Entourage: Why Does It Suddenly Suck?
Like many others, I enjoyed the first few seasons of HBO’s Entourage, the half-hour comedy based loosely on the life of Mark Wahlberg and his buddies living out the American dream. It was a refreshing alternative to all of the heavy one hour dramas that HBO was putting out; one part male fantasy fulfillment, one part Hollywood satire, and another part feelgood fluff about friendship and camaraderie. Unfortunately, as many of HBO’s flagship shows came to a close, they desperately needed something to replace them, and with the unexpected success of Entourage it seemed wise to simply kick it into overdrive. HBO doubled the size of Season 3, and in doing so, helped hasten the show’s decline.
I heard a lot of people complaining about the second half of Season 3, and I was willing to admit that they had hit a rough patch, but I thought it was just because the episodes had been produced too quickly. I thought the show would return to form with the start of Season 4. It turns out I was wrong. The show hit a new low with last week’s episode about the “best rim job in town”, and although there are still some good laughs to be had, Entourage could be in serious trouble. Did they just push the show too far and give us too much of a good thing, or are there other reasons why Vinnie and the boys are floundering? Can Entourage be saved? Here are 5 of the biggest problems with the series as I see them:
1. Too much Billy
In the first season, Billy Walsh was the brilliant filmmaker that directed Head On, the critically acclaimed film that skyrocketed Vincent Chase to stardom. He was an obvious parody of the starving artist, the staunchly independent filmmaker who is perpetually suspicious of the Hollywood system. He kind of annoyed me, but I think that was the point. He was temperamental and added some unpredictability to the proceedings. When they recruited him to direct Medellin in the latter half of Season 3, however, I groaned inwardly. This character has already been played out, couldn’t they have come up with someone new? I don’t hate Billy Walsh, but I think they too much of him has turned me off and killed a lot of the fun factor (not to mention what little element of believability the show once had).
2. Not enough Ari
Well if you saw the mid-season finale of Season 3, you knew this was going to be an issue. Jeremy Piven’s performance as fast-talking money-hungry agent Ari Gold is perhaps the best thing about Entourage, and his interactions with Vinnie and E made for some of the most memorable one-liners on the show (”Let’s hug it out bitch”). Although they’ve managed to keep him in the mix, his relationship with the boys has never been the same, and he hasn’t had as much screen time. More importantly, we’ve seen Ari go through some tough times, and to watch his normally unflappable arrogance quieted by self-doubt is a total downer.
3. Turtle and Drama Have Been Reduced To Cartoon Characters
This is a tough one. I still love Kevin Dillon’s over the top performance as Johnny Drama, and some might argue that he always was a cartoon character, but together he and Turtle have been reduced to constant comic relief partners rather than full-fledged members of the posse. Almost every episode now finds Turtle and Drama striking out on their own with some lame subplot that involves them trying to get laid. What happened to Turtle’s burgeoning career as a hip hop manager? Why don’t we see any more of Drama’s new gig as a TV star? Come on, these guys deserve a little bit of character development from time to time, otherwise we simply won’t care about their bumbling exploits. The dynamics in the group are changing, and we rarely see all four guys having fun together anymore.
4. Too Many Lame Celebrity Cameos
Early on in the series, a few celebs would pop up from time to time. James Cameron, Mandy Moore, and Bob Saget, just to name a few. It added a strange sense of hyper-reality to the fictional world the show was based in, and it also made for some fun moments of self-parody. Whenever someone was name-dropped in the show, we wondered if they would eventually show up in person on screen, and chuckled when they did. But somewhere along the way, Entourage became so popular that now everyone wants to be on it. Lately we’ve had people like Seth Green, Harvey Weinstein and Brett Ratner make appearances, and with all these “cool” people using the show to look even cooler, somehow the joke isn’t all that funny anymore (okay, so I actually liked that Seth Green episode).
5. No Suspense or Conflict
I believe that this is the heart of the problem with Entourage. Ever since the show started, it hasn’t taken itself very seriously, instead reveling in the fact that there are no major conflicts or life-threatening problems that can’t be sorted out within 30 minutes. Unfortunately, as time goes on, there is less and less reason to continue watching the show. Vinnie Chase has already supposedly starred in the biggest blockbuster of all-time… where can they go from here? Win him an Oscar? It’s a tricky balance, because too much drama will ruin the show, but people are slowly growing tired of the fact that everything is easily resolved by the end of each episode. Lately they’ve been hinting that Vince is almost out of money, but still no one seems too concerned. Perhaps the show’s concept has already run its course and they screwed themselves by building it up too quickly. On the other hand, maybe they can still get away with minor conflicts using relationship problems (E and Sloan, E and Vinnie, Ari and the boys) and career speed bumps. Time will tell. As of right now, there’s no denying the fact that the show is in a downward slide, and it may never recover — which is a damn shame. After this season I think they should take time to regroup and go back to doing less episodes per season. Entourage should always be a show that leaves you wanting more… not less.
Comments (20)
I would say that the show isn’t as strong as it used to be, but I don’t think its quite reached ’suck’ status. Last nights episode in particular had an old entourage feel to it. The Ari storyline with M.Night was hilarious.
Posted by James on July 9th, 2007Couldn’t agree with you more Sean, though I think you’ve hit the nail on the head on why this season sucks without even realizing it. “It’s a tricky balance, because too much drama will ruin the show.” That’s what season 4 has been — too much drama! The second half of season three was great. Everything was balanced, everyone had their own little story lines, things wrapped up quickly. Now all of a sudden the show is a total clusterfuck all centering around what’s going on with their film. No Five Towns talk, no Turtle and the body shop girlfriend — none of what was set up at the end of season three with the exception of less-than-entertaining Billy Walsh (who, just to clarify something you mentioned in the post, directed Brooklyn Blvd and not Head On). If you ask me, the show has become too focussed on one topic, they’re treating it too seriously, and the rest of the show and fun moments are all throw away moments that no one cares about (the birthday party, the rimjob, etc..) If they want to fix the show, they need to spread their focus back out.
Oh — and stop it with the Ari and his wife shit. It was fun for about five seconds.
Posted by Jim Squires on July 10th, 2007Ahh yes, Billy Walsh *is* Brooklyn Blvd. Now I remember.
I do kind of agree with James, it’s not a terrible show yet… it’s still somewhat fun to watch. I still laugh at certain things. But I think if I just decided to watch the show for the first time during Season 4 I would have a different impression and probably would never have decided to keep watching.
Posted by Sean on July 10th, 2007Wait… wasn’t it Queens Blvd?
Posted by Sean on July 10th, 2007Yeah, Sunday’s episode was the best of the season so far. I was happy because it had an old Season one and two feel to it. We’ll see what happens from here.
Posted by Bryan on July 10th, 2007ya it was Queen’s Blvd.
Posted by James on July 10th, 2007my bad. can I use the “it was before 7AM” excuse?
Posted by Jim Squires on July 10th, 2007You hit the nail on the head with all your points, although I don’t necessarily agree with Seth Green being a bad cameo. That Vegas episode was probably one of the best eps in the series (besides Day in the Valley).
However I agree fully that the plots have become too single-focused. The past few eps are essentially E and Vince doing one thing and Turtle/Drama doing another random activity. There is zero reason to keep watching.
For me, the problem is two-fold. One, the plots just aren’t interesting. There is no compelling overarching plotline and good stuff ALWAYS happens. Like, they could have made Medellin get rejected from Cannes, which would have caused tension on the relationships and turn Vince into a grouchy star. But they didn’t. As expected, Medellin gets accepted to Cannes and he’ll probably win an Oscar. Boring and expected. And not incredibly realistic.
Secondly, I’m having problems with the production. I’ve realized that all of the eps in season 4 have had very little music in the transition between scenes. No music = each scene opens on a lower key.
The series is not dead, they just need some better writing. They need to make the episodes longer (35-40 min) but make fewer of them. The show should be about life as a star, not just 4 guys. 4 guys being funny can be seen on broadcast.
Posted by Dan on July 19th, 2007I totally agree with every point but the 4th one. Cameos are cool and the one with seth green was the best. And the show is still on the way down with the 6th episode…there is tooo much billy and e fighting…its getting lame…..there needs to be a major shift. and more GIRLS dammit
Posted by G on July 24th, 2007I think the show could actually use a little more Billy Walsh, but spread out over more episodes. At least he’s interesting and creates a little dramatic tension. I think the biggest problem is the disappearance of the main story arc over the last few episodes, which could have been inserted in just about any season at any point, other than a few details about Johnny and Vince getting new places to live. So what about Medellin, which was all we heard about for months? Does it suck or what? Is it going to get good reviews at Cannes or be a money pit that Vince can’t climb out of? I’m not sure why the entire Medellin story line was dropped so quickly after the movie wrapped.
Ari’s interaction with the four was the best part of the previous seasons, but now he’s become a caricature, and the subplots about him and his children, his wife, and his assistant Lloyd (who’s actually pretty good) don’t seem to have any point.
Posted by Big one on August 14th, 2007Really thought the show hit a low in the episode where Billy was running around town with the Medellin Film around his neck and Vince and Eric were chasing him. When he busted out of the production studio on the motorcycle I though it was over.
Posted by Tom on August 17th, 2007I’m going to blame Paris Hilton, since she’s dating Adrian Grenier. She pulled him into the vortex of suck.
Posted by Goon on August 19th, 2007You should get your facts right become you start bashing the show. First off Billy Walsh did not direct Head On but rather Queens Blvd. Also thats not the real Harvy Wienstien on the show, its an actor.
Finally you mentioned that there wasnt enough Ari on the show. Ari was always ment to be a supporting menber, not one of the 4. On top of that Season 4 featured lots of Ari including his own episode.
Posted by Kyle on April 10th, 2008Your a joke bro…Billy Walsh directed Queens Blvd. which people should have cracked on you about already. Also, Drama is the funniest guy on the show, next to Ari, calling him a cartoon character is irresponsible. Last, you don’t know shit about Hollywood, the cameos aren’t big stars, but not everything in Hollywood deals with Brad Pitt and Steven Speilberg. Besides Season 5 is over now and it’s the best so far sooo…your dumb.
Posted by jake on December 2nd, 2008You people have no idea what you are talkng about. I think its really rediculous that you people would even mention a flaw such as “drama and turtle being cartoon characters.” Come on, really thats pathetic! Can you seriously think of any other show on television that tops Entourage. This show has gotten better ever since it has started. If you think the show sucks then you are just being unreal and you dont know how to appreciate a great show!
Posted by Jeff on July 11th, 2009I have to say that I don’t agree with many of the complaints about the show. I think that with the start of season 6 the show is really starting to take off and show some depth for the first time. For example, it is not untill the final episode of season 5 that the audience actually sees some raw emotional anger from Vince as he is fearful for his career. This shows how the characters really are starting to develop. The premier of season 6 shows even more character development than any other episode in the series, ie Turtle has a steady girlfriend, E is moving in to his own place, Vince is finally living alone as well. Not to mention it seems to be the begining of Lloyd’s promomtion. Sure, Drama and turtle can be a little over the top at times, but that is what makes the show so “care-free.” Now the audience will be able to enjoy the same care-free moments that make them laugh along with some real character development wich will provide some real identification with its audience members. I seriously think that this might be the best season yet.
Posted by Alex on July 20th, 2009Interesting to see this post from 2 years ago, and it being 100% correct.
Season 6 is such an embarrassment, it’s like watching One Tree Hill. Changes in costume, direction, writer positions have F*&KED this show. I still watch out of curiosity/a vain hope that it’ll change after investing hours of my life in it previously, but it’s a pale shadow of it’s season 1+2 self now.
Posted by Aaron on August 31st, 2009Meaningless, boring subplots about school and marital affairs and no longer an actual “entourage” to be found anywhere.
Posted by Joe Travolta (no relation) on August 31st, 2009i admit it’s heavily repetitive but i still watch it for the heck of it.
Posted by modesilver on August 31st, 2009Thank the devine powers above! The bleeding has stopped. One more love scheme with Turtle and the Saprano girl would have killed me. Literally sucked the life right out of my body. Here’s a heads-up… not everyone is a leading man. Not every character has to grow leaps and bounds. Since you no longer have a show about an “Entourage” maybe a name change is in order. How about calling it something like “Every other freeking show on TV”… has a familiar ring to it don’t you think??
Posted by Joe Travolta (no relation) on October 29th, 2009Leave a Reply