will this new-found motivation and maturity persist without a good woman driving it?

Finally we come to the most compelling character in the series: Ari. This season Ari was involved with trying to make Lloyd an agent and buying out his old boss, Terrence, from his agency to make the world's largest agency, as well as giving aid to Andrew, Turtle, and Drama. This led to Ari being a man of many hats. First we saw a new side of Ari: the fatherly figure. He mentored Andrew, Turtle, and Drama superbly this season. He also put Lloyd through his paces on what it really took to be an agent, Ari the teacher. We also saw an incredibly vindictive side of Ari we really only got to see shades on in the past. Seeing such pure anger when Lloyd jumped ship was a surprisingly refreshing twist on an old theme for Ari. We also saw a savvy business man in his dealings with his old boss. He admitted that "yes I would love to destroy 3 people at his old agency, but no he is purely motivated by the fact that it would be great business to buy, and even worse to pass." Finally, we saw Ari the merciful/ Ari the repentant. The final episode blew me away with the depth it added to Ari (and I was already impressed with it so far this season). I thought for sure it would be a typical Ari vs Terrence ego battle with Ari failing to buy over a stupid point. But no, Terrence apologized and Ari realized that a real man doesn't have to have everything his own way, that it would be OK to honor the man that helped make him who he was by keeping the name. Ari also realized that he was wrong with what he did to Lloyd. He knew Lloyd didn't betray him, that in fact Lloyd was nothing buy loyal and it was he who drove Lloyd away out of fear Lloyd would do what he did to Terrance. He apologized sincerely to Lloyd and even made him the agent he deserved to be (and it led to the funniest moment of the season when the sign on Lloyd's office said "Congratulations You're Finally a Real Asian").

While this season really put a damper on my opinion of Entourage (maybe because I would watch it on TiVo right after Mad Men) there were a few bright points that hopefully the writers will expand upon next season to get this show where something with such high critical acclaim should be.