TV Hiatus Recap

My favorite things from the hiatus

In the return of school, I've been keeping busy with my studies, and thus, it has been difficult to review episodes in recent weeks. The summer TV season has ended, and the fall has just begun. I'll catch up on my reviews of this week, and this will serve as my reviews for all the episodes I missed, that being Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. First, the latter.

Too perfect an ending.

I'm not going to BS here: I was not happy with the ending of Entourage. The final episodes were plagued with an odd listlessness, and resolved storylines that should have ended a long, long time ago. Going into the finale, "The End", I'd hoped there'd be a few surprises in store, but sadly, it was just too rote. It played out exactly as I expected, and that was the most disappointing thing of all. Vince is getting married (to a girl he's known for what, 3 weeks?), and E gets back with Sloan (AGAIN). Ari reconciles with Melissa (she's named now), but we expected that too. The only really good scene was the one where Ari had a revelation while playing the opera music, and the post-credits scene basically promises we'll get a film somewhere. The finale was serviceable, but it feels long overdue, and truthfully, this show should have ended after season 5. Doug Ellin better have an awesome idea for a movie, or Entourage will be doomed to the annals of TV history.

Luckily, Curb Your Enthusiasm's ending was much better, if a little inconclusive. The final stretch of episodes, particularly "Larry vs. Michael J. Fox" were completely gut-busting, and delivered some of the best Curb we've had in years. While season 8 lacked a narrative thread, it made up for it with laugh after laugh, and for once, I really think it should get another season. The fifth, sixth, and seventh season finales all felt more appropriate to end the series than this one, and while it was the best the season had to offer, it doesn't work as the final episode. Let's get a ninth (and final) season, so Curb can go out in hilarious fashion.

And there you have it. I'll have reviews posted for this week in TV in short order, and will have a few other little posts to add too, some Blu-ray stuff, stuff like that. 

My star ratings for the endings of the two shows:

Entourage:

"Motherf*cker" - 2/5 stars

"The Big Bang" - 3/5 stars

"Second to Last" - 3.5/5 stars

"The End" - 2.5/5 stars

Curb Your Enthusiasm:

"Mister Softee" - 4.5/5 stars

"Larry vs. Michael J. Fox" - 5/5 stars