Grid Effect

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.