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

Entourage - "Whiz Kid" Review

IN THE NAME OF SOLIDARITY, DRINK YOUR VINEGAR

It wasn't exactly a shock what the subject matter of this week's Entourage was, due to the shockwave nature of last week's ending. Nevertheless, the execution of this was better than I expected, though a few bits and pieces of "Whiz Kid" are tantalizingly lacking, particularly in regards to Ari. So, most of the episode dealt with the fallout from Carl Ertz's shocking suicide. They actually managed to make the aftermath both dramatic, as Turtle was traumatized from the sight of Carl's brains, and funny, when Scott was overly enthusiastic and undeterred to find out what actual brains looked like, no matter the morbidity of the situation. Vince and Turtle's presence at the scene, due to the cocaine, requires Vince to submit to a drug test, which worries him because he broke his sobriety (weed) to prove to himself that he wasn't an addict. They later confirm that it's still in his system, so Vince turns to none other than longtime ex-addict Billy Walsh for help. Have I mentioned yet how great it has been to have Rhys Coiro back full-time on the show? His presence recalls some of Entourage's greatest days, and combining with Scott Caan (who is now arguably the funniest character), they have somewhat revived the show's laugh factor. Anyway, Walsh's solution to Vince's problem may have been the most hilarious joke ever on the show, if weren't taken so seriously. And that joke was a fake penis, filled with clean urine so Vince would pass, worn over his real one. LOLOLOLOLOLOL. Just had to get that out. One thing this episode did really well is touch on why exactly Vince had been so different from E since leaving rehab, and that was because he felt like E was less his friend or manager, and more like a nag who was holding him back and questioning his every action. So, E didn't tell Vince what to do or not do, until he saw the fake, which made him zoom into overdrive. And at the end, we discover that Vince had used it anyway. This episode seemed to return Entourage to Vince's pre-drug days, and it seems like the second half of the season will focus exclusively on the end. As I said above, my pet peeve was Ari, who kinda just ran in circles, attempting to piss off his wife and losing Dana's trust in the process, made both women furious at him. I speculated last week whether Ari would end up with Dana. This episode made it clear that that WILL NOT happen, so it's looking like Mrs. Ari or bust. And she's nowhere near forgiving him, though I did like her referencing how he always walked out on her in counseling. Still, this episode didn't take any steps toward the end, but we don't quite know what those steps are yet, so only time will tell. A good-not-great episode, about on par with "Out With a Bang". Halfway through this season, only 4 left now.

"Whiz Kid" - 3.5/5 stars

Entourage - "One Last Shot" Review

The two true main characters are both in a rather strange place.

At the end of last season, both Ari and Vince were at rock bottom, separated from their beloved and a serious drug problem involved. Now, three episodes later, they're not quite as bad, but they're still in a dark, depressing, and weird place. The main thing that jumps out at me about this episode is the darkly ironic double meaning of the title. "One Last Shot", indeed, in the form of returning character film producer Carl Ertz. I vaguely remember him and Vince talking about the movie Danger Beach in season 5, until he revealed he was jerking him around just to secure Emile Hirsch from Adam Davies. So, Kim Coates returns as Ertz, and asks Vince for a second chance, only to flip out on him, clearly high off his ass. Ertz serves as a dark foil for what Vince could have been had he continued down the path of drugs, and his ending is frighteningly shocking, tearing down the barrier of how far Entourage will go. In other news, Turtle's tequila business is ending, as it appears Alex and Carlos screwed him in the end. Ah, well, Turtle's a good guy at heart, he'll bounce back. As for Drama and his Bananas, Andrew Dice Clay demands more money, forcing Phil to fire him and replace him with a really bad impersonation of Dice by Jamie Kennedy, serving as a nice satire of Hollywood damage control. E and Scott were basically there to bounce off Drama and Clay this week, but Ari is where the story gets potentially interesting. After a failed date with a young woman, he ends up hooking up with old flame Dana Gordon, making me wonder, for the first time, who Ari will end up with in the end. It is true that the separation ripped the heart out of every Entourage fan, but maybe Dana's ultimately a better fit for him, knowing full well who he is and accepting that. This was a refreshing episode, even if Ertz's bloody end was way dark, and was the best episode of the season so far. With 5 episodes to go, things on Entourage are looking truly interesting for the first time in years.

"One Last Shot" - 4/5 stars

Entourage - "Out With a Bang" Review

IDK Drama, that shirt looks pretty bisexual to me. Even with beasts.

After Entourage's weak and lazy start last week to its abbreviated final season, "Out With a Bang" felt way more like the Entourage of old. With an episode featuring Billy Walsh and Vince kicking around ideas for a film (starring DRAMA, no less), E once again playing the (complete BS) art of seduction with Sloan, and some great classic character interaction between the always-entertaining Ari and Lloyd, this should really have been the season premiere. When you think about it, "Home Sweet Home" wasn't even really that necessary. It could have been established in this episode that E broke up with Sloan, Vince left rehab and came up with a (lame) film idea for him that would end up working better for Drama, and Ari attempted to nose into the newfound love life of his estranged wife. They could have split the plot of this episode across the first two, using the expository parts of "Home Sweet Home" while cutting the excess fat. This episode also featured the return of William Fichtner's Phil Yagoda, as well as a guest appearance by Andrew Dice Clay as himself as Drama's cartoon costar. The one part of this episode that really pissed me off was E and Sloan. Them breaking up again at the start of this season was truly the last straw for me. Sloan has been jerking E's ass around for years, then after he proves his devotion to her, she asks him through Terrance (that old jackass, I better be seeing Malcolm McDowell before season's end) to sign a prenup, basically throws him out, and then has the shit to get back in bed with him? This pissed me off. That is, until the ending, when she told E that she was moving to New York. This isn't the best ending for the two of them, but I hope this is the final ending, as I don't think I can take much more. Not perfect, but a definite improvement on last week, and the first episode to take some real (albeit baby) steps toward the show's conclusion. Only six weeks to go, folks.

"Out With a Bang" - 3.5/5 stars

Entourage- "Home Sweet Home" Season Premiere Review

The sun hopefully implies a high note.

I have only recently become a fan of Entourage, catching up on the show's first seven seasons on HBO GO over the last few months. Therefore, the differences in quality from season to season are less distinguishable to me than longtime fans. I wasn't the biggest fan of Season 1, loved Season 2, liked Season 3 well enough, kind of disliked Season 4, loved Season 5, liked the differences in Season 6, and maybe was the only person who enjoyed the darker direction in Season 7. And luckily, "Home Sweet Home" proves that the events of the Season 7 ender "Lose Yourself" won't go away so easily. In fact, things are actually worse than I thought they would be for our four friends. E broke up with Sloan, Ari's still separated from the missus (the separation scene last season was heartbreaking), and Vince is just getting out of rehab. Of all these developments, I'm a bit miffed with E and Sloan breaking up again, as I didn't think Terrance wanting a prenup was going to end it, I just thought it was cause some friction between him and Terrance that could possibly threaten the relationship, but I certainly didn't expect it to be over going into the premiere. We've also learned that E and Scott have taken down Murray, and now run the company. We get an appearance from Johnny Galecki, where the new status quo is established. In addition, Johnny's Bananas is apparently going well, while Billy seems to be getting back on his feet well enough, but this episode was honestly a little too empty. They set up a bunch of new storylines, but didn't provide enough closure on existing ones. Also, why is Vince cold-shouldering E? Does he honestly blame him for his drug addiction? Overall, this was a rather shaky start, and Ellin and crew better get their act together if they want this shortened final season to be a successful one.

"Home Sweet Home" - 2.5/5 stars