Grid Effect

Greetings from Arizona! We are obviously still on vacation but found some free time and figured we’d get this out of the way so it is one less thing we have to do when we get back. As a result of our limited availability, it is relatively short.

One thing we never liked about the last season and a half of Entourage was the fact that nothing was ever pertinent to the series unless it was happening in Ari’s office with Eric and Vince. Drama was obsolete and Turtle was completely irrelevant except for the occasional punchline despite being a lead character. Unless they were talking about Vince’s career, everything else around that would be discarded and forgotten in two episodes time. We were at a point where It’s Always Sunny had more continuity than Entourage.

The same cannot be said for season five. Drama has a career and a girlfriend that are both integral to the plot, Turtle is given more to do (regardless of how absurd it is) and seems to be suffering from something of an inferiority complex (he was absolutely hammered this episode). Eric is branching out, Vince actually functions like a human being and Eric now has a life that doesn’t revolve around his insecure best friend. Needless to say, we like what they are doing with this season.

When Vince was handed down from Justine Chapeman to her friend (whom was immensely sympathetic) at one point he said, “something isn’t right about today”, and we couldn’t agree more. There was something odd about how this episode was shot. It almost had a melodramatic feel to it and a Sopranos approach to shooting. In a lot of ways it was distracting being in such contrast to the usual Entourage style, but on a repeat viewing we adapted and enjoyed it. If they can add humor (which this episode was admittedly lacking) with quality storytelling, then we can finally stop scoffing at this as legitimate fluff and an illegitimate narrative .

Hopefully this isn’t a short term change. We like Eric attempting to sign new writers, Drama with a life, Vince with ambition and Turtle with a conscious. The scene between Ari and Vince where Ari leveled with him about his beshitted career was one of the better honest assessments we’ve ever seen of Vince Chase, and it paid off well. Usually they save these exchanges for Eric and Ari, but throwing Adrian Grenier in Eric’s spot (which he surprisingly excelled in) was a nice change of pace, as was Eric being completely flustered going into his meeting with Carla Gugino’s character.

The only downside to this episode was the misogyny that so many seem to complain about on this series was in full force on Sunday. The two most glaring instances occurred when Turtle convinces an idiot girl to cheat on her boyfriend and Vince treats some girl who doesn’t care if he addresses her with a name different from his own like an expendable object. I guess that is bullshit anyways. There are no girls from Ohio with the name Michala. But when everyone complains about an aspect of a show and said show goes out of their way to rub said aspect in your face, it is difficult to ignore.

Other than that, all the cameos come off as annoyingly self-satisfied and we still do not give a shit about any of Vince’s love interests. Still a good follow-up to a solid season premiere. Again, we hope it isn’t a fad and are cautiously optimistic.

We’ll try to get to an It’s Always Sunny recap later today, if not expect it on Tuesday night.