Entourage - "Fire Sale"

Last night's episode of Entourage, "Fire Sale," proved that the show doesn't have to be flashy cars and gorgeous women all the time, and perhaps showed that the show could actually work deeper than that. In the previous three seasons, the adventures of Vince and the Gang have always been accompanied by a subplot involving the extravagances of being a movie star. Last night, however, was about the Hollywood game, a plot that has always come secondary to the Hollywood lifestyle.

We picked off right where we left off last week with Eric on the verge of a deal with Amanda for his firefighter script, Vince trying to do all he can to make money and get back in the game, and Drama still being Drama. Vince and Eric were more closely tied together in this episode, as I expected. Everything seemed to be sailing smoothly for Eric until Ari swept in and out of nowhere decided he liked the script and wanted Vince to do it. This pissed off Amanda and apparently Ed Norton, but it seemed like Eric could sell his first script and Vince could get back on the path to redemption. But things were not so simple, as Ed Norton decided to go in on the bidding war, but possibly at the cost of Vince's part. Next week should be interesting as they will undoubtedly figure out how to resolve this problem, probably at the expense of someone's career.

The Drama story this week seemed to have taken a page out of The Office's playbook, making the viewer as uncomfortable as possible as he painstakingly professed his love to his ex on The View. It seems like his fellow cast members were total jerks and solely there to create trouble for Drama, who I still can't tell if they tolerate or not. It's good to see Shauna back in a somewhat frequent role. Her vulgar and brash approach to everything big and small has always cracked me up. Turtle seems more useless than ever this season, barely doing anything other than make wise cracks from the background. Hopefully, they'll bring him out a little more. Other than that though, this was the first completely solid episode of the season. Hopefully more will follow.

A

Entourage - "The All Out Fall Out"

So last night we finally got to see Vince start making the steps towards rebounding his career, albeit just financially. His first step came in the form of singing a song at the sweet sixteen party of the daughter of Kevin Pollack and Fran Drescher. It was refreshing to see a couple of actors not playing themselves for a change, and very refreshing to see Fran Drescher wasn't obnoxious. The plot of the scenario was pretty weak, mostly focusing around Drama's latest collapse, but had its bright moments. The biggest thing I disliked about it all was that Turtle was hardly even there. So far this season, he's only been the smart ass dropping one liners occasionally, but really hasn't been as funny or used as well as he has been in the past. Eric was practically worthless in this episode. It seems all they really have him doing this season is calling Ari to report on what's going on. They need to find a place for these two characters, otherwise it's going to get very boring very fast.

It seems fitting that on the same night Jeremy Piven won Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, this episode, in which he literally was kicking ass and taking names, should air. The adventures of Ari are always the best when they show is human side as well as his agent side, and I'd say that this episode definitely had that. While the prank war was not really a unique idea (see: How I Met Your Mother), the way they set it all up was. When the cops ripped off their shirts, I about died laughing. The culmination of it all, in which Ari defends the honor of his wife and comes home and acts like a truly caring dad was one of the moments in which Ari doesn't come off as a really human and oddly touching moment that shows that as loud and crude as Ari Gold is, he's a family man at heart.

Overall, I'd say this episode was very reminiscent of the first couple of seasons, in which the rich Hollywood game was played with a touch of silliness thrown in. Between T.I.'s desire to do a movie with Meryl Streep and the super rich family that is throwing a party for their slutty 16 year old, this was like Entourage of old. We'll see if they can keep this up next week.

Grade: B+

Entourage - "Unlike a Virgin"

Last night's Entourage was the episode that should have happened a long time ago. Ever since the first episode, Vince has been portrayed as an unstoppable movie god that could do no wrong, even when he did. In "Unlike a Virgin" however, he finally got the comeuppance he deserved after dropping out of the "Aquaman" sequel.

The crux of this episode was easily the question of Vince's career. Last week we saw him struggle with returning to Hollywood and this week we got to finally see him struggle with his own failures. Ever since we saw the brief clips from "Queen's Boulevard," I've always thought of Vince as a particularly poor actor that, somehow, survives every bad decision that he and Eric make. Sure, there needs to be drama and everything can't go well, but the fact that Vince has been untouchable has always bothered me. Finally, we saw Ari tell him the truth: he needs to stop screwing over Hollywood if he wants to make more films. It was refreshing to finally get something realistic in this show, which in the last season and a half has shifted from being about playing the Hollywood game and more about living the life of a movie star.

The secondary plots of the episode were actually pretty good. When we found out Drama had kept his girlfriend in last week's premiere, I knew it was only a matter of time before his quirks would get in the way and somehow sabotage it. The way it played out was classic Drama, but that doesn't seem to get old to me. Turtle also provided some of the funniest bits of the episode with his attempts to score with the girl at the video wrap party. The only thing I actually didn't like about the episode was Eric's attempt to get the hillbillies to be his clients. This plot line so far has been done only halfway, so if the writers want it to be intregal, they need to step it up. Otherwise, good episode.

Grade: A-

P.S. Since we're poor college students, shows on premium cable channels for the most part won't get reviewed until the night after it airs, but all network and basic cable shows should be up that night.

Entourage - "Fantasy Island"

When we last saw the guys, Vince and E had just gotten their teeth kicked in at Cannes, Drama was consummating his relationship with a French woman on the beach, and Ari and Turtle were...well, no different than they had been. So when we picked back up with the boys on Sunday night, it was great to see that Vince was taking it hard, E was ignoring it as best he could, Drama was iChatting with his French girl, and Ari and Turtle haven't changed a bit. That, essentially, is all that really came out in this episode. The now identical combination of Ari and E were pressed with the task of bringing Vince back from his girl-filled paradise in Mexico to meet with a director about a film, since apparently Vince gets as many chances as he wants. Turns out though, it's all an elaborate plot to make sure that Speed Racer got the role instead. Overall, I'd say this episode was actually rather dull. All we really got out of it was the Ari, E, and Vince were hit hard by their flop, but they're ready to turn around. Since I obviously don't know what's going to continue to happen, this is only a guess, but I think this episode was functioning as a transition from the flop of "Medellian" to the rebound that Vince will undoubtedly have this season. But alas, time will tell. For now, it's just good to have the boys back.
Grade: B