Why hello there. Josh is out of town tonight, so I'll be covering his TV Club duties for the evening, as I am apparently the only other person around the office who still watches Entourage. And you know what? The way this season's been going, I'm glad I've stuck it out. While a lot of the show's comedic premise has gotten pretty tired–Ari is angry, Drama is dumb, Turtle is high–plot-wise, I think the show is more interesting than it's been since the days of Aquaman.
Vince's struggles to land another role continue this week (though he and Eric are left mostly out of the dealings), with Ari heading out to the golf course to try to win his client the second lead in Smokejumpers by hustling studio head and supposed hopeless putter Alan Grey. Of course, nothing's gone right for Ari lately when it comes to Vince–to this season's benefit–and his plan goes quickly awry when doddering, vindictive producer Bob (Martin Landau) and Alan's golf pro (Phil Mickelson, who is apparently someone golf fans care about) team up to help him give Ari a solid spanking on the green. At first, this whole plotline seemed like an excuse to have Ari eat more shit and for the writers to spin out the Smokejumpers conflict a little longer. (Doe anyone really think Vince isn't going to eventually land that part? Hell, I'll be surprised if he doesn't somehow finagle the lead.) But we got a big dose of forward momentum at the end, courtesy of the Entourage deus ex machina, who saw fit to strike Alan down in the middle of his victory bitching out of Ari. While this development is indeed a little too convenient, it's also nicely double-edged. Sure, there's an ugly silver lining in Alan's death–as only Drama is willing to point out–but it's hard to celebrate a victory when there's a corpse bringing everybody down. Ari especially seems shaken, probably because Alan's vindictive, angry existence so closely mirrors his own. Life is short, particularly when you're a rage-filled ball of stress. So, even though it's looking like things are finally on the uptick for Vince and Co., the way it all went down is a little messy.
Though I guess Ari's adventure was technically the B story tonight, it felt like the episode's main thread, probably because Vince and E's plot felt so unnecessary. Entourage seems committed to foisting the guys' oafish childhood buddy Dom on its viewers, no matter how much we dislike him. It doesn't look like we'll be seeing too much more of him though, as he's now apparently off to prison for 30 years after panicking and running from the cops trying to pull him over for speeding. (His mother-in-law's medicinal marijuana was in the glovebox and he had priors.) The whole Dom story really just served to highlight, once again, the difference between Eric's cerebral skepticism and Vince's blind, inherent trust in people/projects that don't deserve it. While it was amusing enough to watch Eric shadow Dom after putting up his own money for bail–since Vince can't afford it–the whole "if you can't trust your friends who can you trust" thing is getting a little old.
As usual, Turtle and Drama get the leftovers, in a sitcom-y C-story that had Turtle working as Drama's assistant for a day. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of these characters could see how that was going to play out–there's no way Turtle could put up with Drama's bullshit without the usual buffer of Vince. Unsurprisingly, Drama is a pain in the ass to work for, and Turtle quits after handily completing every asinine task handed to him. Good on Turtle for showing a little work ethic under all that smarm, but he should have taken his fellow assistant's advice more literally and actually drugged Drama instead of trying to placate him with pussy. It probably would have been more amusing, and make more sense: Sexual harassment complaints or no, does anyone think Drama would turn down some consensual ass from a hot extra? Unless, of course, he's still broken up over Jacqueline. (Please God, no more of that.) Thankfully, it seems Turtle won't be unemployed much longer, as Smokejumpers has almost certainly become a reality for Vince with Alan out of the way. And that's probably a good thing: Although it's been refreshing to see the guys flounder for a bit in the wake of Medellin, it's about time to get back to the movie-star shenanigans.
Grade: B-
Stray observations:
— Ugh, the title of tonight's episode is so, so horrible. It fills me with more rage than Ari and Alan have combined.
— Apparently Eric's client Charlie (Bow Wow, nee Lil') is doing well, despite the fact that Eric seems to be a horrible manager, busting out mid-meeting to chase after Dom. In his absence, Charlie managed to land himself a pilot AND get Vince a job to boot. Maybe Eric should be paying him.
— Alan just brought up Bob's Ramones script again to fuck with Ari, right? That's not going to become a thing again, right?
— Hey look, Ari found the tightest golf shirt in the pro shop.
— In a weird little coincidence, not 20 minutes before this episode aired, I was re-watching the series finale of The Wire, only to come across both Herc and Spiros tonight in Entourage land. HBO, keepin' it in the family.