Grid Effect

So, uhh, that was different. This whole season has had a different tone than the past four and we can’t decide if its a good direction for the show or not, but it definitely keeps our interest piqued. For starters, its looking more and more like this season might end on a somber note. Or rather, as somber as we ever fathomed this series could be. Which is to say, the four characters go back to Queens and sleep with insanely attractive women on a limited budget, as opposed to living in LA and sleeping with insanely attractive women with a limitless credit line.

Vince has always been a spoiled character. sorely lacking any real world perspective. Like turning down a $1,000,000 model shoot to chase a girl but never talk to her again. But at the same time we couldn’t help but sympathize with him while he was being chewed out in front of hundreds of stagehands on set. Sure, we thought the takes he was giving were dry and lacking any real depth, but the reaction to it seemed wholly unnecessary.

Obviously we thought everything would be resolved by the end of the episode, and either the director would have been canned or they would have made peace with each other. Instead they send all four of the characters both to Queens for an undisclosed period of time after all production is shut down, Dana Gordon will probably lose her job and Ari (at least for now) regretting passing on the studio job.

So long Dana, we hardly knew ye.

The climactic scene with the director running into John Ellis’ office while everyone chased him was fairly cartoonish. I hope there was a precedent for that, because the shaky camera and angered looks on everyone’s faces while they all trot-jogged through that office was…abrupt. I guess that was supposed to be in character for that director, but they went so far out of their way to vilify him this episode that it didn’t feel organic, but rather a plot piece forced upon us to justify Vince flying back home. We will concede that he was a welcomed change to Walsh, who had ran his course about five episodes into last season.

Turtle being given a subplot in the penultimate episode was unexpected but welcomed. Out of the five main characters, he is given by far the least amount of screen time. Its not even close. Drama is second to last and he has been given girlfriends, back-story, a career and a persona (which is like Paulie Walnuts at this point).  But Turtle has been given a music manager career that  they touched on for maybe five episodes before Wee-Bey from The Wire “deaded” that, a girlfriend that up and disappeared after roughly two or three episodes, and an unintentionally comical infatuation for overpriced low-top sneakers. That’s it.

But last night we got some back story, a real name, an indication that he wasn’t always a shiftless moocher. So while it looks like this is over for now, it was a refreshing change. Even if it was completely inconceivable and just an excuse to squeeze one more cameo and simultaneously get Jerry Ferrara’s girlfriend some acting work.

All in all, it was a pretty solid lead-in to a finale for what’s a semi-bounce back season (If it wasn’t for installments like “Redomption” and “Tree Trippers“, we would go with the full-fledged bounce back instead using the “semi” caveat). Entourage has never been a great work of art as either a comedy or a drama, but we are glad to see that they decided to show a little more ambition this season.

Life and Times of Tim review later.