THE THIRD ESCOBAR: I have to apologize to the makers and fans of Glee, which I frequently call the laziest-written show on television. Last night I caught the season premiere of Entourage, and I went, "oh, yeah, now that is the laziest-written show on television." Allow me to relate the plot of last night's episode:
Turtle is running a sexy-driver car service. Excellent business model. Apart from the expense account unreimbursability, how much ogling can one do from the back seat, where all one can see of the driver is the back of the head and whatever is reflected in the rear-view mirror? Turtle sexually harasses his worst driver.
Eric ineffectually makes three phone calls.
Drama doesn't get a new show.
Vinnie Chase is an action hero in an expensive-looking scarf. He doesn't want to do his own stunt, but tells only his agent and manager, and refuses to tell the director. He eventually does the stunt, but messes it up and breaks character, shrieking "the brakes don't work!" in mid-air (maybe the brake pedal got caught on his scarf?), and almost killing the director. Nobody notices. Vince is triumphant.
Isaac, why do you torture yourself?
ReplyDeleteAs I noted last night on Twitter: "<span><span><span>I'm betting this season on Entourage, there seem to be complications, but all winds up working out for Vincent Chase." The show has been very funny about Hollywood in the past, but with bizarro diversions as "Turtle winds up dating Jamie Lynn-Sigler FOR NO APPARENT REASON" and the endless series of "E and Sloan" plot contrivances, they need to come up with something interesting beyond the Lloyd scenes, which remain funny.
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This show bores me. I feel like there are a slew of shows that have survived an extra season thanks to a gay sidekick but I can't think of them right now.
ReplyDeletePut me down in the "I never got its appeal in the first place" camp for Entourage.
ReplyDeleteI think you're all just being mean. I must be simpleminded but I really love this show. I admit, however, that I haven't seen last night's episode yet.
ReplyDeleteNot being mean; I just have never managed to sit through an entire episode without realizing I'd rather be doing something else. And I can passively watch crap with the best of 'em (like what I was watching last night while not watching Entourage: the even-more-disappointing-than-I-could-have-imagined Syfy Original Movie Sharks in Venice, with Stephen Baldwin. Because there are sharks. In Venice.).
ReplyDeleteI dropped HBO two years ago (since I really only watched Entourage and Big Love) so I'm a full season behind, but I do like the show. Admittedly, my expectations for it are pretty low. As long as I get a funny Lloyd/Ari scene and maybe some random Ari freaking out on employees/other drivers/pedestrians/etc. or his wife bossing him around.
ReplyDeleteSlightly random but sort of on topic: a friend recently posted on Facebook that Entourage was filming right next to where she was having lunch and apparently Piven was the only cast member posing for photos with tourists. I kind of thought they'd all be a little nicer to the fans but I guess not.
I remember at one point I actually liked this show. I rented seasons 1 and 2 on DVD and there was something about it that was actually entertaining. And then I kept watching for two seasons after it stopped seeking any kind of plot or character development. If I go back and watch early episodes will I confirm that the show has simply stopped caring or realize that the show was never any good? Because I really did enjoy it for a while.
ReplyDeleteVenice, Italy? Or Venice, California? I must know.
ReplyDeleteItaly!
ReplyDeleteI've rarely felt self loathing after watching something on television, but congratulations Entourage, you did it!
ReplyDeleteOn the very slim segue reed of lazy "artists", I feel compelled to post the link to this WaPo review of the recent Courtney Love concert at the 930 Club in DC, which manages to portray the concert as both amazingly surreal and awful while simultaneously being unsurprising: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/06/in_concert_hole_at_930_club.html
<span>Italy!</span>
ReplyDeleteI'm really not trying to be mean. I just don't understand how on earth somebody writes a plotline like sexy chauffeur, or Scorsese loved Vince in the disastrous dailies of Smoke Jumpers and cast him in Gatsby, or Vince is some sort of Marine with an exemption from Marine haircut regulations, or Jamie Lyn Sigler falls in love with Vince's hairy egg-shaped dropout assistant, or Johnny Drama is a legitimate TV star, or Eric fails with every client he ever has but some management company stalks him into joining them, without going, wait, does this make a lick of sense? It seems like the solution to every problem on this show is "Vince buys somebody a car."
ReplyDeleteI fold laundry on Sunday nights. eh. I am over this show, but like I said, I am folding laundry so watching this is as good as anything else when we are in the deadzone of entertainment known as "summer". So, I watch for Ari, Lloyd and for over-hearing some of the negotiation shenanigans, but other than that, not much else. I never bought into the Vincent Chase, Movie Star schtick anyway.
ReplyDeletere: the comment of Piven posing with fans -- A friend of mine living in LA had a negative experience with Adrian Grenier - he acted pretty snooty in a situation that did not warrant it. My friend, who is not even an Entourage fan, just happened to be sitting at a nearby table in a restaurant while Grenier was meeting with someone (seemed to be an agent or something business-related). She received very negative vibes from the guy - as if it was *her* fault she got seated too close to his table.
I haven't seen Entourage for a few years, so I have nothing to say on that, but to the extent the title is a reference to the 30 for 30 "The Two Escobars," WATCH IT NOW!
ReplyDeleteCan I "like" that twice? The Two Escobars is that well done. OMG, the scorpion kick.
ReplyDeleteI should report that the other Syfy Original Movie that I watched last night, Dinocroc vs. Supergator, completely blew Sharks in Venice (and, by the transitive property, also Entourage) out of the water. We had genetically altered reptiles running amok through what looked like a Hawaii devoid of native Hawaiians, we had a "Cajun" croc/gator hunter devoid of any sort of Cajun accent or accoutrements, and we had one of David Carradine's final performances (devoid of very much dignity). A win-win-win!
ReplyDeleteBefore the premiere of 30 for 30, I was halfway into a video promo for The Three Escobars, cutting footage of Medellin into the trailer for the documentary, but it just wasn't working. The only part that worked was the cut to the Medellin footage of Chase-as-Escobar kicking the soccer ball.
ReplyDeleteThis shows only that I'm thinking about sexy chauffeurs way too much, but wasn't this ground sufficiently mined for all possible comedic value in the 1986 cheesefest My Chauffeur, starring Deborah (Valley Girl) Foreman, Sam J. (Flash Gordon) Jones, and Howard ("WKRP") Hesseman?
ReplyDeleteNow I've seen it. Maybe you weren't all that mean, it was kind of crap. And, no nudity???? WTF OVER. It's HBO, and I want liberal use of the f bomb and nudity. And, Ari wasn't very funny. And, Lloyd wasn't flamboyant. Just a losing proposition all around.
ReplyDeleteJust returned home from ALA in DC and know not one, but two, people who blew of the Newbery/Caldecott banquet to go to that concert.
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