Grid Effect

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.