Monday, August 14, 2006

Entourage: Beat on the Ari with a baseball bat?

What if I was to tell you that an episode of "Entourage" would feature guest appearances by Oscar winner Martin Landau and the guy who plays Wee-Bey on "The Wire"? Is that something you would be interested in?

What started off kind of slow turned out to be one of the best episodes of the season, thanks largely to Landau's great performance as the out-of-touch Bob Ryan, who's not so out-of-touch that he doesn't realize how out-of-touch he is. (Get me?) I had a feeling that the meeting was going to somehow turn out in Eric's favor, but the shot of E, Vince and Bob strutting through Ari's office to the tunes of "Blitzkrieg Bop" still put a big smile on my face (especially as I noticed the weird yet appropriate walk Landau had given Bob).

The subplot with Vince and Lindsay Sloane (whom I've liked ever since "Grosse Pointe") didn't really go anywhere, unfortunately. "Friends" did the whole celebrity list years ago, and unless there's a follow-up where Lindsay's fiance decides he's suddenly not cool with it, this felt like filler.

On the plus side, there was Drama's pathetic attempt to play Columbo with Saigon's mom and Hassan Johnson doing his best Suge Knight impression as Saigon's old/new manager. Sweet.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

dude. you must be kidding. this episode was re-tard-ed. seriously. it made the vegas episode look like a masterpiece. it was slow, silly, and boring. you definitely grade this show on a curve. or you're still drinking the kool-aid.

Daniel said...

The Vince stuff had a purpose -- the user ends up feeling used, blah blah blah. It just wasn't an interesting purpose.

Nor am I really convinced that this season was supposed to build to Vince deciding he wants to do a Ramones biopic. It seems somehow silly to me, despite how good Landau was in the episode.

However, any episode were Johnny Drama gets to speak in Ebonics has its share of pleasures.

I'm just glad Seth Green didn't need to show up again...

-Daniel

Anonymous said...

Definitely one of the best episodes of this season, due almost solely to the amazing Martin Landau.

And, yes, knowing Martin Landau and Wee-Bay would be in the episode would have made me watch if I had not seen the show before.

BTW, on THE WIRE front, the preview HBO is currently showing for the show is amazing. That is the one show I've been jonesing for the most the past year and one-half.

Toby O'B said...

Landau was fantastic and I hope he's around at least through the end of the season. I hope the Emmy bigwigs keep his performance in mind for next year's nominations.

Credit also has to be given to the writers for creating such a sad yet self-knowing character like Bob who ultimately gets a triumphant return to being relevant.

And I also enjoyed seeing that gait that Landau gave Bob.

Alan Sepinwall said...

Anonymous, I'm assuming you're the same guy who shows up every Monday to complain about how bad this season has been and express your disbelief that I'm not as outraged as you are.

Look, my opinion is my opinion. I don't start hyping a show because it's hip or bagging on a show because the world has already declared that it jumped the shark. "Entourage" is a show that I hated in its first season. Hey-ted. But it's really grown on me, and while this season hasn't been strong every single week, don't forget that late last season we had to suffer through Vince's Mandy Moore-induced mopery.

And I'm with everybody in pulling for Landau to get an Emmy nod next year. On the plus side, movie actors (even if they haven't been movie stars in decades) tend to be locks for the guest actor nominations (see Ellen Burstyn's nomination for a 17-second performance in an HBO movie this year).

Jocke said...

I must say that I didn´t really liked this episod but when the music started and they went in to Aris office I totally went nuts. Damnit I want to see that movie IRL I don´t care about Aquaman but a Ramones movie would be so awesome.

Louis said...

Hey jocke, have you seen End of the Century? If you haven't, then go find it. It's an excellent Ramones documentary.

Jocke said...

No I haven´t must check it out. Really I would most like to see a film about Joe Strummer but since its hollywood I have no chance in hell to see that but a Ramones flick could I atleast see possible somehow.

Unknown said...

I think Vince's potential Ramones biopic gives the show an interesting potential storyline: there will inevitably be 3 actors playing the other Ramones. What happens to E, Turtle and Drama when Vince starts to work/bond with his faux-bandmates?

Anonymous said...

Isn't Vince going to have to lose weight and wear lifts to play this part. It'll be fun to see him go method, being the De Niro/Pacino wannabe he is.

Anonymous said...

My one disappointment with the episode is that it needed more David Paymer. (My, how he's physically deteriorated since "State and Main"--is he alright?)

I liked the celebrity list thing, since it was just a punchline, and Vince was embarrassed enough about it that he didn't mention it to E.

Anonymous said...

Lame! Just watched the show and, yeah, it's over the shark and after this season, I'm out, if not all ready. the last ep sucked, too. Vince as Joey fuckin' Ramone? NO m'f way! thats strains credibility even furhter. Too bad. Loved the first two seasons. NEXT!!!