Grid Effect

A few more links to close out the day. We’re not trying to say that we are beholden to the concept, in fact more than anything else in the world we would like to distance ourselves from the posting format. But, even though we’re elated it’s 4th of July weekend, it doesn’t make us anymore creative. As Stringer Bell might say, same as it ever was.

You’re not going to believe this, but studies indicate that women comprise 85% of ABC’s online viewing audience. And here I was all this time, thinking the traditional alpha male fell in love with shows like October Road, Eli Stone & Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The times they are a changin’, indeed.

Denis Leary, Elaine Benes & Marc Cuban will be three of many that donate their voices to this upcoming season of The Simpsons, increasing the popularity of the historic show’s irrelevance. Their was about a five year stretch wherein The Simpsons was the premiere comedy on television, but for the past eight years or so it has been dying the slowest death imaginable. Just imagine if Seinfeld was still making new episodes how tired they would seem, then multiply it by ten. That’s where we’re at with The Simpsons. God, this is just depressing, moving on.

Hey, you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of bizarre, repetitive though I’m sure technically sound episode of South Park? Well, wait no longer my belabored friend, the feature is now available on their website with the episode “Major Boobage“. We weren’t particularly fond of the episode, but its worth a look never the less.

Finally, there will be some reasonable conflict on Entourage. It appears the high life the four protagonists have been living for four seasons will be deflated a tad as they struggle to make a lavish living. Given, its not The Wire, we don’t have people struggling with heroin addiction or anything. But if the series is going to stay on the air, we appreciate the minor alteration.

If you haven’t seen any Mad Men episodes and yearn to potentially help boost their DVD revenue, you can watch the pilot episode online. We would highly recommend this, but without an outlet to watch the rest of the series, if you’re not into buying DVD’s there isn’t much point. If you need a superficial reason to watch, an entire episode could be Christina Hendricks washing her car and we’d be sufficiently entertained.

Speaking of which, its almost imperative to the future of AMC that you buy the DVD, since they dropped $25 million promoting the second season. “We’re treating this like a movie opening” says the marketing president for the network. And I could see the benefits of that, but do most movies spend $25 million in promotions?

And finally, fresh off his oddly miscast role as Abomination or whatever the guy’s name was in The Hulk, Tim Roth is heading to the small screen with the FOX pilot Lie To Me, in which he plays a “human lie detector”. Simply put, this will probably be melodramatic tripe. My question is, whose decision was it to cast the bellboy from Four Rooms as a martial arts expert in the military, because it was surreal.

That’s it until Monday, have a great fourth. We recommend celebrating your country’s independence by blowing up a small piece of it.

Technical difficulties have afflicted Grid Effect, and while we are more inclined to neglect the site altogether and call it a wash, it’s unspeakably boring at work. So we’re more than happy to contribute to the mass of worthless information that comprises most of the internets. Here are some links, enjoy.

Mad Men’s official second season debut has been scheduled for Sunday, July 27th at 10pm est. Hopefully Pete Campbell hasn’t killed his bastard child by then. This, compounded with Generation Kill and Weeds (a coworker recently dropped HBO in favor of Showtime & Starz for the same price, I’m sensing an oncoming trend), should make July an unusually good TV month.

It looks like Jericho fans are just as insufferable as Friday Night Lights fans, except only for a far inferior television series. Still, best of luck to them and all their future endeavors, with any luck they’ll get Quantum Leap back on the air as well.

A preview of season four of Weeds. We haven’t seen the third season yet (starting tonight, actually), but we’ll just say that after the first two seasons, we’re kind of hoping either Nancy Botwin redeems herself in some way or else she experiences some comeuppance. A little too reckless/negligent for us to always want to see her succeed.

Tivo will have an option to record all the series’ recommended by the Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan (see Mad Men link). We enjoy Miss Ryan’s prose, but why she was chosen over the thousands of TV critics in the country, we’ll never understand. Anyway, don’t be surprised if you select this option, only to see your Tivo overloaded with Friday Night Lights reruns.

MTV will have cameras follow rapper/wannabe actor TI around while he completes his court ordered 1,000 hours of community service. It’s like a Scared Straight for those with penchants of loitering and starting bar fights. TI was found guilty of much heavier charges, but he’s a celebrity. And it’s a widely known fact that celebrities are better than regular people, thus receive lighter sentences. If for whatever reason (we can’t think of one) this doesn’t sound like its for you, don’t worry; I’m sure MTV will manage to condense the 1,000 into about 180 minutes.

The Hills goes out of their way to illustrate their “personalities” as non-celebrities so as to make it still seem relatable, because they know that no other media exists in the entire world, and no one could figure this out for themselves. Said MTV programming head, Tony DiSanto: “It’s not a documentary about Lauren who is a star because she’s on a show called ‘The Hills.” He followed that up with, “I don’t give a shit what you fucking muts say, MTV has programming standards, and we will not lower our brow for any of you unless you can guarantee us higher ratings”.*

I just can’t place why this show is popular.

Terrence Winter is working on a new project with HBO, and reflects fondly on working with Sydney Pollack. If you don’t know who Terrence Winter is, then go look it up because we’ve mentioned his accolades enough on this website. We’ll just link to his IMDB page to make it easier…This guy loves the northeast, apparently.

Speaking of which, if you’re looking for an overpriced, (most likely) oversized suit, then look no further: James Gandolfini is auctioning off twenty-four of the suits he wore as Tony Soprano. A couple questions: First, he got to keep those fucking suits? All of Them? Did he ever wear the same suit twice? Or just one an episode? I’d be looking to hawk some of those as well. Second, does it come with his chronic wheezing? I don’t want the suit unless respiratory disease is promised.

I love that we live in a world where Ashton Kutcher is now in a position to hire Kelsey Grammar and not the other way around. We have no idea what for and we’re already disinterested.

Reynoldsburg, Ohio native “Bow Wow” has joined the cast of Entourage. One of the five characters (likely Turtle) will almost certainly call him “dog” in some lame attempt at a pun, and everyone in the scene will laugh…this show needs to end.

Drea De Matteo is getting the Michael Richards treatment after her asinine decision to leave The Sopranos in favor of a spinoff sitcom on NBC. We said at the time it was probably the smart move since she was going to be killed off regardless, but we’ve heard contradicting reports. If in fact she opted to leave before discovering she would be killed off instead of as a result of it, then this website has little sympathy for her. At the same time, the failures of Joey had little to do with Matteo’s acting, and what little success they did have you could attribute at least 40% to her looks. True story.

Finally,HBO is set to air Bad Girls, a women’s prison drama that’s going to ruin all of our lesbian fantasies. Or maybe enhance them, who knows? If there is anyone that dreams of men hooking up with each other at a fervent pace, Oz most likely fulfilled those. Unless you like to live through your sexual encounters, then probably not. Seriously though, it looks great!

Have a thoroughly rewarding weekend.

Welcome back, hope everyone’s labor day was as reckless as mine. Whenever there is a three day weekend, that following Monday or Tuesday seems infinitely longer than a Monday after a two day weekend. It’s miserable, and that is exactly what I am today, fucking miserable. So my apologies for the lazy, dual post. But this is all I really have the energy/capacity for right now.

Entourage certainly could have been worse, but they fit so much into one episode it kind of ruined it. This is another situation where they could have spent three days in France working out who to sell the film to, instead we saw several abbreviated conversations then they dropped an anvil on us when the Arab guy doubled the studio’s offer and went straight to the financier, who then dropped the film because an isolated crowd at Cannes Film Festival didn’t enjoy it. Then Harvey, the abrasive studio head bought it for one dollar, promising to turn it around. Which will undoubtedly prove to be a successful venture by the end of next season.

At the very least, the project turned out to be somewhat of a bust (for now). On the other hand, Eric was proved right about it. And therein lies a problem, because regardless of which one of the parties was going to accurately project the movie’s success, and guess correctly (Eric or everybody else), it was going to be agitating. That is a significant problem when in a lighthearted, campy, summertime series, you wouldn’t mind seeing everyone fail. It might be worth addressing.

As for the peripheral aspects of this finale, the Johnny Drama plot was pretty overdone, and Ari felt obsolete (at least compared to how significant a role he should have played). Also, for those who feel this show is misogynistic, between the coke binges with Paul Rubenstein and his band of hookers, to the Arab guy fixing Turtle up with some free oral off-handedly, this episode did little to quell those complaints. Lloyd giving his boyfriend advice on the limbo was damn funny, though we could have done without that mamosa spout, but it caused quite the reaction with the people I was watching the show with. Who would have thought the highlight of an Entourage season finale would take place on a gay vacation?

Conchords actually ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, which will probably be dismissed with nothing more than a quick explanation (if that) in the season two premiere. Whether I like or dislike this is one thing, the fact that it worked well in this episode is undeniable. For one, we had a Dimitri Martin cameo, albeit an all but silent one, but anytime the best young comedian is involved, I tend to approve. Greg Fitzsimmons, who started this entire mess when Murray “discovered” him and his bongos, and caused a riff in the band when Murray forced him onto Bret and Jermaine.

Another great thing about this episode, we weren’t inundated with eight minutes of crappy songs like we usually are. Outside of a Footloose parody, a portion of “Crazy Dogs” new “Arf Arf” video, some tidbits of “The Humans Are Dead” performances (One with The Orginal Flight of The Conchords (Bret and Dimitri) and Flight of The Conchords (Greg and Jermaine)) and some rehersals; we were spared any uncomfortable, psuedo-videos that were beginning to test my patience. What we saw, sans the parody, was actually necessary to the plot and the humor was appropriately derivative.

This was a bizarre little episode, but enjoyable all the same. And a good conclusion to a successful pilot season. Whether they have enough versatility to stay interesting for a second season remains in question, but for now the series is a success, and we can leave it at that.

There it is, once Mad Men and Rescue Me wraps up their respective seasons, we are done with summer television on this site. Clear your schedules for It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Curb Your Enthusiasm both of which start next week.

And in the penultimate season four episode, the writers decided to devote ten minutes of screentime to probably the worst guest supporting role this series has ever had, then another seven or eight minutes listening to Ari and his wife have the most cliche husband-wife argument I’ve probably ever heard. In the remaining five to ten minutes we had left, some things were brought into the fray, and none of it was particularly memorable. Such as a potential fictional terrorist attack, entitled bitching about having to fly commercially and Vince and Eric arguning yet again over what course of direction to take with his suddenly disinteresting career.

But the Anna Faris thing is what really sucked the life out of this episode. The show isn’t one for spontaneity, so the route they took wasn’t terribly surprising. Eric hits on Anna, Anna has a boyfriend and asks him to manage, Anna dumps said boyfriend, Vince bitches to Eric about “losing focus”, Eric defends himself, he pursues her romantically, she the part ways professionally and personally. And all in three episodes! The issue with these meta-romantic interests is that we all know they’re temporary. So why droll them out trying to in an attempt to develop chemistry? If Anna Faris’ career were going as poorly as it should be, then maybe it would keep me in suspense. But instead she has a steady stream of work, and I know she’ll be a footnote in Entourage history by the end of the season. At least she has enough self-recognition to realize she might be being mocked when someone is complimenting her on Scary Movie.

Now to the Ari subplot. Are we supposed to believe Ari isn’t perceptive enough to detect that his wife was being coy when she claimed to be “fine” with not traveling to France? Needless to say she got her revenge for him taking what she said at face value by purchasing multiple, expensive products. That’ll learn him to always second guess her. God, what a miserable marriage that seems to be.

Outside of that, there really wasn’t much to discuss. Set aside a couple late cameos. One from Sydney Pollack who’s making the rounds this year on HBO series (he also played the wife murdering former oncologist who befriended Johnny Sack in this seasons “Stage 5″ episode of The Sopranos, and another from Kanye West, who was compensated for by having his song “Good Life” played over the credits. Both of whom offered the guys a flight to Canne, but since Pollack had limited capacity, Kanye saved the day at the last moment. It would have been fantastic if he was somewhat self-deprecating and wore a shirt that mocked his “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” diatribe. But no, he made a few bad jokes, saved the day and that was that. Still, the guy writes some decent hip-hop music.

Next weeks episode looks entertaining. Which is all I want from this show. A half hour of mindless humor with an industry plot. And if they cannot piece that together in an episode set at the Canne film festival, then it might be curtains for this series.

Back later with a recap of a dually mediocre Conchords episode.

Well, to summarize this episode, I think an exchange between me and a friend at around the twenty minute mark pretty much sums it up:

Friend: Is this episode really long? It seems long.
Me: Yeah, but its only twenty minutes through, so in actuality its no longer than usual but rather it just seems that way because it’s really, really awful.

Honestly, did they really have to clear the air for Eric to eventually date Anna Faris? Can’t she just be? That boyfriend was so over the top, and so contrived (and the entire concept seemed to be for Faris to make a Randy Jackson comparison) that it never really struck me as funny, just dull and predictable.

As for the main plot, I tend to enjoy these episodes, but having Ari running around trying to clean up the mess left by Billy Walsh, only to have Vince back him (yet again) and for everything to work out favorably (yet again), is growing tiresome. Even for me, and I tend to defend some of the idiocy of this series, claiming its just a comedy, and plot shouldn’t really factor into the criticism. But when the episode isn’t even funny, that’s not an appilcable defense, because if its not funny and its not interesting, then why the hell am I watching it?

As for the Anna Faris plot, she looks like she could be the series’ new Mandy Moore, except she’s dating Eric instead of Vince, and she’ll get twice as much screentime. One thing that was funny was Eric complimenting her work on the first Scary Movie with a straight face. I will give them this, as far as on screen romances are concerned, they do seems to have a healthy amount of chemistry, at least comparatively speaking. But its blatantly obvious what’s going to happen, Vince is going to bitch about no longer being a priority because Eric’s attention will be focused on Anna’s career (or at least Vince will perceive it to be). Initially Anna will be oblivious to the rif she is causing until she stumbles onto it and is conflicted, she will then leave him professionally, and possibly intimately as well. I imagine she will altogether so her arc eventually ends on this series. The end.

Really, outside of Ari registering surprise that Eric had another real client, the episode was devoid of any and all humor. I can honestly concede that this was probably the worst episode they’ve done on this show, and that includes the dud of a season three premiere, “Aquamom”. In short, the funniest thing about that half hour were the promos for the upcoming season of Curb, so hopefully this isn’t a trend.

Hope everyone had a great weekend, we saw The Simpsons Movie finally, and honestly cannot understand the rationale behind all the rave reviews. Honestly, its like ninety minutes of Homer beating the shit out of himself, and it really feels like the movie is sliding by on name credibility and longevity. Of course, there are a few moments that made me laugh, one in particular when Bart got drunk and Marge questioned him about it, his only response was, “I’m troubled”. But moments like that were few and far between, if forced to rate it I would give it a 3 out of 10.

Maybe I’m just in a pissy mood today, but Entourage was mediocre last night. Not much humor, very little drama and it was entirely too predictable, especially Eric representing Anna Faris, who could probably use a career coach of sorts (How does one recover from the Scary Movie franchise?). The thing about Eric that makes him so contemptuous, is not the fact he’s fallen ass backwards into a life and position of privilege, its that he is completely incapable of capitalizing on it, and whether it be Anna Faris or Ari Gold, the proper professional decision always needs to be spelled out for him. How could he be so dense as to not recognize the potential for Anna Faris as a client? What was he so distracted by, exactly, that made this such a surprise? And if a person like Eric is in such demand from the woman of Southern California, like he is portrayed on the show, then I’d probably rather have Anna Faris as a client than as a girlfriend.

Still, as predictable as it may be, I like the potential for an Eric-Vince confrontation, as I imagine Vince is incredibly possessive of him, and Eric probably resents it. Seems like it could be a touchy subject for both of the lads. And at this point, Drama is supposedly on a hit television series, though we never see it, why wouldn’t Eric represent him? 10% of an actors check is still money, regardless of who it is coming from. Maybe Drama doesn’t feel managerial respresentation is necessary, but the subject hasn’t even been broached.

The Ari subplot was entertaining, if only because it brought us Perry Reeves in an extended scene in her underwear. Why did she drop her rob there? I haven’t the foggiest, but I generally avoid questions in such instances, so as to minimize confusion. Whatever the reason was, I’m glad they did it. That being said, these little squabbles between Ari and his wife are mind numbingly boring. Ari even used the same disparagement about his wife’s aging facial features on three separate occasions, and one about the inadequacy of soap operas twice, talk about lazy writing. The only thing that was worthwhile about this (besides a half naked Peery Reeves, of course), was Ari trying to manipulate the situation on set. Otherwise, it was another isolated incident that will have no bearing on the rest of the series, and it was wrapped up entirely too neatly by episode’s end.

I wasn’t entirely disappointed with the episode. The new digs look pretty nice, and the weed/cop/three women with Turtle storyline was charming in its own way. I guess I just prefer the episodes that are more career oriented. That way Ari’s presence is relevant and guaranteed, and we don’t have to hear Eric lecture with that air of superiority he all too famous for now.

Sorry for the late post, surprisingly it isn’t my fault this time, as we were having technical issues, a problem I am too inept to resolve myself.

I think I am back to regularly enjoying Entourage. The episodes tend to lack symmetry and the continuity is horrible (why is Eric never asked to explain why he didn’t start up a private company, like, three years ago, or at least after Vince officially declared him his manager?), but there are a number of decent laughs and Ari coliding with the Sklar brothers (whom I normally cannot stand but they made for a good cameo this episode) provided us with the typically heartless Ari, a nice contrast since he left in tears to end last week. I was glad to see Ari get his commeupance when Mary J. Blige went to the rival agency as a direct result of him firing the man whose wife had cheated on him with his twin brother.

Vince, Turtle and Drama we’re pretty obsolete this episode. Little too know humor but very charitable, as Drama agreed to let Gary Busey paint him and Vince agreed to drop $42,000 on a desk (he agreed to the “Walk in The Clouds” film that will pay him six million if you are wondering where he got the money from, not that he couldn’t just charge it to that black card we keep seeing). Personally, after seeing him fucking in that bunny outfit last week, watching Busey splatter him in paint didn’t seem abnormal in any way. The bar has been set to high (or low, depending on your outlook) for me to be flummoxed by anything on this show now.

And Eric is definitely giving it the ol’ college try, but is so incredibly vapid its hard not to feel bad for him, regardless of how illegitimate and entitled he acts. At least he got some validation from Peter Jackson, who, much like everyone, finds Ari to be a soul-sucking parasite with nary a modicum of deceny. And that very well may be true in some cases, but the difference between abrasive Ari and wide-eyed Eric is the former actually gets shit done. To do so, especially in hollywood, requires a tinge of unpleasantness.

Again, this is all moot. Because as long as the show is funny, then I couldn’t give a fuck less about the plot or trite and redundant idiosyncrasies. The one people seem most annoyed with is Vince hooking up with every woman he comes across.

(I concede, it is a little reptitive, but is it really far-fetched? It isn’t all the irregular for women in SoCal to be attracted to wealth and fame. And why do people find it so irritating? Four guys living a charmed lifestyle in hollywood is the foundation of this show. If its so grating, then why did you start watching in the first place?)

However, between all the remarks about twins (or multiples, as Ari would put it), the dismissive comments in Ari’s conference (”if either of you mention it again I’ll kill you both”), Gary Busey having more unsettling dialogue and Eric being shot down at every turn, this episode was hitting on all corners in the comedy department. This “streak” that I was hoping they would keep up seems to be permanent and I was actually looking forward to last nights episode, so that has to indicate a dramatic improvement.

Flight of The Conchords recap possibly coming later.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So at what point do I stop watching this series? Not that last night was particularly bad, or offensive or anything, but therein lies the problem, it just wasn’t entertaining. If an episode doesn’t stand out as at least below average and all the while I’m just waiting for Flight of The Conchords to start, then the issue is obviously more with the series than the single episode.

One benefit of last night, is we got a cameo from Ned Ryerson of Groundhog Day, one downside to that is his character was given virtually no material. Playing the downtrodden, recently divorced mayor of Beverly Hills, Drama invited him out with Vince, Turtle and himself in hopes of getting the mayor laid in order to squeeze his apartment into the 90210 zip code.

After very little struggle shown (but mundanely discussed), Drama found a tall, statuesque looking woman with an interest in politics and conversely, the mayor himself. Only to be informed by the doorman that said woman was a man. Drama reluctantly goes to inform the mayor, whom is feeling such a bond with Anika, decides to take her/him home anyways. Unfortunately for them, TMZ catches them exiting Winstons and her flashing genitals a la Britney Spears as she gets into a car. I understand the satire and pop references here, but all I could think was that this guy, who’s clearly depressed, is now going to lose his job as a result of hanging out with Drama & Co.

(Also, would someone with an esteemed position such as Mayor of Beverly Hills really be that hard-pressed for some companionship? Clearly there are multiple people who would be willing to bribe him for favors, particularly wealthy, powerful people. He is just mayor of a suburb for the most part, but given its location and the size of his estate when they picked him up, it seems like he would be able to find a woman his age. Whatever, according to this series there isn’t a woman over 40 in SoCal, so maybe that’s the issue).

In business news, Ari had to read a 200 page script from M. Night Shyamalan who probably made the most humorless cameo in the history of Entourage cameos. But he has to deal with an engagement dinner for his wife’s friend (for her third marriage) and subsequently the valet switching his car with another Lexus LS hybrid. Some of the jokes here include finding a bag of dildo’s in the trunk, his wife demanding to be taken home before he tracks down his car that has the script in it, and him finally retrieving the car but getting pulled over going 140 mph and him reading the script in jail.

Yeah, it sounds mundane, but Piven can make anything attention grabbing with this character. After an all-night reading session in prison, Ari comes to find M. Night in his office, only to inform him that he altered the entire third act and wants Ari to read it from the beginning. Predictable, dull ending, and I’d like to see Ari concern himself more with the business end of things, but this was arguably the highlight of the episode.

Personally, I think the honor goes to Eric trying to break the news to Harvey that they aren’t selling him “Medellin”. This wouldn’t be an issue if they hadn’t already back stabbed him at Sundance in season 2, and if Harvey wasn’t completely certifiable. But they did and he is, so Eric never really gets around to the task after he threatens a competitor, makes a thinly-veiled threat to Eric about crossing him again and spends thousands of dollars on a dinner.

Later when they meet the rest of the gang at Winston’s, Drama, ecstatic that the leveling with the mayor went so smoothly, screams at Harvey as he is being dragged out by security for berating a waiter that they are taking the film to Canne and he will have to bid on it like everybody else. It probably sounds uneventful, but when Harvey threatens to pluck out a guys eyeball I can only claim boredom for so long.

Could this have been worse? Yeah, by a long shot. But I watched it, wasn’t terribly surprised by any turn of events and it was yet another isolated episode with no plot development. If they are going to continue making episodes that stand apart from the arc of the rest of the season, then they have to be funnier than they currently are. Because the few laughs I got last night wouldn’t warrant the half hour of consumption if Conchords wasn’t following it.

Speaking of which, back with a Flight of The Conchords recap.

So, did anyone feel like they could do without half of that story last night? One half was phenomenal, I couldn’t fall asleep as a result of the latter half. But at least we saw Eric and all his insecurity on full display and Vince gambling with money he doesn’t have to appease an acting legend.

As far as Eric once managing a Sbarro, for a kid that grew up with limited means in New York City and was somewhat troubled in high school (we always get references to his violent tendencies), there are much worse things he could be doing with his time than managing a fast food restaurant. He could be Dom, for example. But he is definitely hesitant to let hollywood players know about his career history, and when Vince calls attention to it, the cuts are that much deeper. Vince didn’t even call him pizza boy, he referenced it to make a point about his limited experience in producing films.

At the very least, he was being proactive. He saw a potential problem, looked for a resolution and sold a movie to a distributor that hated him on a trailer for $25 million. Again, he was a little too proactive and may have a verbal agreement with the hollywood equivalent of Elaine’s dad from Seinfeld, but the fact he was able to accomplish what he did was impressive. Even if it was ill-advised.

I also enjoyed that look he flashed Billy Walsh as he walked off, I get the impression the devolving partnership between those two will result in multiple missed punches and a screaming match while several onlookers restrain the two stubborn, opinionated hot heads.

Oh, and the Dennis Hopper cameo, how bizarre was that? I assume he just wanted to promote soccer in a mainstream US venue, because the entire scene wasn’t about much else other than Vince spontaneously gambling with money he doesn’t have, and illustrating that Dennis Hopper still hangs out with the production crew from Easy Rider as well as the muscle bound Italian from OZ that was raped by Adabisi.

Also, I like Vince claiming he was having a “hard day” in this episode as a reason for lashing out at Eric. Look, I live a pretty relaxed lifestyle, I never really have any complaints. But if a hard day for me ever consists on gambling with money I don’t have, then through an extenuating set of circumstances actually winning when I should have lost, then presumably sleeping with a beautiful woman I barely know based solely on name credibility, I suspect I would consider the droll I do now a little more tedious than it already seems. But Eric had been busting his ass all day getting chewed out by Walsh, then Ari and now Vince. Seems like Vince doesn’t have much room for complaint.

As for the other storyline that I refuse to rehash in detail here, all I will say is this, I would rather watch Turtle and Drama party plan than banter about rim jobs from fifty year-olds. Maybe I’m in a the minority on this one, but I would hope I’m part of at least a plurality, if not a majority.

Its really hard to quantify the strength of these episodes when half of it is so immensely enjoyable and the other half makes me want to take a shower based on a vicarious horrific experience. All in all, it has been the best episode of this short season, and a little over half of it was quality material. I geuss that says something about the direction the series is taking.

Flight of the Conchords post coming later today/early tomorrow.

Finally, an opportunity for some long term consequences for Entourage’s entourage. It’s been a long time coming for them to produce a conflict that exceeded two episodes, this may be the closest we get. Of course it could be a red herring, just in case any of us weren’t fully mourning the death of The Sopranos.

The determination of whether or not a film will turn into a success has always lied on Eric. That’s why he is Vince’s manager, after all, because he has “instinct”; or at least that is the reason they kid themselves into believing, so he can assume a position he is utterly unqualified for. But he has always been right in the past… in the interest of consistency, and to even further rationalize Eric having an authority position at all, I suggest they have this film bomb. Next week looks promising as they investigate detaching Walsh from the film’s post-production.

Which is also recommended, I have always found Walsh to be more interesting than the four main characters, but the archtype of the capricious director is really grasping at straws now. When Walsh flew out of his production studio on a bike, an over the top stunt with no real plausibility that commanded our attention, they could have at least had the film reel that Vince and Eric were there to see in plane site, because as far as I could tell, they just forgot about it and Walsh left the studio without it in hand.

One thing about this episode I loved was the return, if only a brief one, of Marvin the money manager. One, whay are they still employing this guy? Because, as he put it, “You (Vince and Eric) never listen to a fuckin’ word I say”. Still, any appearance, cameo or otherwise from an actor who had a role in Goodfellas is welcomed.

Speaking of cameo’s, did anyone else recognize Dr. Katz as the headmaster at Ari’s kids school? Not nearly as timid in this role, is he? The decision for them to withhold admission from Ari’s son because of his antics and constant undermining of the school as well as Ari immediately pulling his daughter out of class made sense from both angles. Also, it wasn’t entirely predictable. I thought the outcome would result in Terrence (his former boss, played by Malcom MacDowell) being on the other end of little Ari’s barring, but it ended up just Ari’s personality was detrimental to his kids enrollment, a little occam’s razor for Entourage, certainly did not see that coming.

In a plot line that is inconsequential to the rest of the series, it ended up stealing the episode. mainly because while I am interested in the inner-workings of Vince’s career, i’d rather it consist of more than chasing an self-absorbed, insecure director around town. You know there’s a problem when Eric is the most grounded person out of the group. At least with Ari, while he may be temperamental, he recognizes when his shortcomings are worthy of consequence and when they are not. For a school so prestigious I am not surprised they would kick his family out for such a minor infraction, but for the amount of money Ari was giving in tuition and donations, not even waiting for his daughter to get out of class to pull her out of the school was an appropriate decision.

Also, Eric and Sloane are on a break? Is he out of his God damn mind? I guess she ended up objecting to him spending six months in Colombia. With that said, at least her objection took place off-camera, to make it somewhat applicable, because her putting up a fight because someone is doing their job would have been a little out of character.

What else? What else? Oh, the Turtle-Drama storyline, as always is supposed to generate humor, but this week I didn’t find it particularly funny (not that it was offensive or anything, just too simple) or believable. Drama is always eccentrically stubborn, but honestly, why not just throw the party that your brother doesn’t even care about at his hotel room? You know, the temporary living quarters where nothing needs to be kept in mint condition. The issue here just wasn’t legitimate, effectively drowning virtually all of the humor out of the premise.

Really not the best episode, more quality lines than usual but since I’m at work and cannot remember most of them specifically, you’re either going to have to watch the episode yourself or simply take my word for it. Back with a Flight of the Conchords recap later.

A good start to season four and probably the best season premiere other thean season two (in which the “gang” returned from New York to find that offers weren’t coming in quite as steadily as before they left). Maybe it was the new setting, maybe it was the mock documentary setting (actually, I know it wasn’t that), maybe it was the fact Billy Walsh was prominently involved and we actually saw some on set work; whatever it was this season ahead looks promising.

Reportedly, Johnny Drama is supposed to have a love interest this season. My guess would be that Sofia Vergara turns out to be that love interest, which at least makes for some decent eye-candy. The revelation would also be somewhat ironic considering how everyone was so quick to dismiss Drama’s chances with her. Drama seems crassly over-confident, conventional wisdom would tell you it came from somewhere and at some point in the series Drama would demonstrate exactly that.

One thing I am thankful for is the absence of Turtle’s quasi-girlfriend, his role in this episode was marginalized, which is appropriate being on a film set and all. Turtle doesn’t serve much of a purpose in this setting, or in LA, or at home, etc. Honestly how does he fill the hours on a film set in Colombia?

Vince’s acting, how shall we say… left something to be desired. It’s doesn’t really have any bearing on my overall opinions of the series, its not that difficult to mask good drama with bad drama, especially in such small doses. Other than that he was kept on the sidelines in generic makeup and waiting to utilize a horrendous accent. The scene where he kicked the soccer ball and yelled “Goooaaaalllll!” while that kids father was simultaneously being executed was a bit much, especially when Vince began eating a bag of chips afterwards.

Eric, as usual, played peacemaker. Usually keeping Billy from going ballistic on the film crew and from self-destructing. Even “E” was at his wits end with Billy, whom he threatened to beat him senseless to Vince. I really want to know what its like to be the only character on this series who never has a decent punchline. Seriously, this must be a visceral experience for Kevin Connolly.

But really the central figure in this episode was Billy Walsh, who’s portrayal as a run of the mill pretentious film director really shines through. Some might say he is trying too hard to sell the role, but since he’s there for comedy’s sake, I thought it was pitch perfect. From tackling the photography director after the questionable DP that made it “look like an after school special” to demanding the film crew abstain from sex when he was worried Sofia Vergara was sleeping with someone (”show me a woman who just wants to be friends and I’ll show you the guy fucking her”) to scoffing at practice readings (particularly Drama’s), he Jeremy Piven and Adam Goldberg made the episode (what else is new?). Just the concept of this guy is funny enough in and of itself, like passing out while writing all night in a small hub with the door open, immediately after bringing Stephen Gaghan (wrote Traffic, Syriana) for a brief cameo.

My only qualm really had nothing to do with the episode but what the episode indicated about the season in general. That is, I didn’t think they would fast track the film making process in a half hour, I was under the impression that it would be stretched out over the course of a few weeks before they returned home. On the other hand, given that this is Entourage, therefore it’s inevitable the film is made and to a successful result; and they decided to use that tired mock documentary formatting, it’ not such a bad thig they got this out of the way. One episode with multiple camera interviews is enough, this isn’t Survivor. Also, this episode was Piven-light, when it comes to Entourage, the more Piven we get the better the episode tends to be.

All in all, a suitable opening that gives the new season a proper starting point. For a series or season premiere, isn’t that all you can ask for?

A review of the hilariously funny Flight of The Conchords coming later today or tomorrow. If you do not have HBO, you can watch several clips of it here.