Grid Effect

Well, that was an offbeat episode. And for this show I thought it would take people walking on their hands and eating with their feet for me to classify any one episode as “offbeat”. Not to say it wasn’t amusing but it was flummoxing, and if this was anyone’s first time watching the series, then they probably didn’t quite “get it”.

For the most part, the concept of Americans despising New Zealanders is funny in and of itself. Dave’s explanation of “prejudism” was really misinforming, particularly since, as the show so often illustrates, most Americans are not aware that New Zealand and Austrailia are two separate, distinct cultures. So the notion that they are actively discriminated against is counter-intuitive to the running theme of obsoleteness they are usually so insecure about.

There was a bevy of humor extracted from this story, the disinfecting of apples, the vendor counting to ten in his head, and Dave teaching Bret and Jermaine how to flip the bird, all paid off nicely. The ending was a nice touch as well, how the three reconciled after the vendor mistook the two protagonists for Austrailians, and they transferred their hatred onto the Aussies and took their collective bird over to their embassy in the credits. A decent plot line with plenty of derivative humor, but the delivery and quirkiness was probably a little too absurd for a first-timer, if you fall into this camp I’d try to catch the pilot or any of the earlier episodes before making any judgements.

Lots of Dave this week, which I have been advocating for, but Murray with his own song (Hiiii!) was the surprise of the week. It through all my expectations into a tailspin and I was questioning my sense of reality. Not that the song was particularly funny or anything, but I really didn’t anticipate any musical numbers by anyone else. Can we expect the same from Dave or Mel?

Anyhow, every scene in Murray’s office was brilliant. The ripping out the cord, the constant harassing of “tech support”, whom he fell in love with a few days before actually learning the woman’s name, I also enjoyed the quelling of Bret and Jermaine’s non-argument. If Murray and Dave ever interact without the two leads around, I could almost guarantee a top-tier scene would be the result of it.

The music this week was great, if only because it had a clay-mation interpretation of “Albi, The Racist Dragon”. Nothing like a mock-folktale to steer an episode in the right direction. The only downside was the delivery, as Jermaine’s quasi-paternal inflections weren’t as noticeable. I already mentioned Murray’s song, “Leggy Blonde”, and it was alright. The visual effects and Murray’s deadpan sold it more than any of the writing. The third song was another rap parody, and much like their other rap parodies, I found myself simply waiting for it to end. The entire “white guy trying to act black” thing never really amused me, and while these two do it better than most, its just the gimmick that is tireseome.

Never the less, another strong outing. Star-Ledger TV critic Alan Sepinwall, after mixing with several HBO figureheads, has instilled some confidence that this series will get a second season if it wants one. If they can make somethig this eccentric and it still produces sound comedy, I see no reason they couldn’t maintain the same standard for two full seasons.

Well, if nothing else, that ending was certainly unexpected. As far as a humor quotient is concerned last night’s episode was off the charts. Relaxed, unpredictable and at least somewhat original. Not to mention that there were two sound plotlines, one with a humorous conclusion and the other was a surprisingly emotional resolution, as a break from the rest of the episode.

In the age old question as to who amongst friends is more capable of bedding women, Eric was put to the task against Turtle, which actually seems like an even challenge in terms of approachability, but with Vince as a mentor to Eric it kind of tips the scales. The use of Craigslist was apropos of how I imiagine Drama has met most of the women he knows in SoCal, and the revelation that the reasonably attractive woman they met had some twisted fetish (which was rife with material, especially since Drama was so well versed in the underbelly of “Furries”) only further propogated what I thought was a hilarious episode. Kudos to Turtle for not succumbing to the prospect of sex in a bunny outfit.

The Eric and Vince storyline was kind of typical and dull, only because I can’t understand why Eric, who they were treating as a shoe in to win this competition, is considered to be in such high demand without Vince around. I can suspend disbelief for a good while, but to pretend like Eric would be a lock to lay some insanely attractive British girl even if he wasn’t friends with Vince and if he wasn’t so shy, doesn’t really ring true to me. At least we got some closure on the whole Sloane thing, if that’s your bag.

The end of the “where’s Ari’s son going to school at?” subplot finally came to a close, and it was vexing. Watching Ari (and this is a credit to Piven, who completely sold the part) breakdown and start crying in front of the private school’s headmaster after holding back the tears when his son asked him about going to school with a friend, really was unexpected. As is the land of perenially happy endings, Ari bribed the headmaster by giving his son a management position if he granted admission for his. Regardless of how inconsequential or convoluted you may have thought the story was, it was interesting/entertaining watching Ari knocked down a peg.

Some may call this episode, particularly the plot the title references, contrived and desperate. But it came witha bevy of laughs and that is primarily what this series’ aim should be, and this episode matched that. “The Day Fu*kers” is the best episode they have produced in that vein since the Vegas episode in the first half of season three. Hopefully they keep this upward trend they have been on since the unbearable “Malibooty” episode.

Not necessarily an entertaining or great episode of Mad Men last night, but definitely intriguing. Mathew Weiner and everyone else involved on that show are great at racheting up suspense. Also began watching Judd Apatow’s old TV show, Freaks and Geeks, as a result of enjoying Knocked Up so immensely and since Alan Sepinwall began recapping all of the episodes (He is about six or seven episodes in now). It certainly isn’t as funny as his theatrical work, though it has its moments and the narrative structure is unlike any other high school TV series I have ever been privy to. Definitely looking forward to the next few episodes.

In case you haven’t heard by now, Drew Carey has officially been named the new host of The Price is Right. What an odd career this guy has had, just look at his IMDB page.

WWE plummeted in ratings in the wake of the Chris Benoit incident. So wait, a horrible tragedy that cost three people their lives and is perceived to be directly correlated with the environment of the industry trying to promote itself, was actually damaged irreparably by one of their figureheads killing his family and himself? Surely, you’re kidding.

Apparently Andy Samberg (If you’re asking “who?”, then its perfectly understandable), of SNL and “Dick in a Box” fame, is taking names of everyone who overlooked him before his newfound celebrity. Are we really at that point yet where everyone is regretting not giving this guy a chance? Is his financial future that secure? Lets see how this first movie does and if he has any staying power before we all start shaking our heads over “what if’s?”. As far as I can tell, in the previews for his new movie this guy could quite possibly be the next Pauly Shore.

In other TV turned movie related news, The Simpsons movie is supposed to be hilarous. Call me a cynic, but part of me wonders if this is skating by on name credibility, akin to the three Star Wars prequels, which I thought were pretty damn horrendous. I mean, unless the show has suffered the past six years as a result of them putting this movie together, then I don’t see how several seasons of mediocre television translates into the second best reviewed adult comedy all year. We haven’t watched The Simpsons regularly since ‘99 but occasionally catch new episodes on incredibly slow Sunday evenings. Maybe its the mood we’re in at that given time of day, but for whatever reason these new episodes only confirm our suspicions. With all that said, I am going to see it sometime in the next week, but Rescue Dawn is taking priority.

Kevin Reilly, ousted Entertainment president at NBC and current employee for FOX, now finds himself trying to compete with series’ he oversaw the production of. It must be quite troubling, especially after how NBC cleaned up at the TCA’s and faired pretty well with Emmy nominations.

It looks like Laurie David initiated the divorce between her and the man who made her relevant, Larry David, by dating another man at Martha’s Vineyard. Don’t worry, she’ll be amply financially compensated for her possible adultery. Commence articles about how “entitled” she is too hundreds of milions of dollars and how “empowered” she must feel… NOW!

Finally, the producers of the upcoming caveman show are taking their new project a little too seriously, and have assured us that the series is not an allegory for race relations. It doesn’t seem like they are really reaching out to their core demographic if this is what they’re so consciously worried about. Do they think potential viewers for this show are sitting around saying, “So, the creators of this show are going to be KKK sympathizers a la how The Smurfs was sympathetic towards communism? Pssh, well count me out.”

Sorry for the late post, have a great weekend.

Slow day, so in order to avoid anything substantial, here’s some preliminary thoughts on last night’s Rescue Me and a few site notes.

Rescue Me was strong again last night. No Nona, very little Sheila and an understandably angry Tommy. After dozens of years in presumably the same fire house, he now has to kowtow to a probie because the kid can play a little basketball, and everyone in his house cares besides him. It was vexing how they managed using the basketball subplot to symbolize Tommy’s ungraceful entry into his elder years. But ultimately, are they simply stealing themes and technical styles from The Sopranos? The similarities, as stated in last weeks recap, are becoming more and more prevalent, to the point its getting harder to take the show seriously. When I first saw this series I described it as “The Sopranos with firemen”, in the sense that their is a myriad of flawed characters and the people whom the viewer can empathize with are few and far between. It wasn’t meant to be a literal analogy, but its slowly turning into one.

As a scheduling note, it looks like we’re going to begin recapping Mad Men, and it will be done exactly like every other drama: we’ll post the recap the morning of the day the following episode is on. We also might discontinue the scene-by-scene format as well, its too time consuming and outside of The Wire and The Sopranos, no series is detailed enough to warrant such lengthy posts, everything else can be covered in summary.

I meant to watch the replay of Damages last night but fell asleep earlier than I have since I was thirteen or inebriated. Has anyone watched this series and can vouch for it? The previews looked somewhat incredulous and Ted Danson in a dramatic role only accentuates that. But yeah, if it’s supposed to be solid I’ll give it a tumble.

Here’s a quick link about the ineptness of HBO movies and why they are generally so terrible. My guess is the premium network invests all their money in original programming, thus leaving very little to compete with other premium networks that have little to no creative projects.

Alright, new plan. Since I need to write something covering last weeks episode and post it with an ample amount of time before tonight’s episode airs, we’re going to forego the general scene-by-scene recap and more or less summarize the entire thing in a couple paragraphs. I know this comes as a major disappointment to the seventeen of you that regularly read this blog.

Essentially, everything in Tommy’s life is falling apart.

The end.

Kidding, though that wouldn’t really be a far-fetched sufficient synopsis. I actually really enjoyed this episode, much like Entourage, this is two weeks in a row where I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

In this episode, Tommy deals with the reality of aging, which reflects on his ability to raise a newborn, poor performance on the ice rink and in the back of Jennifer Esposito’s car. One thing I have always wondered about that, why have their sexual encounters always taken place in her SUV? She can afford the SUV, so does she live in it as well? I know Tommy is and will be reluctant to take a woman back to his place with his ex-wife and kids waiting up there, but is her place in Long Island so inaccessible that they must use a car? Everytime?

But yeah, she throws him around effortlessly and emasculates him about it later. This entire charade is just so extreme in order to compensate for the numerous criticisms about this shows portrayal of women, that its in an unintentional comic tailspin. Honestly, if Leary and Tolan want to wave a white flag with its offended (former) audience, then just have Leary not engage in intercourse with a single female cameo. Because honestly, that hasn’t happened since Susan Sarandon and Diane Farr, who were both plowed by Franco instead.

Sheila is now offering Tommy $400,000 for his (technically Johnny’s, it looks like) and Janet’s son, named by this web site since they have yet to name him on the show, Capernious. Its repulsive on several levels, but admittedly practical. Tommy doesn’t want to afford Capernious now, especially since he is skeptical of who the biological father is, the kid hates Janet, they are financially strapped as is, but between the monetary olive branch and the dumping of Capernious onto Sheila, the future is looking less grim.

Tommy is clearly considering the proposition, though has yet to mention anything to Janet. He certainly looks ready to broach the subject when he comes home to discover Janet left Capernious and Katie home alone to buy a bottle of wine, and that Katie was leaning over Capernious’ crib wishing him dead. One would think living with both parents being non-biological is a better environment than this. And the impression I get from the dream Tommy had about the kid getting ran over by a semi (Note: Between this and the mythic shadowed figure telling Tommy to go to an AA meeting, and the closeup shot of the text, this show has taken enough cues from The Sopranos, it’s time to stop), they certainly be steering towards killing this Capernious off, which is just wholly unnecessary.

The hockey scene was extremely baffling. Out of nowhere Tommy is three steps behind the action and takes an earful from his coach who benches him mid-second quarter, then a cop on the opposing team whom Tommy challenges to a fight, and said cop pities him to the point where he refuses to throw down, which I guess is supposed to be the ultimate form of disrespect amongst these ranks. This is essentially parallel to Tony Soprano’s plight after Junior gunned him down. And while Tony Soprano took out an underling dubbed Muscles Marinara, Tommy is probably going to unleash his wrath on someone nicknamed Brutish Boiled Potato. or Probie.

Other notes:

-Kenny’s dick is fatigued from constant sex with the former nun, who plays Christian’s aids stricken ex-girlfriend on Nip Tuck. He asks for an extended intermission.

-The house has a new chief played by Hesh from The Sopranos. Depending on how much this series wants to (try and) replicate David Chase’s masterpiece, he’ll probably have a thing for black women. Right now he is cannon fodder for every Jewish stereotype anyone has ever known.

-Franco has asked Natalie to marry him and she has accepted. Which means that in four episodes time, something catastrophic is going to happen in the immediate future, or his daughter will come back or Susan Sarandon is going to murder the entire lot of them. In the vein of this series, I’d suspect an almost drops on Natalie’s head, but Richie catches it, saving Natalie, but is eventually crushed under the weight of the thing.

-Still no real mention of Chief, other than a short discussion over where to put his ashes. No explanation as to why his son wouldn’t/doesn’t receive them.

-Franco and Kenny persuaded Larenz Tate (Bart) to play basketball for their fire house by bartering probie work and agreeing to call him Sean. This is unquestionably the funniest scene this season, trumping the one where Garrity admits to fantasizing about Janet.

I know the tone of the recap sounded cynical and disparaging, but that’s just for kicks and because I cannot remember the episode that vividly. All in all, I was satisfied with it and hope they keep up the trend tonight, best solution for that would be to focus on this basketball subplot. If I can get that, between it and the USA scrimmage this past Sunday, it would all but remedy my basketball interest back to full stength after these horrifying NBA ref scandal.

Woke up late this morning, forgot to rewatch Rescue Me and am slammed at work. As a result, we’ll do a few links to kick off the day and get around to recapping later this afternoon. At some point, I plan on purchasing a bed that sends waves of electricity through it if it feels my body weight past a certain time. My girlfriend might not appreciate it, but my floor is that shag carpet so things could be worse for her.

Entourage is soon to release a soundtrack, considering they average around five or six pop songs an episode I’d like to know how they plan on widdling this down to one album. Some bands that pop up on there frequently are Kings of Leon, The Doors and Rolling Stones. So I’d expect tracks from these respective bands. I’ll admit to having downloaded songs after hearing them on Entourage (virtually all new/classic music I hear is from film and television), most notably Mos Def’s “Ghetto Rock”, mainly because its so relatable for me.

Exile Island has been discontinued from Survivor. Not really sure how I feel about this. I’m going to miss it for a couple reasons: One, it eliminates a facet of strategy to the game. The more intricate and complicated the rules become, the more thought it requires to not only watch and analyze, but also play. Two, it minimizes the amount of hyperbole and crocodile tears we’ll see on a seasonal basis. Few things are more enjoyable then seeing someone break down emotionally and physically on an island alone… with cameramen. And audio technicians. And I’m sure a few PA’s as well. On the other hand, exile island generally results in a one-two minute clip of someone standing around bitching and moaning or reflecting on the experience they are currently embarking on. So, ultimately, I’m glad its fucking ousted.

Speaking of hyperbole, for all the lamenting critics do when The Emmys snubs The Wire, they have a peculiar method of expressing their outrage. As they failed to give it a single award (They at least nominated it several times, so there’s a feather in their cap). But honestly, how self-righteous can you be when Heroes wins best program? In case you were wondering, I was under the imrpession “best program” was a field culminating the best comedies, dramas and reality series’, and the award was handed to the best overall series of the year. But clearly fan fare plays a role in this category, and its not simply the best critical acheivement. If that’s the case then why not give it to one of the CSI series’ or something? Oh well, we can only hope the voting was close for a semblance of consistency.

And finally, to really put you in a dejected mood on this Wednesday morning, Simon Cowell is the second highest paid American television personality at $45 million a year. Because, you know, its so challenging to make several variations of the same joke about high-schoolers, given that they do not have any insecurities or misconceptions at all. Congrats, America, you let this happen. At least that chest hair always protruding from his collar will always be finely groomed.

This might constitute going out on a limb here, but I think Jermaine Clement and Bret McKemzie are David Bowie fans. Either that or they feel his decorum in the 70’s and 80’s is rife with comedic potential, and they’re simply mocking the hell out of him, me thinks the former is probably the case. Mainly because David Bowie wrote/writes damn good music.

We had a dearth of musical performances, which is approved greatly by this website, with a few exceptions, we generally do not get much from the musical interludes. So it opened up more room for dialog, but instead we were beat over the head with a running joke about Bret getting advice from Jermaine dressed up as David Bowie in a dream (though he was first under the impression it was Bret, he convinced himself that it was Bowie). Don’t get me wrong, it was funny at first, mainly because Jermaine has great vocal range and that is necessary for good impersonations. But I don’t think they have ever been so repetitive before, at least not so obviously. There is always the roll call jokes, the off-handed remarks about them never having any gigs, but there are variations of them, and they’re not so atypical to the rest of the series, nor clumsy.

This episode, like every FoTC episode, had some laugh out loud moments, personally I probably set off a car alarm laughing at the biscuit conversation, but I imagine the crowd pleaser coincided with the John Hodgman cameo (Mac vs. PC commercials, Daily Show correspondent), and it was masterfully timed and executed. Even the conversation afterwards about Bret’s graphic design on his genitals sold the scene before it, because we weren’t privy to anything more than conversation.

Very little from side characters this week, we learned that Mel more or less cost her husband her job, with the admission that she was junior professor of psychology at an unnamed institution, and that her husband was a senior professor in the same department, but was fired. Poor guy. So now he not only has a wife who wishes to cheat on him, but no income or career as a result of her. Nothing like marriage in the 21st century, kids.

Mel did make an attempt to cheer up Bret, but did it at the expense of Jermaine, who’s “Looks are to deep to be classically beautiful” and a barrage of other perceived insults to boost Bret’s confidence. So we had two scenes from her. And Dave, whom I really wish was used more often, was only in the closing scene but didn’t add much.

Two songs this week, but only one musical type break from the plot that more or less ended the episode, it was an ode to David bowie of sorts, wasn’t really into it for whatever reason. The second didn’t cut out away from the scene or the plot and was just Jermaine trying to instill confidence in Bret with an incredibly creepy serenade of sorts, entitled, “Bret, you’ve got it goin’ on”. In which the versus get more and more disturbing, that eventually lead to Jermaine admitting that sometimes when Bret is sleeping, Jermaine puts a wig on him, pretends he’s a woman and lies next to him. Leading to everyone conceding that there is nothing homo-erotic about it if Jermaine is, indeed, pretending he’s a woman. I love the rationale on this show, it seemingly accounts for a great deal of their humor.

We are the halfway point now in the season (if the twelve episodes I heard they are doing is accurate) and there appears to be no signs of falling off. Next week it looks like we get “Albi, The Racist Dragon” as one of their musical numbers. It’s a personal favorite up there with “Jenny”, which they may not perform on the series because it’s close to seven minutes long, which they could conceivably do if it’s the only song in whichever episode they use it in.

Either way, its good to have a stellar new comedy on television, as they are few and far between nowadays. After six episodes in, all with more highs than lows, I think its safe to confirm that’s what we have on our hands.

Two good episodes in a row? That literally hasn’t happened in a calendar year with this series, and we’re ecstatic here at Grid Effect. For once, we can’t tell you how this plot is going to conclude. Between the unpredictability and the derivative humor (which was top notch last night), this show is once again something worth anticipating.

There really wasn’t anything about this episode that I disliked. Walsh was a little less animated (which was necessary), Piven was spot on in exuding his frustration about the lack of an efficient personal assistant (also liked the call back with the shy mail room kid) and his elation over the deal he made with Dana Gordon’s unnamed studio, to his defense of Vince to his complaints against Eric for not putting his differences with Walsh aside, just an Emmy worthy performance, really. At this rate, Eric is eventually going to kill someone if he keeps getting walked on like this.

The professional ambiguity is something I don’t recall seeing in any series before. There really is no indication if Eric or Vince is right about “Medellin” and Walsh in general. It is quite possible Walsh won’t be able to handle a film with a large budget (since he was losing his mind on the set of “Medellin”) and Eric will be proved right, but for the sake of variety and character depth they need Vince, Walsh and the rest of the film world be in the right on this one. Eric, who has a legitimate complaint about being verbally abused all the time, was as mature about the situation as possible (loved the crack about Ari still getting him $2 million of producer money), has to have higher ambitions. It does require a suspension of disbelief that I might just be incapable of to actually believe Eric really doesn’t want to produce, especially if he’s only going to have one client. Maybe he’ll use the opportunity to expand so he isn’t so reliant on one person.

Even the Turtle-Drama storyline was decent, as it brought a cameo from the same guy who played Big Pussy’s FBI confidante in season two of The Sopranos. The riffing on the abnormal bond fathers and sons have when it pertains to professional athletes was a humorous angle to play off of, much better than bantering about rim jobs (why do I continuously remind myself of that?).

Then there was Lloyd, a crowd favorite whom finally got some noteworthy face time. Of course Piven stole the screen each time, but the varying story threads are a welcomed change and Lloyd has been woefully under-utilized.

Hopefull these two episodes aren’t anomalies and this is a return to a quality half-hour of appointment television, instead of just something we watch because it leads into Flight of The Conchords.

Last night’s premiere of Mad Men did something that a dramatic series premiere has not done in a while (since Friday Night Lights, to be specific), it garnered my interest and drove me to reviews of the series immediately upon its ending. It had its flaws, which can be chalked up to being a pilot, even The Wire and The Sopranos pilots had their flaws, both were very uneven and over-encompassing in a lot of ways. But last night had a fluidity to it that rolled through an hour quicker than a drunk conversation in good humor with a strange girl at a bar.

The series is created by Mathew Weiner and this pilot episode is directed by Alan Taylor. Both of which, in case you haven’t heard, are Sopranos disciples. If this trend continues, David Chase is going to be the television equivalent of Bill Parcells, in which everyone who’s worked under him at some point, branches out and creates a name for themselves, reflecting highly on their mentor. Needless to say my expectations were high and it still delivered.

The series seems to essentially revolve around Don Draper, a WWII veteran and an established figure in the ad world on Madison Avenue in 1960. He is approximately mid-40’s, has a young up-and-comer nipping at his heels in Pete Campbell, a supportive elementary school-teaching girlfriend who I think is named Midge and a host of mysteriousness, as evidenced by the last scene. His everyday troubles seem to revolve strictly around work and whatever internal conflict he seems to be persistently struggling with, but he puts on a smooth-talking facade that gets him out of every jam. The best way to describe him would be a poor man’s Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart in Thank You For Smoking). They are both even in the business of hawking cigarettes, the similarities are endless.

Oh, I almost forgot, there is a third facet to Draper’s life, or at least this portion of it, his budding business partnership with an heiress in Rachel, whose first meeting is very confrontational. And our so called protagonist exposes himself to be less than the golden boy ahead of his time when he scolds her for daring to talk to a man in an accusatory and questionable manner. Later in the episode she seems to be the only character that can see past the carefree persona.

On the other end of the spectrum is Peggy Olson, whom I assume is the female lead at this point. a new assistant who, like us, is acclimating to her surroundings. Initially she is mentored by a self-hating, insecure senior assistant in Joan Hallway. Or rather, Miss Hallway does everything she can to advance her career and status as a marital prospect, and gives Peggy helpful advice to assist her in the same endeavors. Peggy is shy, confused and is noticeable when she makes a pass at Draper for defending her when Pete verbally assess her physique. Which makes Peggy’s invitation to Pete insider her apartment when he stumbles over there late after his bachelor party all the more baffling. I suspect that they no each other from a past dalliance of some sort.

The characterization and tone is set well, even if heavy-handed. At the forty-two minute mark I felt like I was ten minutes into the episode. At first I was astounded, as it felt somewhat entertaining but uneventful up until that point, then it dawned on me that every character had been established and all of them were introduced with a level of intrigue. Great pacing.

In terms of clumsiness, the point that gender discrimination and the good old boys club were banged home with all the subtlety of a plane crashing into a train right next to a preschool that is being held-hostage by terrorists. I get it, every woman is subordinate by force and every man is a chauvinist pig, and generally racist to boot.

That is, everyone except for Draper, who still occasionally reaps the benefits of mid-century male privilege, but generally compensates accordingly. When he dismisses the heiress, for instance, he’s not exactly in the wrong for doing so, because she was being overly-judgmental and accusatory, but it’s the tone in which he does so. Instead of steaming out in a huff because of her demeaning candor, he demeans her right back, saying, “I will not be talked to this way by a woman”. In the end though, he has a respectful conversation with her over drinks in which they level with each other, and the two of them agreeing to do business. And that is it. As for things staying strictly professional and not evolving into an intimate relationship, well it seems almost unavoidable. But the show has already thrown a few curve balls our way, so we’ll see.

Outside of Draper, the diction the men direct at the woman is belittling, objective, and done so in a carefree demeanor. It also seems to be the prevailing theme in 90% of the scenes. If one were to use the same vernacular in today’s corporate environment, his personal and professional life would most likely be in tatters. Yeah, both generations are ridiculous. Other demographics mocked sympathetically in the pilot:
Black people
Jewish people
Italians
The Amish
Obviously, they are trying to stay authentic, and I applaud Weiner for it, but are they making too much of an effort in this regard? At least, I am told this would pass for authenticity, my experience with this time period is non-existent, since I didn’t exist, thus my lack of association to the parlance of these times. I mean, did every chance encounter between every man and every woman really end in some sort of awkward sexual advance? If so, I would have fit right in, but be really unsuccessful.

Other notes:

-I didn’t include any actors/actresses names, since I didn’t recognize any of them other than Kristin Schaal from Flight of The Conchords, and she had two lines in which she suggested accentuating her legs to appeal to Draper. The part hasn’t even been listed on Imdb yet. Really, I couldn’t have guessed a more random cameo.

-Since much of the episode revolves around Draper contemplating how to advertise for cigarettes since he can no longer claim them to be healthy, smoking is prevalent in the episode, but what is it really this abundant?

-The settings seem authentic and true to the time period: every table at every establishment has a dimmed table light, every room is smoke filled and elegant, and the offices have typewriters that are simple enough for, “even women to use”. In short, great consulting and stage direction.

Ultimately, this was a promising introduction, I don’t want to get too critical because like stated before, series tend to go through a transitional phase (like, the occasionally soft, lazy dialog that I expect to change from Sopranos alums), and most series don’t really hit their stride until four or five episodes in. But this instilled a lot of confidence in another new summer series that will be on the weekly schedule.

We’ll have a reveiw for last night’s premiere of Mad Men later today. In the meantime, lets break out some linkage.

Jerry Ferrara is seeking other roles that do not so closely resemble his character on Entourage, claiming a vast range of ability. Yeah, there is a reason this is being reported by a website called “Crave Online”. Then again, he is so mediocre on that show, maybe his calling is elsewhere.

LeBron James will host the season premiere of SNL, given how unimpressed we are with the current cast, and the opinion that LeBron always tries entirely too hard to impress everyone around him, why are we not surprised by this decision? The worst part about this development is the onslaught of “LeBron is so charismatic, on and off the court” pieces that ESPN will undoubtedly replay dozens of times. It’s a good thing I only watch PTI and actual games on that network anymore.

Rosie O’Donnell might make a cameo on Friday Night Lights this season. Um, we enjoyed her work as Dawn Budge on Nip Tuck despite thinking she is a loud mouthed, sycophantic muckraker, but something about Rosie’s demeanor doesn’t really scream small Texas town.

Speaking of which, Maureen Ryan has managed to extract virtually every plot line from Jason Katims for the upcoming season of Friday Night Lights. These are significant spoilers, but they only give way what the plot points will be, not what actually happens with them over time. Yes, I read them. And yes, we’re hoping despite the lack of Emmy love and the predictable low ratings it will receive being on Friday nights and all, we hope Ben Silverman can find a place in his budget for this series, to keep it around for at least an entire second season.

And so the demise of anything that resembles The Sopranos begins. Good luck getting my DVD’s from me.

I actually heard Jon Lovitz regal this story on Dennis Miller’s radio show, but Jon Lovitz apparently beat Andy Dick’s face in at a comedy club, from his side of the story, and from what I’ve come to learn of Andy Dick it sounds pretty accurate, Dick had it coming. But what is this akin to? Like Luke Ridnour and Steve Blake duking it out in a pickup game? It’s the best I can come up with. Also, if you were to list people in hollywood Jon Lovitz could actually get the better of in a fight, wouldn’t Andy Dick be at the top of the list. Good thing his last name is so apropos.

Looks like NBC is still sweating over their dismal ratings, and is opening the fourth season of The OFfice with four hour long episodes. Are the NBC overlords familiar with the concept of excessive exposure? It might not seem that way now, but people will eventually tire of these characters unless they’re confident they can consistently produce decent material.

Felicia Pearson, who plays Snoop on The Wire is set to write about her experience in prison while serving time for murder, and how it led to her simply playing one on television and writing a book about it.

And finally, the SNL cast is claiming they were to swamped at work to watch Studio 60. Yeah, why don’t you just admit you thought it was a self-righteous propaganda machine like everybody else?

Alright, I have managed to calm down after getting alarmingly inebriated, sexually harassing three female coworkers, beating my boss mercilessly with his own desk chair, passing out, waking up in a jail cell, having bail set and processing when my fed up girlfriend generously went into her own pocket to spring me from my cage. Seven hours later I am back to summarize my thoughts on the rest of the Emmy field, only unemployed and with a splitting headache that would stop an elephant in its tracks. When I am finished with this I have every intention of flying to Vegas, putting all my money on black and being back home with triple my current net worth for a late dinner and in time to watch the Mad Men pilot on AMC at 9pm et (which we will have a review for tomorrow).

(See, anyone can write for 24, you just need to expedite everything in a comedically short amount of time, and do it all with a straight face).

Truth be told, I did find a lot of sanity in the comedy nominations. Though still need to vent about FNL, which was passed over for every acting and writing category. There just isn’t much logic in many of these nominees. Connie Brittion and Kyle Chandler should have both been locks to lose to Edie Falco and James Gandolfini. In the earler post I concurred with Leary’s nomination for best actor, but he was an afterthought when compared to Chandler, who’s portrayal of conflicted, honorable yet flawed high school football coach Eric Taylor, was an acting clinic when compared to the usual swill that is on the broadcast networks. It sure as hell was better than Leary’s third season of Rescue Me, which for the first half of seemed primarily concerned with how many different sex positions Leary could simulate.

Everyone raves about the two leads on FNL, but there is a slew of supporting talent that went unrecognized. Gaius Charles playing the troubled NFL hopeful running back in Brian “Smash” Williams, who spent an entire season bouncing back and forth between Smash the public persona and Brian the well-intentioned but misguided teenager. Or Scott Porter (Jason Street) or Adrianna Palicki (Tyra Collette) or Zack Gilford (Matt Saracen) or Jesse Plemons (Landry)… the list is endless. Maybe its like in heisman voting, when two players from the same school are viable candidates, but they split their region’s votes, and end up cancelling each other out because another player from a diffrerent part of the country was unanimous in his region. Either way, I just felt the need to vent.

But yeah, the comedy portion we have much more laudatory opinions on. If you just take a gander at the best supporting actor category, which features Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute), Jeremy Piven (Ari Gold) and Kevin Dillon (Johnny Drama) are all nominated and all prominent roles on series we watch here, in addition to Neal Patrick Harris for his work on How I Met Your Mother, we have a pool of four strong candidates. And it really should be five, as Alec Baldwin is not a leading role and should replace Jon Cryer in this category, but he submitted himself as a lead, so, what can you do? Ego trumps logic, though his field is equally as competitive as well, going up against Steve Carrell and Ricky Gervais.

Also, Jenna Fischer was nominated for her work as Pam Beasly on The Office, Martin Landau was nominated for best guest actor on Entourage and the best comedy field is pretty stiff competition as well, even though we only watch two of them and one of the nominees is Two and a Half Men.

Really, all the comedy nominations did was enlighten us as to how little comedy we have watched recently around here. All the people we wanted to see nominated and had a realistic shot of doing so, were. Otherwise the comedies we have enjoyed over the past few years have either been cancelled (AD), were on hiatus (Curb) or I would have been deluding myself to think they stood a chance in hell (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Extras, South Park).

So there you have it folks, your 2007 Emmy nominees. With little to no objectivity exhibited in these two posts so far, let me wish the fine people of Grey’s Anatomy and Boston Legal the best of luck on Emmy night.

Well, my head is spinning with the multitude of oversights this year, but I don’t know what else to expect from an award show that is clearly being compromised by someone or something. Either that or they are simply lazy. I hate to be so cynical but there is really no other explanation.

Note: This article will contain some spoilers, so if you’re waiting for some series’ to be released on DVD or whatever else, this post will upset you immensely if you continue to read.

For starters, lets give credit where credit is due: fifteen nominations for The Sopranos! Yowza! Obviously for best drama and both lead acting categories, then three supporting acting nominations (Imperioli, Bracco and Turturro) then three nominations in the best writing category for “Kennedy and Heidi” (The episode Chris died), “The Second Coming” (AJ’s suicide attempt) and the series finale, “Made In America”. All this in addition to a directing nomination for Alan Taylor for “Kennedy and Heidi” (I Get It!) and five other nominations in minor categories.

There were some other various highlights with the dramatic series nominations, including Dennis Leary getting a best actor nomination (which is a lost cause, I’m pretty sure based on the overwhelming recognition that The Sopranos very well might end up sweeping), Friday Night Lights, though clearly underappreciated did pick up a best directing and best casting (which is like an award for best ensemble), its minimal, but at least it is something.

The Wire, on the other hand, was completely snubbed. In this blogs humble opinion, this oversight completely diminishes all credibility The Emmys may have built up. This series is so nuanced, so well characterized and structured, its intriguing, insightful, entertaining and probably the only series that I can say with any cerititude that is actually important; and for it to get zero nominations is a fucking embarrassment. The only plausible explanation is either they aren’t watching it (most likely), its not popular so it goes unrecognized because there won’t be any mainstream outrage (quite possible), or race is actually an issue (never would have thought this to be the case as I am hesitant to play this card, but now I’m not so sure). It has to be one of these three, because if one watches the series in total, and isn’t subjective in any way, then there is no rationale for this series to not have a nomination in every major and minor category. It is that good.

Thing is, this really shouldn’t come as any shock. The Wire is virtually snubbed every year it should be in contention to clean house. I really shouldn’t take it so personally but the series deserves better. The Emmys are essentially the only mainstream outlet that acknowledges excellence in television, and for The Wire to go unrepresented is a sham. If The Emmys would give this show its due, then maybe it could build up the audience it deserves. But ultimately, those who watch The Emmys are not interested in a slew of no-names collecting awards, and that might be what this is attributed to. Most would rather see Kiefer Sutherland or one of the twenty-five year old smoking hot doctors from Grey’s Anatomy stockpile hardware. Not a gritty, realistic portrayal or institutional and urban decay and corruption. And that is no disrespect to 24 or the hospital drama, but give me a fucking break.

Like stated before, The Sopranos very well may sweep on Emmy night and that is all well and good. But it should really be rivaled by its artistic and narrative counterpart in The Wire, otherwise everything David Chase & Co. wins is borderline fraudulent. For a sports analogy, its would be like winning a Superbowl because the other team died in a plane crash. Technically, someone is awarded the Lombardi trophy, but did they really earn it? Or feel good about it?

Back later with some approving editorial on the comedy nominations (sans a few nitpicks), other miscellaneous categories and some more on Friday Night Lights, right now I need to karate chop some bricks so I don’t chuck my monitor across my office.

If you haven’t noticed a pattern, these recaps posts tend to be delayed, usually because they are so fucking long, and occasionally like today when work is bending me over the figurative table. Anyway, it was actually a decent episode. Between this and Entourage churning out decent episodes for this weeks recaps, this job is starting to lose its appeal.

New chief shows up at dead chiefs house to stumble onto his body, and Probie packs up his mom’s belongings waiting to go to her funeral, all to the tune of “Dayton, Ohio, 1903″ by Randy Newman. It’s beautifully shot and the pacing is in toe with the music, which induces an atmosphere of, “here is some more of the morbid, crazy shit that everyone eventually goes through”.

Lieu is lighting candles for Chief, he, Tommy, Franco and Sean sit around discussing his kid and such. Kenny tries to explain to Franco and Sean that them with their naivete and youthful exuberance couldn’t possibly understand why Chief would do what he did, since they have the majority of their lives in front of them. Kenny is particularly sensitive in his defense of Jerry, and Tommy doesn’t appear to be when he concurs that Chief was a coward, until he further explains that his cowardice stemmed from having to work behind a desk. When Garrity says that is no excuse, Tommy explodes and highlights several of the Chief’s career achievements to illustrate how fearless he was when working the Bronx in the 70’s, and says Jerry used up all the brave he had then after telling Garrity to suck his cock. Its scenes like this one that resonate most with its audience and why the firehouse should be the focal point of the series, as opposed to the personal lives of the members of the firehouse.

Tommy is looking at Nona’s car when she corrects his maintenance, so fix your own damn car. Why are you even over here? New chief and Garrity are asking him about some favor to get the new basketball stud Probie at their house. Nona exploits his peculiar behavior on their last date in front of Garrity and new chief. She calls him princess when she walks out and Tommy asks them to keep it under wraps, clearly a way of appeasing those upset about the portrayal of women on this show.

Colleen blackmails her dad for her affections, he agrees to buy a couple lamps and a bed so long as she calls them every couple of days.

Nona and Tommy are at the conclusion of their date in her car, she goes in to make a move and he can’t get it up after she plays with his dick for a short while. There has to be a happy medium here. She pretends to not have pulled him out of the fire to see if it will restore his manhood, he somewhat cluelessly says, “I think you’re lying to me”, and she kicks him out of the car.

Tommy walks in to see Janet awake with the kid they have yet to name, we’ll call him Capernious. She acts moved by the fact he is buying their older daughter back. Well, “acts” probably isn’t the apt description, “downright touched” is probably more fitting. It reminds me of Lindsay Bluths line, “That’s all I ever wanted from you daddy, for you to spend money on me.” He lies down with the kid on his chest and tends to a cut on his younger daughters hand she got from using “big girl scissors”, as Janet looks on in approval. And, big girl scissors? Really? This broad is like 14. Is she still on the big wheel as well?

Tommy eats some lasagna Janet made, aren’t these people like second or third generation Irish immigrants, they can make edible Italian food? Janet suggests getting back together and recommends a therapist for assistance, he seems apprehensive but willing. He says between the conversation and her reaching out to touch his hand is somewhat priming. She turns down his meek advances by aying their daughter is there.

Garrity and Maggie discuss her drinking habits, she has stashes all over the house and is currently hungover, its a psuedo-gender reversal and dull. She claims her “disease” to be genetic. He asks for a divorce and she concedes, but apparently it was a bluff and she pre-emptively called it.

Sheila stops by Tommy’s with her new beau, she informs him that everything went accordingly with the insurance and avoiding jail. New beau’s name is Troy, and he compliments Tommys jeans, then mills around all awkwardly, Sheila loves the kid and Tommy is hesitant to have Janet see Capernious with her and not crying. Troy asks for some water and Tommy tells him to help himself, Janet walks in and Tommy cannot remember Troy’s name either. Janet takes Capernious and he immediately starts crying. Troy suggests Derrick somewhat ominously as a real name for Capernious, Janet is somewhat flummoxed and Troy asks her about Tommy’s jeans. Janet grabs the kid and runs into his room. Sheila points out that the kid hates her, Tommy blames it on gas.

Troy gets all in Tommy’s bidness asking for a signed autograph of a newspaper headline, when he is detailing the signature the guy feels his jeans and Tommy, expectedly and understandably, freaks out. Sheila drags him out of the apartment and there is never an explanation of Troy’s motives.

In the house, everyone is listening Probie lament and mourn his mother about how he never appreciated her. Tommy, Franco and Kenny all share looks because apparently his mourning is amusing. Probie sees Kenny looking suspiciously and threatens him if he makes a gay joke, Kenny promises he won’t. After Probie leaves Tommy says he can’t believe Kenny avoided doing anything of the sort, Kenny pleads earnestly to give him some time, Tommy suggests tommorow morning and they all agree to pounce then.

All the main characters walk around a building looking for a fire while talking about where to place Jerry’s ashes, in the meantime they do a great job with a single shot scene illustrating confusion as they find the fire, forget how they came in when they attempt exiting, to tracking down Probie and putting a mask on him, to Tommy injuring his knee and finding a pregnant woman, the scene is great up until said woman pops this kid out like a fucking pez dispenser, Tommy is forced to do it after Kenny proclaims, “I don’t know ‘nothin about birthin’ no babies. I suppose the fire was self-contained, because we never see them exit the premises nor fret over doing so because the scene ends almost abruptly.

At a therapists office, Tommy and Janet rundown a brief history of how they met and all of their differences. Said therapist stares at them, jaw agape, then gets up to make a phone call, assuming this is a prank of sorts. When the person on the other end of the phone informs him he is mistaken, He doubles back and tells them he doesn’t have the time they are going to require should they get back together. In the midst the rundown of their tumultuous relationship, Tommy references “the rape” and literally mimics hand quotations when he says it, which is unquestionably the most meta thing they have ever done on this series, and not to rehash the issue, because I can certainly see how that scene might have been perceived as a rape and is a legitimate question, but if that wasn’t their intention then they are set in their opinion, I am amused by the figurative “fuck you” that those quotations represent

Kennt complains about not finding any dirt on the Jew-hater from the opposing firehouse that is competing for Larenz Tate (basketball stud mentioned earlier), he says he is going to go over there and probably resort to making shit up. Franco approaches Kenny and new Chief seeking advice on marriage as he is feeling a lot of trepidation over proposing to Natalie, and they do not seem to have any. Kenny does suggest he ask someone with a good experience and a bad experience in regards to their nuptials for an objective viewpoint, he asks Kenny about his marriage and says it was to, “a dirty, filthy, blood-sucking little whore.”

Garrity is rattling off about his marriage to Franco, Tommy catches them and tells Garrity he was warned, and he was. Amply so, at that. Franco strokes Tommy’s ego after Tommy tells him how sensitivity and emotional availability in a marriage is essential.

Kenny tries to back Jew-hater guy into a corner and sneaks into his house when he mentions some random guys car is getting a ticket.

Garrity offers to stay at Mikes to keep him company, he agrees, but Garrity fesses up and admits his motivation is because of his current separation. Have fun with that no-fault NYC divorce to a woman with no income there, Garrity. The kibbles and bits you two have should really keep everyone happy.

Kenny’s bribe fails and he resorts to begging for the new probie because the other guy’s house already has a solid basketball team. Kenny blesses him after he hears a sneeze, then realizes it isn’t him, looks in a closet pantry to see random guy’s whose car wasn’t getting ticketed wife hiding there in some racy lingerie, Kenny simply says that he has to go find a locker for his new Probie. Done and done, I love the immediate transition from having no leverage to having the guy over a barrel.

Tommy walks in to an eager Janet and he still cannot get it up. Clearly a mental block, or maybe all that viagra Sheila hid in his food is having a reverse effect since he never needed it. Is that a possibility? I have known some kids my age that have taken it out of recreation but either they haven’t mentioned it or this wasn’t an issue. Anyway, Janet calls off the attempt at rekindling the marriage after he can’t get it up and he accidentally confesses to his dalliance with Nona. Man, is she particular. A soft member and an encounter with another woman when they weren’t romantically involved and suddenly its over. Anyway, he holds there kid and she locks herself in a different room, and boy howdy is she angry. Again.

Again, a solid episode and with several scenes that reminded me why I liked this show in the first place, but their is really no continuity. All the scenes are more or less interchangeable. And outside of some conversation in passing, we never heard anything about Chief after the opening credits. Maybe the addition of Larenz Tate getting some dialogue will change things around.

Well, as the old saying goes, even a broken clock is write twice a day. Usually used to describe something that is always unsettling but occasionally surprises one with its aptitude, the inverse is also true. This episode wasn’t dull or unfunny or anything of the sort. It just lacked the charm of its four predecessors.

Jermaine, now in Bret’s role from the pilot, is feeling left out of the loop now that his roommate is preoccupied with his girlfriend, like, for instance, they never tickle each other anymore. So who should stumble into the laundromat when Jermaine is handling some delicates? Why Sally, of course. Who primarily broke up with Jermaine because he isn’t Australian, and he didn’t have his own place, apparently.

This motivates Jermaine to seek some independence and find a spacious janitors closet at a swank upper east side condominium. Determined to impress Sally, he decides to throw a party but at an awkward an impromptu double-date, Jermaine announces his plans for said party when Bret properly informs him that the day he is planning for is also Sally’s birthday, since they used to date and all. Over the course of dinner, its noticeable that Bret still has a thing for his ex-girlfriend, leaving Coco in a state of insecurity and discontent over this newfound turn her relationship has taken.

Jermaine, attempting to throw the best party he can in a 4 ft. x 5 ft. closet, is flummoxed when Bret does not make an appearance, knowing he is at Sally’s birthday party, he heads over there but before he can leave, Coco gives pulls him aside to relay a message to Bret on her behalf.

At Sally’s party, we come to find out that the allusion Jermaine and Murray made to her being materialistic is indeed true, as we find out she is marrying an Australian millionaire who bought her a BMW. Meanwhile Bret wasted all of his money on art supplies for a picture of her in a Xena type pose with Bret-faced lion waiting subserviently at her side. And Jermaine went through all the trouble of making a glass butterfly, which he broke but offered with a tube of all-purpose industrial strength glue.

As they reflect on their poor judge of character on the way back home, Jermaine informs Bret that Coco has dumped him, and gives verbatim reenactment of her message, including a slap across the face that Jermaine does after the speech that he was supposed to do beforehand.

That, in a nutshell, is last nights episode. It included two songs, one being probably their most popular song here in the states, “Business Time”, which transitions abnormally from Jermaine and his awkward encounter with Sally (”You can’t keep the J-Dog down…Its street talk, you just take the first letter of your name and add ‘dog’ to the end of it”) to him dreaming about being in a marriage with a stale sex life (the premise of the song). It is one of the few times I actually preferred their performance of the song in favor of its depiction of it on the show, might have had something to do with Jermaine being completely naked and very unpixelated during the cover.

The second song just fell flat, it was a dual love ballad to Sally as she danced with her new fiance. An even odder transition precluded this one, from them standing on the street to them sitting at a piano with dry ice floating around them. For a series with an abundance of comedic musical performances, its actually pretty impressive that this was only the second time I felt uncomfortable watching them (the first being the “Boom King” track from episode two).

All in all, still an enjoyable half hour of television. The double date, Murray’s persistent concern for the state of the band, Bret’s absurdly creepy painting all provided virtual laugh out loud moments for me. The highlight of the episode, however, belonged to bit-player Dave, who’s description of Bret and Jermaine’s declarations of love for Sally being the most sensitive things he has ever seen since he was witness to a puppy being born, is probably the raunchiest and therefore most unexpected deliveries this short series has exhibited. Honestly, I have yet to watch a scene where I am not amused by Dave, here’s hoping he gets more camera time before the season ends.

Ultimately, outside of avoiding peculiar musical choices and giving Dave more face time, I am not advocating for any changes in this series. Occasionally I enjoy one episode significantly more or less than its counterparts, this episode’s shortcomings were probably just accentuated because Entourage was actually good this week, so there is really no room for complaint, just a solid hour of television.

Rescue Me recap tomorrow.

Since the inception of this fourth season, this is the first Sunday Entourage has bested the show it leads in to, Flight of The Conchords. Outside of one cringe-inducing scene in Drama’s “Five Towns” trailer (at least we got to see him on set), the show was back to season two/first half of season three form.

Last night was the first time I can recall the Ari/Lloyd storyline intersecting with the Vince/Eric storyline this season, which essentially limited the episode to two focal points: the perceived success of “Medellin” and the public release of the trailer affecting their potential for future work, and Drama trying to gain access to medical marijuana for Turtle in order to get himself a new hat. And that seemed to resonate well, limiting the episode to one story that will have no effect on the arc of this series or season.

This episode also brought back two bit characters I always enjoyed in Josh Weinstein, the boorish former assistant and supposed up-and-coming hollywood agent; and Dayna Gordon, the former love interest of Ari Gold and current studio president (they never give a studio name, made up or otherwise, probably because the concept is so unrealistic). But incorporating these two, whether it added anything or not, harkened back to a time when the masses actually enjoyed this series. When we weren’t force fed inconsequential plots about Ari’s kid not getting into a private school (without ever actually seeing or hearing from the kid), or a dinner with his old college friend/whipping post, or some weird mock-documentary style episode. And that, for this series, is a significant improvement.

The aforementioned cringe inducing Drama-Turtle scene was the only setback, and I’m not sure if it was the bad acting (I think I know why we never see any action on the set of “Five Towns”: everyone involved with it has the timing and believable delivery of a soft-core porn star), poor writing (were we supposed to be laughing at them or with them?), the obnoxiousness of it all (do they really need that girl to bend over and offer to strip for Drama? Or all the non-funny chanting? You know its a bad scene when Turtle is the only participant acting accordingly) or all of the above. Either way, once again I really could have done without the entire Drama-Turtle subplot. One thing that was intriguing was Bob Balaban being the doctor Drama had to prove he was ailing to, and I was really curious as to how they persuaded him to be involved with this dreck.

Never the less, this was definitely an improvement on this season. From Ari’s ruse to the fight between Walsh and Eric (both sides have a point but are absurd in their handling of it. Both sides.) to the unforeseeable ending that left a little room for some future tension, which this show is sorely needing; this was the first time in a while that I watched Entourage and didn’t feel used and exploited when it was over. And that is all I ever wanted.