Yo, this is going to be a really brief one. You know why? Because this episode BLEW. Easily the #1 worst episode of this show I’ve ever seen. And so, with a heavy heart, I make the following announcement: Entourage is officially struggling. I’ve already decided to drop Pushing Daisies from my slate of shows, and if Entourage can’t muster a B grade from me or higher in the next 2 weeks, I’m dropping it too.
Who do they think enjoyed last night’s episode? Resentful assistants and women over 40? The A plot, B Plot and C Plot were all absolutely terrible. TERRIBLE. The writers are so maddeningly out of ideas that they had to bring back guest stars from Season 3 to fill the episode! Really?! Let’s break down each, quickly, before I get really angry and throw my laptop against a wall.
C PLOT — The strongest of the 3 plots, this minor storyline followed Ari, studio head Alan Gray, his golf pro (literally) Phil Mickelson, and the always talented Martin Landau as Bob, the old school agent, playing golf. I think there was also some talking. Yeah, that was it. Golf and talking. Oh, and after an anti-climactic bet that we all knew Ari would lose, Alan Gray died of a heart attack. Way to fabricate an out for yourselves, writers! You know how writers, actors, etc. always talk about something feeling organic? Yeah, this was not organic. Not in the least.
B PLOT — Turtle and Drama bitching at each other about nothing for 10 minutes. Drama makes cliche impossible demands, Turtle clichely (made that word up) can’t get them done, then does get them done, then quits his job! You go, Turtle! You show Drama who’s boss! Now you can go back to doing what you usually do during an episode– smoke weed and wear hats!
A PLOT — The worst A Plot in the history of the show. Can anyone think of a main story that was worse than this one? It was already shaping up to be awful when E and Vince’s day hinged on a meeting with Bow Wow, but then we got a useless storyline involving a domesticated Dom and his young family? Did I accidentally change the channel to Lifetime? I’m honestly miffed — I can’t understand how the producers, writers, story editors, network suits, etc. all signed off on this episode. This is so far from Entourage‘s modus operandi that it can’t even be viewed as a laudable try to do something new– this was flat out wrong. They should not have done this to us.
Entourage, you’ve got 2 episodes to make it up to me. The season is already halfway over and so far, absolutely nothing has happened. Seasons that are 50% terrible usually become 100% terrible. Just look at Season 2 of Heroes, Season 3 of Weeds, or Season 3 of Prison Break. Those seasons started off poorly, and no matter how many times I said to myself “It could get better!”, those shows kept firmly to their paths of horribleness. I stopped watching that season of P.B. (great call!), didn’t stop watching Heroes (horrible call!), and didn’t stop watching Weeds (a wash!). So I’m going for the compromise here– improve, or you’re done til next summer, Entourage. It’s time to put a little substance behind that flash.
Grade: F
You stopped watching Pushing Daisies? Why?
Life is too short, Bas! As a new member of the work force, my tv viewing hours are a precious commodity. I’m almost always running late on shows these days, (I already had to drop Californication due to time constraints), and though I’ve never missed an episode, I can’t say that Pushing Daisies really does anything for me. I don’t look forward to each new episode in anticipation, I don’t freak out when I’ve missed an ep, and I don’t think about the show intellectually in between episodes.
Is it worth devoting an hour a week to a show that doesn’t really connect with me in any meaningful way? I’d rather be totally caught up on shows I really love (I’m WAY behind on Prison Break, an episode back on Dexter and Life and Times of Tim, and haven’t yet watched last week’s Life on Mars pilot) than waste time on a show I only appreciate for its originality.
I haven’t thought entourage was that funny of a show in a long time, but it was always at least interesting. Last night was very, very far from either. People will put up with not funny if the “drama” is about the entertainment industry, lavish parties, hot girls, and weed. Not if its about a character no one liked last season.
I’m with you 100% Warsh. I have no idea what they were thinking with this one.
Yo maven,
I think, that even though it looks weird, the heart attack makes things interesting because now who becomes the studio executive? And with a new exec. it could put Vince in Smoke Jumpers and now he is also in Bow Wow’s pilot. Though it wasn’t made clear, the story is progressing, you just got to look deeper into it. Your thoughts??
-piper
kill the entourage updates; this show is beyond repair. pick up sunny! at least give a mid season update, its been so good.
Piper- great to hear from you as always my man. Yes, the plot did advance slightly, ill give you that. But could it have been executed any worse? We sit through 20 minutes of garbage for this slight bump in narrative, and its some clunky contrived death of a studio exec that finally gets the ball rolling? The fact that the writers had to rely on this bogus random plot point to advance this stakes-less story indicates just how dead in the water this season is. Sorry bro, but its just not a good show this year.
Klosk!! Great to have a comment from you! I’m with you all the way man- look for a sunny update this Friday.
This entourage was actually despicable.
1- How are we supposed to believe that Lil Bow Wow is the next Chris Rock when the one joke he cracked during the meeting was not really funny?
2- How short was that pitch? The time it takes to walk to the bathroom and take a piss…so like 2 minutes? Lil Bow Wow sold a network television show in 2 minutes?
3- The “jokes” with the boys have gone from bad to terrible. At one point E says something like, “do you want to fuck Vince turtle?” to which Vince high fives E!!! A high five? Really? For that?
Oh and Johnny Drama has some sexual harassment law suits pending? WTF?
Hopefully shit will go down next week, but I agree with you that this deserved an F.
Ethan! You told me this was going to be a great season, with cool new arcs for Ari and Vince! What happened? For the love of god, what happened?!!
Next episode–Ari gets his. I forgot how long it took! Vince gets his the episode after next…