Absolutely f#cking not!
While I still have yet to catch the season finale, I can unequivocally declare that episodes 9, 10, and 11 flat out blew. Has this show jumped the shark? I hate Martin Landau, but he's not the only reason why the third season of "Entourage" has spiraled downward (approaching "The OC" season 3 status).
It seems like nowadays, after two great seasons, writers are anxious to get away from what made their show successful in the first place (this does not include "Arrested Development" and hopefully, it will not include "House" or "The Office"). In the case of "Entourage", audiences love seeing the guys being guys in Tinseltown: cracking on each other, mingling with celebs, checking out the occasional boobies, dealing with the limelight (and Ari)… essentially opening doors that are closed to us regular folks. But the most important ingredient to their lightning-in-a-bottle creation was the fact that the guys were doing all of these things as a group.
I understand the need for the characters to grow as individuals (Turtle with his rap mogul career, Drama with his eccentricities, and E with his fizzled out ménage a tois), but none of their endeavors led to anything and we were forced to sit through sub-par episodes that featured very little group interaction. Did they even have a story arc for this season? What’s more, Vince’s career has completely stalled, hit a road block, reached the point where Shauna should be enacting martial law and sending Vinnie on goodwill missions to every talk show and prominent studio in an attempt to quell the damage. Paul Haggis was endlessly entertaining during the episode in which he appeared and “Medellin” would have been a fun project to track. It’s such a shame that “Queen’s Boulevard” (the focus of the second half of season 1, and the first half of season 2) turned out to be a big nothing. They just dismissed the film in a whimsical, disjointed episode. Great, Vince has artistic integrity… but wait, he won’t even read his own scripts? I really hope that they have an over-arching plan that will make sense of all this madness. But I digress and return to the focus of this blog post: the past few episodes and where it all could have been corrected.Leading up to Vegas, I think the writing staff probably realized that they had to bring all the boys back together. Sin City must have seemed like the perfect setting for a high-stakes, booze-riddled, stripper-laden, testosterone romp. It held so much promise. And in theory, everything should have worked out. That should have been the episode that made them tight again. We should have seen the guys and Ari congregated around the black-jack table, happy, light-hearted, making jokes with the dealer, sucking down Red Bull and Vodkas, tipping the waitress with $100 chips, searching for Drama at 6 AM the next morning, only to find him playing penny slots at the “Aladdin.” They should have been walking down the strip, slamming $30 margaritas that come in two-foot tall souvenir bottles (and knock you on your ass). They should have been chilling with A-list celebrities, drunkenly discussing future projects, placing bets on the fights, the horses, the strippers they ordered. And on that note, they should have gone to Spearmint Rhinos and we should have seen boobs.
They should have been banging cocktail waitresses… two at a time (see: Fredo in “The Godfather Part II”) or at least made a reference to it (see: Vince Vaughn in “Swingers”). They should have ended the episode the way they used to end episodes back in season 1: with the guys on a balcony, staring out at The Strip from their unreal suite at Caesar's Palace (they should've stayed at Caesar's Palace... it would have given Drama the opportunity to dress up in his "Viking Quest" costume and pretend to be a casino employee). This should have been a refreshing episode, a great start to a new period in Vince's career and (subsequently) their lives. But that's not what happened.Instead, the only gambling action we got to witness were Vinnie and Ari's stressful, and might I add depressing, blackjack games. Why would they let Vince sit alone by himself at a table? What fun is that? What's with the schmuck splitting tens when Vince has $300,000 riding on the hand, and then oh, magically it all works out? What's with E, Turtle, and Drama never making one bet whatsoever… not even at the $1 Wheel of Fortune slot machine that you find in every casino. Drama didn’t set up camp at the “Aladdin”, feverishly rip into a roll of pennies and go on an all-night binge (which would have been hilarious). Nope, he spent the entire time flirting with some dude, rendering himself useless for nearly the entire episode. All in all, their gambling exploits were severely lacking. Did they even head to any other casinos? They never did the walk down the Strip. And which celebrities did they run into? How convenient, Seth Green and his worthless pack of hooligans showed up… and by the way, his posse might be the worst set of actors to have been featured on any television show, this side of Public Access. The cocktail waitresses were never highlighted or even spoken to. Turtle dealt with a lot of strippers, but no lap dances, private shows, or even pole dances made their way onto the screen. Nope, the episode ended with a brawl between two guys who probably aren’t even tall enough to ride the rollercoaster at “New York, New York.”
As far as “Entourage” jumping the shark: I think the last great episode I saw was the premiere of “Aquaman” when they got stuck in the Valley and it was hot as hell… (I probably like it so much because I can empathize). It didn’t even bother me that they blatantly stole from a Cameron Crowe film for the second time (i.e. Vince with his “Almost Famous” moment… the first theft occurred towards the end of season 2 when Ari transformed into “Jerry Maguire”). The Valley episode was fantastic. Since then, I think the comedy level and cool factor has dropped dramatically.
I loved season 1 and 2, and so I’m hoping that they can right the ship in season 4… but as of right now, it looks like everyone should stand back and keep their distance… because “Entourage” is goaltending like Topanga Lawrence after the “Freshman 50” took its toll… (It should be noted that I never stopped loving Topanga and I’ll never stop watching “Entourage”… but I also won’t stop critiquing and criticizing if the quality remains this low).
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