Entourage was back with its first new episode since last October, and I was more impressed with the episode than I thought I’d be. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t heard glowing advance reviews of this seventh season so far.
The sixth season wrapped up with E proposing to Sloan, Turtle trying to win Jamie-Lynn, Ari buying Terrence’s company and Vince heading to Italy to film a movie with Drama in tow. The seventh season kicked off in high gear, and I can only guess that quite a bit of imaginary time went by between the season six finale and last nights premiere.
First of all, the boys are back in town – Vince was shooting a movie in L.A. where E and Ari were still working for him. Drama, who apparently didn’t quit acting after all, was looking for work and Turtle was back from New Zealand without Jamie-Lynn but with a brand new chauffeur biz.
Here’s a question: Did Kevin Connolly always get first billing in the credits? I thought it would have been Adrian Grenier, especially because we didn’t see that much of E this episode. All we got were a couple good conversations between him and Ari and confirmation that, yes, he is still engaged to Sloan. I liked Ari’s version of marital advice: “Like a hostage with a machete to his neck, you have to put on a good face for the camera.”
Ari was back in fine form as The Most Powerful Agent In The World. He’s now the head of the biggest agency and everyone wants a piece of him, including his wife – we saw he hadn’t changed when he missed meeting her for a parent/teacher meeting. Twice. Lloyd is now an agent, and I can’t wait to see where that goes. Lloyd has always been one of my favorite characters, since he plays somewhat of a level-headed straight man (comedy wise, anyway) to hotheads like Ari and Drama. And since Drama is reaching new levels of crazy in his quest for a TV show I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of interaction between Drama and Lloyd.
Of all the characters, it seemed like Turtle had changed the most. Last season he was taking college business classes and lovesick over Jamie-Lynn. Now he’s the head of his own chauffeur business, with a gang of hot female drivers to manage. Deep down, though, he’s still the same old Turtle. After trying to kiss one super-hot and completely incapable driver (played by Dania Ramirez) who he was supposed to fire, things are going to get awkward.
The main storyline, centered around Vince, might have been the weakest one. While Vince is shooting a movie with the crazy, tattooed director Nick Cassavetes (playing himself) he gets peer-pressured into agreeing to do a dangerous stunt. Parts of the storyline worked. I like when we see how much Vince still relies on his “entourage” whether he’s up or down. I believed that he didn’t want to come across like an asshole on the movie set by refusing to do the stunt, and needed Ari and E to help him get out of it. It was when Vince’s ego got just a little too bruised and he decided to do the stunt that things went awry. Vince screwed up the stunt and for a second (maybe just a millisecond) it looked like maybe he’d gotten hurt. Nope, no injuries – but Vince walked out of the car with an entirely new personality. The kid didn’t even know how to drive a car last season, am I really supposed to believe that he’s some big daredevil now? I like Vince as a fun-loving, good-looking, smarter-than-he-seems actor who just wants to make a lot of movies and bang a lot of chicks. (I wouldn’t normally say something like that, but it comes with the territory when talking about Entourage).
Overall, it was an enjoyable half hour – but it’s early yet. I didn’t love last season, and I’m not sure how much longer Entourage can last. It’s time may be up, especially if this season is going to be themed “Golden Boy With a Death Wish”.
