That was quick! And we were all wrong, if I remember the comments from last week correctly. (I'm not going back to look, dammit.) I thought that Vince would be repeatedly marginalized by Werner and that his part would end up on the cutting-room floor (which would've been sorta funny to watch). I think one of you fine folks speculated that Vince would quit. But no! Tonight's episode was entertaining because we were all wrong.
(But first, a commercial for the new Flight Of The Conchords season–that was pretty funny!)
Anyway, you hear about it all the time, or at least when you're paying attention to shit like this: "Production was halted." It's the nightmare scenario for studios that have dumped shit-tons of money into productions that aren't working for whatever reason. (James Gandolfini wanting more money on The Sopranos a while back, a crew member on Rock Of Love accidentally killing two people in a car accident a couple of months ago–it's never a good thing.) This time, we actually got a pretty good story, and one that seems totally plausible: We knew Werner hated Vince from the get-go, and it was safe to speculate (which I believe I did, a couple of weeks back) that the director didn't want pretty boy Vince in his movie.
The question then is this: Would a "professional" director really go this far? He can't expect to be hired much if he's causing this amount of trouble on a $100 million movie. But I guess we found out pretty quickly that Werner is actually pretty insane. After Ari shows up on the set–post Vince's firing–and promises to cause a shitstorm, I thought things were going to turn around. But when they take it all the way to John Ellis (with a little detour in Dana's office, where she grows some studio-sized balls), Werner flips out and Ellis shuts it all down. Vince is back where he was a few weeks ago, and Dana Gordon gets to deliver the best line of the show–and it's not even hers: "This is why I hire women to blow me, not run my studio."
What's next? I'm more interested in the retribution from Ribisi and Haas when they find out their movie isn't being made. Sure, they'll still get a fat chunk of money, but those gun-toting rednecks might just show up and kill E's cat or something. (Sorry, I watched Gummo this afternoon.)
Meanwhile: Turtle. I was half-hoping that he would wake up in the trailer on the movie set, having dreamt the entire passionate affair with Meadow Soprano. (A dream sequence would also explain her fairly horrible acting, wouldn't it?) But no, it looks like Turtle learned his lesson and now he gets the girl–he just can't go around talking about their private handjob moments to his "boys." Seriously, though, is she this series' manic pixie dream girl? She wants to fuck all the time, she's concerned about Turtle's feelings, and she's understanding when it's time for him to break away from their weekend in La Jolla to be with his friends. (C'mon, Turtle would've found an excuse.)
But that's the long and the short of the episode, which I actually found to be one of the season's better ones: Ari was going full-bore, which can be entertaining, Drama had no lines to speak of, and Vince was actually part of the movie-making biz instead of just "Hollywood." Sure, the Turtle/Meadow thing will get annoying eventually, but shit, we got to learn his real name! (It's Sal.)
Grade:B
Stray observations:
— Ari running around to "Guerrilla Radio" was pretty boss.
— "My therapist says I'm attracted to losers."
— "The Jew has arrived, and he doesn't like Germans."
— Little dig at Kevin Smith: "Are you looking at the DGA list or you staring out the window at the line in front of the Sprinkles fucking cupcake store?"