Did What I think Just Happen Happen?

Did Entourage just grow a pair after 5 years of sucking?  Sunday's season finale was somewhere between their usual happy ending and nuclear fallout.  But it could have been worse, Turtle could have been whacked and Vince could have pulled a Dirk Diggler and started performing sex acts for blow.  Sadly, I think it is too little too late; there's only one season and possibly a movie left (a movie about a movie star?).  We've had one season end in total failure before, the Medellin season, and granted the following season was all about rehabbing Vince's image.  Yeah it was far fetched that one movie would totally destroy a career and much more believable that getting arrested for fighting Kevin Love, Jordan Farmar, Eminem, and bodyguards, and drug possession is harder to come back from.  But guess what? Robert Downey Jr. did it.  I just have a feeling this is going to be like the post-Medellin plot where it seems like no one wants Vince anymore and then some big name director decides he does; the show loves easy fixes.

Yes, I am interested in the show I have been begrudgingly watching for a while now.  But trying to make Vince an interesting character is a tall task with Adrian Grenier's limited acting abilities.  The only reason I knew he was upset was because everyone kept saying he wasn't OK and then he was doing lines by himself with a bottle of whiskey like he was a member of an 80's metal band.

Turtle's plot this year: boring.  I could care less about a tequila company or the girl they were trying to pass off as hot.  Even with that it was one episode she hates Turtle the next they're dating (easy fix again).  She and Sasha Grey just annoyed me. 

But hey, at least Sasha made Grenier look like a decent actor with her flat, emotionless lines.  She couldn't even convince me she was mad at coked out Vince trying to tell her what to do.  The only good part about that relationship was the irony that Vince was the one who wanted a serious relationship while the love interest was having sex with a lot of people.

E's plot was completely stupid.  I don't want to watch him take over his boss's firm.  Ari did that last year.

I want to see more Johnny's Bananas.  Why was there not at least a scene from that?  And yes please for more of E's secretary.  Hot and British?  I'll take it.

This brings me to the Ari plot.  Did things need to go against him?  Unquestionably yes.  Did his life need to completely unravel?  Unquestionably no.  The one character that has made the last few seasons bearable is Ari Gold.  He was good for entertainment, good for depth of character, good for quality acting.  If this impending divorce, and loss of respect in the biz cuts Ari's balls off I will be very upset.  He may not be the nicest person, but he got the job done, he made lives better (look at Lloyd, the man is a damn good agent because even though Ari yelled at him a lot, he was able to distill the message).  If Ari can no longer be Ari, Entourage can no longer be Entourage.

Streak Broken

No, Brett Favre started tonight.  I'm referring to my month plus hiatus from updating.  I blame it partially on the start of law school; I guess torts and property and contract law really use up a lot of thinking power so I don't have the neural juice to crank out a post every week.  I also really want to write about AMC's new show Rubicon, but it's all so up in the veiled that I can't really figure it out yet.  I will say this, James Badge Dale is a phenomenal actor.  His two roles (HBO's Pacific) this year where he did so much acting without saying a word have really swung me firmly in his camp.  Also, last week's bottle episode of API on lock-down trying to find a leak was the best yet.  The parallels of Will's team taking lie detectors and Will trying to figure out the lies he was living/working under was fascinating.

Courtesy of chicago-now.com

Rubicon is good, but I have to say a few words on Mad Men.  If Jon Hamm and Elizabeth Moss don't win Emmy's for their performances on this week's "The Suitcase," I don't know if they ever will (especially since fellow AMC show Breaking Bad won't be eligible for next year's awards).  The full range of emotions and interplay between Peggy and Don is some of the best work of the series.  Like the lead in show, this was more or less a bottle episode, so the plot of the episode was really driven by the actions and emotions of Peggy and Don, alone, in the office.

There are two really important strands I pulled out of this episode that I think are really worth mentioning.  The first is Peggy is clearly now Don's new Anna.  Anna was so pivotal to Don because she knew Don as Dick, who he really was.  Peggy, although she doesn't know his real name, does know Don as more than just the creative genius that drinks, carouses, and wows Madison Avenue.  They kept bringing up Peggy's baby because that seemingly meaningless moment at the end of season one, where Don showed up to visit Peggy in the hospital (her only visitor not related to her) he showed the caring, thoughtful, sympathetic man at his core.  Through this episode Don and Peggy realized what they always knew: they are kindred spirits.  They are both trying to make a life they never seemed destined to have, yet still fit into the boxes society wants for them.  Because of this their work is their only real joy.  Now hopefully Peggy can do what Anna did in season 2 and bring Don out of his funk.

Courtesy of amc.com

The other strand that seems insignificant right now, but has been touched on a few times this season.  Don does not believe in self-promotion.  We have seen this in episode 1 where he flops in the trade magazine interview and then in last week's where he bashes Muhammad Ali for being a braggart.  This could cause some problems pretty soon.  Very soon we will begin to see just how important being your own spokesman is to our society.  The question is can Don adjust or will he be passed by?  I don't think he'll let that happen, he's too strong, too much of a survivor.  But this will bring up an interesting conflict within him.  Can a man who is not really who he says he is, who doesn't want his past to be know, who wants his face to be his work, really become comfortable in the spotlight?