Entourage
This past Sunday marked the end of the HBO series Entourage. That makes two shows this year that have ended which made up a substantial portion of TV that I have watched over the past 5 plus years, the other being Friday Night Lights.
To say that the final season of Entourage was weak is a bit of an understatement. It was only 8 episodes long and it seemed like they waited until the final 2 or 3 episodes to dive into any meaningful story lines and then they just crammed everything in or plain left things out.
A lot of people have said the last 3 season were crappy. I don't totally agree with that but I will agree that the first 4 season are the shows best. Season 7 was actually very strong with Vince finally getting into hard core drugs and trouble, something they could have done in previous seasons. Coincidentally, it was around season 4 that the nudity stopped completely. I'm not saying you need naked girls to have a good show, but it certainly helps when the show in question has no real substance anyways. Which brings us to the heart of the matter with Entourage.
The show had a very confusing identity. Is it a drama, is it a comedy? Which characters should I root for and are inherently good, which ones aren't? Entourage crossed these wires almost on a weekly basis with some characters. Take E for example. He's built up as this nice guy for most of the series and then he turns into the biggest D-bag ever. Ultimately, most of the characters are forgettable and we as viewers form no real attachment to them. Outside of Ari and Drama I really didn't care what happened to anyone so long as I laughed a few times and maybe got to see some titties.
The early seasons of the show were all about Vince. As he went through his trials and became established the show began focusing more on his "entourage," which is fine. I don't think 8 seasons of all Vinny chase would have lasted. Getting into Drama and Ari's careers was a good move. Turtle, while amusing never carried any real weight in the series. On that topic, Billy Walsh needed more time on screen than what he got.
So now its over. Allegedly there's a movie coming out which I would assume ties up the loose ends left by the finale. I'll most likely go see it just because I've already invested the time in the series. Id probably give the series a B+ overall as it was fairly solid and occasionally brilliant but ultimately came up just a little short.
