HBO announces imminent end of Entourage, solutions to all outstanding Turtle-related mysteries

HBO's Television Critics Association press tour session occurred over the weekend while we were out, and while the sessions included plenty of information about Boardwalk Empire and A Game of Thrones and In Treatment, which you can read about elsewhere, the one piece of actual, salient news was the fact that next summer's season will be the final one for long-running series Entourage, which has been on the air for eight whole seasons now, which we'll bet you didn't even realize, did you?

HBO picked up the show for that last season to tie up the loose ends of the storyline, which means the show will have a lessened episode order. The more important question here is, "What loose ends?" Unless it turns out that Vincent Chase died in the car crash he was in in the seventh season premiere and all of this is his hallucination upon death, the show doesn't have a lot of dangling plot threads hanging out there. Hell, one of this season's episodes was based on what happened when Vince got a haircut. It's just been one, long, happy ascent for Vince and his pals, and it can only be assumed that the series finale will conclude with the "bros" standing, looking out over the Hollywood hills and clinking champagne glasses triumphantly as rock blares on the soundtrack.

After that, HBO continues to threaten to make an Entourage movie, but since it's Monday, we'll feign optimism and assume a just and loving God would never allow such a thing to exist. As to whether the final season of Entourage will irritate fans by unveiling a lengthy examination of American ennui, having the protagonist turn state's evidence against everyone else he's worked with all this time, or unveiling a tricky and controversial "flash-sideways" structure, well, we're just going to assume it will irritate fans by continuing to be Entourage.