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Entourage Season 7

Discussion in 'TV Shows' started by Crown Royal, Jun 10, 2010.

  1. Superfantastic

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    I agree with the Eric thing, although watching all 4 foot 6 of him storm around the office was pretty funny.

    I still don't really get the Ari thing, and while the psychiatrist scene was good, I really don't get Mrs. Ari's problem -- at least not to the degree of wanting two sessions per week. Have we ever got the impression that he at one point wasn't an insulting asshole to inferiors/people in his way? What has she been missing? I can totally see how it fucks up the NFL team, but why is she so shocked? Hasn't he said incredibly insulting things on the phone to people with her right beside him? Even about their kids' school officials?

    And has he ever done anything actually racist? I know he's said lots of racist/misogynistic/homophobic things, but has he ever fired anyone because of anything aside from their actions?

    Aside from Sloan and Turtle's girl at the beginning, Mrs. Gold in her underwear, and Sasha's titties, I thought this was the weakest of the season, so far.
     
  2. El Tee

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    I know everyone is thrilled that the little guy finally worked up about something but all I saw was a whole lot of FAIL.

    As I see it, the biggest impact the Ari storyline is having is that Ari is too caught up in his personal shit to provide the kind of top cover Vince needs to keep from ruining his own career and is exposing Eric Murphy for the impotent sack he really is. Ari's promise to be a kindler, gentler agent lasted nearly a full minute until Dana Gordon's phone call, but at least he had the balls to stick up for his client. Eric, on the other hand, couldn't roll over fast enough. Everyone involved in that mess is piling on the wee fellow: Vince is treating him like hired help, Dana Gordon doesn't take him seriously, Scott Lavin thinks he's a joke...shit, even his secretary just about rolled her eyes anytime he tried to bark orders.

    Of course, all of that would be bad enough if not for the fact that his most desperate client won't even respect him. That would be Johnny Bananas himself, who along with Producer Phil must really be asking themselves if Eric could be any more useless.

    Only Turtle seems to think Eric has any juice, hitting him up for money in a plausible but still half-baked plan. But just as he seems to always fall ass backwards into hot pussy, Turtle also stumbled across the only multi-billionaire on Earth willing to fork over five million bucks to a guy whose business attire includes New Era ballcaps. Of course, that money is probably only coming out of his NBA fine jar, so I'm sure he won't miss it.

    And speaking of Mark Cuban...how fucking hard is it play yourself on television? Seriously dude, calm the fuck down and read your lines slowly. On a show that's featured plenty of awkward celebrity cameos, it's pretty telling that your appearance seemed more forced than the likes of Tom Brady or Hefty Mickelson. For christsakes, you're getting out acted by a porn star. Terrible. Simply terrible.

    And my DVR cut out during the credits so I don't know what's supposed to happen next week. Hopefully Eric gets fired and left at the altar, but I'm not holding my breath.
     
  3. Kubla Kahn

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    If this is truly the only reason for Ari's story line, it sucks. Im in the same boat as Superfantasic, it doesn't make much sense having this as the big shaming of Ari Gold. He has spent years degrading and humiliating people from all walks of life, business and family related. Now it is a tabloid story? Now Mrs. Gold is concerned about it? She's had to put up with his public personality for years, this doesn't seem any worse or out of the ordinary to be making such a big deal out of it. Plus it sunk a potentially cool storyline involving Ari owning a fucking football franchise in LA. Super weak.
     
  4. Mike Ness

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    Ari at one point said "you knew the man you married" but that wouldn't stop her from being embarrassed about all the racist and horrible remarks that were made public. Again Ari even said "so this is about everyone else" at which point she says that all the issues have been building up for a while. I agree with the post but when you guys say that she shouldn't be embarrassed or upset, I mean c'mon racist comments go over like a load of bricks regardless if they had been acted on or not.

    Superfantastic nailed the point of this Ari storyline, and that is him being unavailable to protect Vince. If he were around I'm sure he would shake some sense into him.
     
  5. Superfantastic

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    Fair enough, but if all she's upset about is the comments becoming public (which is still weird to me because wouldn't everyone in that town who knows about Ari Gold, know that Ari Gold's an abrassive asshole?), why the therapy visits? She married a ruthless businessman who speaks off the cuff, and always has. Now she's embarrassed that everyone knows that? That's weak, and makes me sad because the story line for my second favourite character next to Sloan is starting to annoy me more than Eric.

    I think you meant El Tee, but I agree that I make excellent points.
     
  6. El Tee

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    I'd love to be a fly on the wall of the writer's room to learn why they do certain things they do. First, to my own point, I'm curious if they planned on this extended Ari drama in order to make Vince's downward spiral more believable. Secondly, I wonder why they're keeping Shauna away from this storyline too. She was all over the place during the Mandy Moore saga and if there is anyone that would be losing her shit over Turtle's TMZ sellout it would be her. (Not surprisingly, Vince's "manager" Pizza Boy barely registered a complaint.)

    I'm also curious if the writers and directors put Eric in situations of contrived conflict just to highlight Kevin Connolly's complete lack of a commanding presence.
     
  7. Mike Ness

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    Why the therapy? Simple because she is using this to get what she wants. She wants more therapy because there is another women in the room who constantly sides with her, (it can't be easy to win arguments with Ari Gold) it's another tool to gain power in the relationship.

    Super my friend I'm guessing you are not married, if you make a mistake they will use it forever. If you make a mistake that get's in the newspaper you are going to pay my friend.

    I think the thing we would really need to see is the full article and it's contents. Clearly we know Ari is an abrasive, razor tongued asshole that cuts people down all day. (Not one mention of getting " Your cunt removed to help with your cuntiness?) However if that article is full of rants against Asians and Blacks (clearly it has derogatory remarks about women and gays) it would be a huge scandal.
     
  8. El Tee

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    This also wouldn't be the first storyline that "Entourage" has handled badly. The whole Dom thing never got off on the right foot either, and most of Billy Walsh 1.0 was a mess too.

    I agree, if this were "real" Hollywood no one would be surprised and few would even care that superagent Ari Gold is an abrasive asshole because...he makes people money. Lots and lots of money. He makes the kind of money for people that makes it more worthwhile to get pelted with paintballs than to cross him and get blackballed from the talent management industry.
     
  9. El Tee

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    Holy shit, this episode was an explosion of suck but might go down as my most favorite episode ever.

    First up on the suck list is Sasha Grey's dead-behind-the-eyes acting. Damn, it's getting old. The writers must have been dreading this storyline resolution because it had to involve giving her more lines of dialogue than usually appear in an entire
    Vivid film.

    Secondly, the only thing more atrocious than Mark Cuban's inability to read lines is Carlos' dickish attitude. For a guy that came begging to Turtle of all people to get Vince's endorsement for Avion, he sure doesn't deal with help very well. Mark Cuban was getting ready to spend some serious Erick Dampier kind of cash on his company, and he basically pulled a Joey Crawford and ejected Cuban from the game. I wish someone would eject this storyline along with it.

    Lastly, as mildly amusing as the Godfather-inspired BlackBerry plot was it doesn't make up for the whole frantic Amanda Daniels/NFL storyline. If the whole point of putting Ari through the ringer was to set up a possible Ari/Mrs. Ari breakup they sure took the most painful route to get there.

    However, there was one huge silver lining: Eric Murphy's career is reaching whole new lows. Even better than Vince taking meetings without him and Peter Berg promising to kick his ass was the fact that his secretary is now better at his job than he is.

    Best. Episode. Ever.
     
  10. JWags

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    She also went from "typical Entourage eye candy" to "painful erections at the mere mention of her scenes when discussing this show" during this episode. Something about her is just incredible. I was incredibly pissed when Kate Mara didn't come back, but as of tonite, I have completely gotten over it, I mean, damn. Please don't have her become a Drama love interest.
     
  11. Celos

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    The meeting was pretty painful to watch. It would be hard to come off as more of a douchebag than he did.
    Also, not only is he useless at his job, he actually asked his secretary how to do it.

    It seems Sasha Grey is making everyone around her act worse as well. Not that Grenier is in any way a good actor, but the scene with him declaring his love was even more dreadful than usual.
     
  12. Mike Ness

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    When she bit her top lip and looked at Drama I got hard. When Sasha tried to really act I got sick, she is just pathetic.
     
  13. The Village Idiot

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    I have been a huge fan of Entourage since the premier of the pilot. A couple of thoughts in general.

    I don't get all the "E" hate. The show is about E, not Vince. It always has been. It's like watching M*A*S*H and hating Hawkeye. If you get your jollies off hating main characters, more power to you, it just baffles me that people watch the show and hate E, and yet continue watching.

    The whole 'it gets weaker every season' sentiment is flat out misguided. Last season was one of the best seasons of the show. The third season, with the Mandy Moore storyline was a low point.

    Until this season.

    This season has been a complete shitshow, and here's why.

    Other than Drama, the writers have completely forgotten who the characters are. I'll address each in turn.

    Vince: this is the most obvious departure. Vinnie Chase, who has had major ups and downs in his career since the first season suddenly has a serious girlfriend (and yes, he did with Mandy Moore, but as much as I disliked that season, there was a plausible character driven explanation for why he liked her when he never is serious about any other girl), and a drug problem (which people always develop in their thirties after being under the pressures of fame for ten years) and he's not serious about his work (say what you want about his middle of the road acting, Vinnie always wants to work). None of the foregoing is true to the character.

    E: say what you will, but the E arc from day one is a guy trying to help a friend and learn a business. For the naysayers, E is the one whom has found all of Vince's movies, and the one he didn't like, Medellin, was a complete bust. E's instincts are the only ones that have been dead on the whole time. Now, he's ineffective and can't sell Drama on a fucking show? Seriously? This is the height of bad writing and selling out a character.

    Turtle: the limo ho's thing was perfect. He got some money, ran a business into the ground. Perfect. Now all of a sudden he's too successful with the Avion thing? Yeah, again, the writers sold this character out, and splitting up him and Drama was the worst possible move for Turtle's character.

    Ari: I can't imagine why the writers took such glee in destroying this character. They've done such a great deconstruction, they might as well go back to all the previous episodes and remove Ari entirely.

    This season has ruined the show. Probably irrevocably, and after last season (one of the top two in my opinion) I had such high hopes. I'll watch the season finale, because I'm in this far, but then I'm out.
     
  14. Mike Ness

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    Does anyone have a list of the films Vince has been in? The one ZI found had smokejumpers and I wanna be sedated in it, neither of which were made correct?

    Off memory I would say:

    - Head On
    -Queens Blvd
    -Aqua Man
    -Medellin
    -Gatsby

    What is the new one he was in? I always thought of him as a Collin Farrell but he hasn't been in enough films for that comparison.
     
  15. TexasTornado

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    Here are things that are so bad in the show that I keep tuning in just to see how much worse it will get:
    !. Treating Sasha Grey as some renaissance woman just because she took her stage name from Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Grey and she starred in a Steven Soderburgh film. Despite the fact she has taken it in the ass by some umpteen billion people on film, but how precocious of her! .
    2. I was hoping this whole Avion thing was some sort of scam artist deal to bilk Vinny or Mark Cuban out of $5 mil. Doesn't look like it is going to swing that way now, but it would have made the most sense.
    3. The whole Amanda Daniels/Ari Gold/NFL/Vinny Chase/Sasha Grey dinner is too coincidental. but now we are supposed to believe that Amanda had no ill will towards Ari and the whole leaked tapes was her assistant's idea causing Ari to cut off his face to spite his nose
    4. E
    Puh-lease!
     
  16. Mike Ness

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    I honestly do not know where this is coming from. First the hate on E, seriously? His character can be absolutely painful to watch at times, not to mention the rapid decline of a cool guy with a Napoleon complex to a whining manager. To say last year was the excellent season shocks me. However if you really are absorbed with E's character then you probably loved it because is basically dealt with him deciding to marry Sloan or keep living as a bachelor. I almost fell asleep writing that.

    This season has been a great ride because the writers finally abandoned that stupid Entourage formula. You know the one with Turtle and Drama going on a zany adventure, E and Ari trying to find Vince work, and Vince nailing random broads. I really enjoy all the stories this season (I'm a little meh with Turtle but it's not bad) they also don't have any one character overwhelming the story. This always hurt because Grenier and Dillon were such poor actors, they would supplement this by giving every scene to Piven, resulting in Emmys but also having the entire show depend on him.

    Now they are giving us some real meaty dark stuff despite Sasha's poor acting, it is gripping. I agree that if the only result for the Gold's is a divorce than they took way too long to tell that tale, however if it is another battle between Daniels and Ari it could prove interesting.

    Two seasons ago (or maybe three) we were suffering watching Drama deal with a long distance relationship, Turtle tracking down sneakers and E complaining. The show has come a long way.
     
  17. jets22

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    I can't remember if they actually finished Smoke Jumpers or not, but I think his latest one was Ferarri.
     
  18. john_b

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    I don't know that they ever mentioned the name, but the one where he did his own stunt with Nick Cassavetes was his latest.
     
  19. El Tee

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    If you want to pinpoint a larger theme in this season's plot, you could argue that Vince's downward spiral is directly related to the disintegration of his entourage. Every one of the characters that used to surround and support him is now dealing with their own issues. Personal chef and biggest fan Drama is now wallowing in uncharacteristic self-pity; driver and weed hookup Turtle is off chasing entreprenurial opportunities; script reader and middleman Eric is engaged and living farther away than the guest house; and super agent Ari is dealing with a host of professional and personal issues that have kept him from devoting the kind of attention to his favorite client that he's been able to in the past. The compound effect of all of these developments is that Vince is struggling to handle his own affairs for the first time that we've seen in the show.

    In that sense, watching him act "out of character" is sort of understandable. Eric used to be able to talk some sense into Vince before their relationship became a contractual one; it's a lot different hearing your best friend tell you you're making mistakes than to hear it coming from hired help. I think this element has been touched on rather well, evidenced by the fact that Scott Lavin has slid into a vacant "buddy" role that Vince desperately needs filled.

    The relationship with Sasha probably looked good on paper, and if "Entourage" wanted to keep its quasi-non-fictional meme going on than it's unlikely they could have found another porn star to fit the bill of a girl straddling the line between legitimate work and adult films. However, if you've seen The Girlfriend Experience then her acting "skills" should come as no surprise. She was passable in that movie because of the film's style and subject; but she was no less dead-behind-the-eyes in it. Still, it's hard to take an otherwise interesting storyline seriously when the love interest has trouble opening her eyes or finding inflection in her voice.

    And after Lloyd found the pound of cocaine in the refrigerator last night, I think it's very likely this season is going to take a predictable celebrity turn. Say it with me: Rehab.

    I think you're right in a lot of respects, and the problem is is that Eric is no longer a guy looking out for a best friend that happens to be a movie star. Part of what made the show's whole premise interesting in the first place was the underlying theme of an established Hollywood power broker (Ari Gold) having to deal with a highly coveted star's unqualified "manager" and a couple of hangers-on that had to be kept happy as well. This was laid out beautifully in the pilot episode's scene at Koi and was regularly reinforced over the years by Ari in various dressing downs. But at some point, the writers decided to give Eric Murphy a watered-down Joey Potter Treatment* and would have us believe that Pizza Boy had a bona fide future in Hollywood doing something other than making sure Vince woke up on time.

    And while I have no problem with people calling me an E hater (I consider it an honor), here's what I do find interesting: the writers must agree with me, because the show has consistently highlighted his failures. His first foray into "managing" anyone other than Vince (Anna Faris) was a disaster and exposed him as a professional fraud. The Murphy Group was a laughable endeavor that resulted in Charlie Bow Wow's career ending before it started. He executive produced a film that made $1. The list goes on and on...

    To his credit, though, Eric does have two things going for him: he's marrying the daughter/goddaughter of two Hollywood heavyweights and he did have the good sense to be born in the house next door to Vince. I have no doubt that will keep him gainfully employed for some time, and I'm betting at least Bob Saget will keep him on payroll just so he's got someone to antagonize.

    The Avion storyline's problems actually have almost nothng to do with Turtle. In fact, he's basically been back to his classic tricks by leveraging Vince's celebrity for personal gain and making all sorts of promises he can't keep. On the other hand, Dania Ramirez has done nothing to convince me that her embarassing run on "Heroes" was some kind of fluke. And while ordinarily I would have a hard time believing that Turtle could lock up five million dollars in capital, the fact that they made Mark Cuban the moneyman in this story makes a lot of sense since that dude has no problem throwing money at bad ideas (see: Antoine Rigaudeau). But I think you're exactly right about breaking up the Turtle/Drama team. Either character can carry a storyline by themselves only so far; both are better suited for one-shot arcs rather than these multi-episode drags. (A perfect example is Drama's ComicCon episode.)


    I have to believe they were taking the very, very long route to get to a possible Gold divorce. I think the bigger mistake was making Ari into the planet's biggest agent, since it (ironically) reduced his role as Vince's power broker. What's even more baffling is how Amanda Daniels has been used as this sort of mortal enemy for Ari since she initially came on board as a "rebound" agent after Ari was fired and it's not like she was all that professional or proficient to begin with: aside from fucking her client, she didn't really do much for Vince's career. I can understand the urge to recycle introduced characters, but let's be honest: Ari's rivalry with Adam Davies was far better.




    *The Joey Potter Treatment refers to a decision by a show's writers/producers to convince the audience that a character has certain qualities by constantly having other characters tell us about them rather than actually show them through the character's actions. Dawson and Pacey were constantly losing their shit and telling Joey how perfect and awesome she was despite the fact that we the viewers never saw any evidence of this, and in fact most of the time all we saw her ever doing was acting like a petulant little cunt. Likewise, "Entourage" has given us plenty of people willing to accept that Eric has some kind of knack for finding good projects despite the fact that any success those projects have are usually in spite of his efforts.
     
  20. rockmanj

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    Was that the 1st Kevin Connolly helmed entourage episode?