The three stooges. (HBO photo)
“Entourage” kicked off its sixth season Sunday, and for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t particularly excited by its return. I loved the series in its early years when it was a ridiculously alluring, compelling, hilarious dude fantasy world. (Your best friend’s rich and famous; you have no responsibilities but all the benefits — living in luxury, fabulous parties, fast cars . . . and oh yeah, the ladies.) But the characters haven’t evolved much –err, if at all — and the series had grown stale by the fifth season.
Last year I had high hopes when Vince’s career seemed all washed up while E, Drama and Turtle were finally seeing their stars rise. But then Vince got that Scorcese role out of nowhere and we were back to square one. They’ve promised to shake things up this season, to let the boys grow up a bit, but I have pretty low expectations.
The season opener only accentuated how much growing up needs to be done. The attitudes and living conditions of Vince’s posse were cool at a certain age. But now, this many years into it. . . . well, there’s a fine line between cool, annoying and pathetic. And the guys are leaning dangerously close to pathetic.
The guys teasing E about his love life? What are they, 13? Vince getting a driver’s license? Great plot point for a 16-year-old. E getting his own place? How about a plot development for a 22-year-old? Come on, these guys are supposed to be around 30. It’s time to give the Peter Pan stuff a rest and move on. Enough of the frat-boy antics. It’s all been done, and done better in previous seasons. I just didn’t care about any of it last night. (Though it was nice to see E finally ready to get his own place. And the return of Sloan. Rarrrrr.)
The most interesting characters last night were Lloyd and Ari’s buddy Andrew Klein (Gary Cole). It was nice to see Lloyd finally stand up to Ari and demand a promotion (though a little respect from Ari would be nice too. The gay jokes are really feeling old and unfunny). Though obeying Ari’s every command for the next 100 days . . . um, hasn’t that what Lloyd has done for the past three years? Andrew, meanwhile, has seemingly gone from sad sack to superagent, and is persuading Ari to indulge in mid-day cocktails, a la Don Draper. I don’t think Gary Cole has ever NOT played a weasel, so I have a bad feeling about him and Ari. But good as those two were, it’s a little disturbing that the most interesting characters are the ones on the farthest fringe of the axis that the show’s supposed to revolve around.
The episode seemed really dated too. Vince appearing on Jay Leno? Saving the racy stories for Conan? Well, Conan’s been out of that timeslot since March, and Leno’s been gone for a month. The “Entourage” writers couldn’t have seen that coming months in advance? Or just skip the dilemma and go on Jimmy Kimmel. Over at the agency, Andrew signing the showrunner to “My Name Is Earl” fell totally flat, since “Earl” got canceled last month. Maybe the series was meant to air in January. As it was, it just felt clunky and awkward.
I did see a glimmer of hope at the end, with Vince’s loneliness hinting at a possibility of some plot development that actually has a bit of substance.
All in all, a pretty weak season premiere. But I’ll keep watching it for now, and warily hope for an improvement. I’ve invested to much time into it over the years to just quit — I want to see it be great again. The camraderie, the zippy one-liners, the lavish lifestyle . . . it sucks me in. Now if the show can only do that without sucking. . . .
