A review
of Entourage Season #5 by Brian Lowry
for Variety.com on Sept. 3, 2008. (Caution: spoilers ahead)
The
opening episodes of Entourage’s new
season highlight how far the show has come: Having stumbled around through year
one, the series gradually began grasping the power of story arcs, following its
fictional star, Vincent Chase, as he climbed a fairy-tale staircase of (mostly)
ups through the movie business. Yet the current year — given Vince’s maddening
nonchalance in the past — promises to be more intriguing, as he seeks to redeem
himself after a disastrous foray into indie film. Although characteristically
frothy, this could be the story line that those sporadically frustrated by the
show have waited for.
To briefly
recap, Vince (Adrian Grenier) and
bosom pal Eric (Kevin Connolly)
gambled everything on Vince producing and starring in Medellin, the blood-soaked story of a drug kingpin. The screening
at Cannes, however, flopped, threatening not just Vince’s career but the show’s
most durable attribute, their lifelong friendship.
The new
campaign thus finds Vince licking his wounds — attended by the obligatory set
of hot girls — on a Mexican beach (actually Hawaii), while both Eric and
Vince’s agent Ari (Jeremy Piven, in
what continues to be the role of a lifetime) plot his rebirth.
What makes
the year take off, though (and consider this a small spoiler), is that Vince’s
setback has finally jolted him out of his carefree attitude. Spurred by Eric,
Ari and his own humiliation, he’s finally chosen to become an active
participant in his career. In the premiere penned by showrunner Doug Ellin, he’s awakened as if out of
a slumber, and pressed by Ari to embrace stardom, which the agent clearly
distinguishes from acting.
Of course,
what endears Entourage most to its
insider constituencies on the coasts relies on its knowing references to
Hollywood, and there’s again plenty of that on display. Highlights (and
occasional lowlights) include a producer’s description of agents (They’re all pricks), the insane quirks
of Vince’s exposed-nerve actor-brother Johnny Drama Chase (Kevin Dillon),
and cameos by the likes of Fox’s Tom
Rothman, who proves more adept at playing himself than is NBC
Entertainment’s Ben Silverman or
series producer Mark Wahlberg.
There’s an
unintended wrinkle, meanwhile, to an appearance by critic Richard Roeper, whose pan of Vince’s movie prompts Ari to proclaim,
No one mention Richard Roeper again!
Given that Roeper has split from his syndicated TV film-reviewing gig since the
episode was shot, that line might hit a bit too close to home.
Entourage’s inordinate popularity around
Hollywood yields obvious dividends to HBO — attracting stars and execs eager to
demonstrate what good sports they are by playing warped versions of themselves.
The show’s
polished exterior, however, has seldom scratched the surface hard enough to
find anything deeper underneath. Vince’s career odyssey back from Medellin could provide just that — the
season-long hook to make a show already on Hollywood’s A-list match that with
an actual A-game. [Lowry rates Entourage
Season #5 as *** ½ out of 5 stars = 70%]
Labels: comedy,
drama, filmmaking, rom-com-faves, romance
[IMDb
viewers rated this series 85/100 based on nearly 167,000 votes]
Overall weight from all critics & viewers for 96 episodes = 67.4/100
Overall weight from all critics & viewers for 96 episodes = 67.4/100
Season #1,
2004; 8 episodes: 76.8 score, 6.40 wtd)
IMDb 79/100
IMDb 79/100
Season #2,
2005; 14 episodes: (84.8 score, 12.37 wtd)
IMDb 84/100
IMDb 84/100
Season #3,
2006; 20 episodes: (82.6 score, 17.21 wtd)
IMDb 84/100
IMDb 84/100
Season #4,
2007; 12 episodes: (79.3 score, 9.91 wtd)
IMDb 83/100
IMDb 83/100
Season #5,
2008; 12 episodes: (81.2 score, 10.20 wtd)
IMDb 84/100
IMDb 84/100
Season #6,
2009; 12 episodes: (73.5 score, 9.19 wtd)
IMDb 81/100
IMDb 81/100
Season #7,
2010; 10 episodes: (66.2 score, 6.90 wtd)
IMDb 79/100
IMDb 79/100
Season #8,
2011; 8 episodes: (62.6 score, 5.22 wtd)
IMDb 80/100
IMDb 80/100
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