Entourage: Now We’re Talkin’

After running at half speed all season (with the exception of last week’s episode), the boys are finally back to their rightful place in the non-crappy television universe. Welcome back, guys. But, it seems they have Bob Saget to thank for their good fortune, and let me just say this – he is Danny Tanner no more. Here’s how the last show shook out, Entourage fans.

Vinnie Chase is a huge wuss, which he confirmed to all of us when he and his naked friend heard a noise in his house and he came scrambling back upstairs to hide like a little girl after “investigating” the sound. Even Arnold, the world’s worst attack dog, seemed to shake his head in disgust at Vince’s cowardly retreat. When the cops came, they didn’t seem overly alarmed – but Vince and Turtle did after finding out all of their underwear was stolen by the would-be intruder. Stealing a man’s drawers? That’s creepy, folks. So, naturally they hit the gun shop to afford themselves some extra protection and then found out they had a mandatory waiting period until they could go all Al Capone on any trespassers. Then they looked at some large and imposing knives and decided that they’ll just play Crocodile Dundee in the meantime. Turtle’s pot smoking paranoia scene where he thinks he sees someone in the trees outside their house might be the funniest thing ever – you knew that weed fetish would come back and haunt you one day, Turtle. And speaking of Turtle…

Exceedingly grateful to Johnny Drama for protecting the honor of his girlfriend Jamie-Lynn, Turtle tells Drama that although his boss is a certifiable scumbag he needs to do whatever it takes to keep his job – even if it means groveling. Drama then picks up the world’s biggest gift basket and high tails it to the set to apologize after hearing that his scenes were cancelled. Lucky for him, his security guard is easily bribed by baked goods and allowed him access to his sleazy boss’ office. Then Drama, after unsuccessfully trying to get Jamie-Lynn to wear a wire and get Coakley to confess to being a potty mouth, decides that it’s better just to do it himself – only he botches the job thanks to his conspicuous iPhone recording device (priceless, by the way). The boss winds Drama up a little but ultimately decides that the only thing better than firing him would be to keep him on and torture him relentlessly. I don’t like the man, but I have to say I like his style. But, if his threats are anything like Ari’s threats to Lloyd to earn his stripes then I’d say the punishment will be decidedly lame. I’m still waiting for that story line to get good, by the way – at least Lloyd got 30 seconds of air time, though.

By far the best story line of the show went to the wee agent Eric, who polished his loafers and put on his best sweater for his first day as a big boy manager at Murray Berenson’s office. I’d have to say E has an overall badass first day at work – he got a super hot secretary (please please start dating her so that Ashley the rodent doesn’t return next episode), a shiny new office and he even scores a new client – Bob Saget, much to the chagrin of his fellow agent played by Scott Caan. Caan’s performance as the world’s biggest A-hole is pitch perfect, and even as he threatened E that Saget was his client and he wouldn’t share him, I found his greasy arrogance charming. Scott’s character (and why isn’t he playing himself, by the way? He’s recognizable enough…) quickly finds out that Saget and E go way back and Bob cuts right to the chase with his boy Eric to tell him what it’ll take to add him to the client roster. This is the part where my head nearly exploded; it was simultaneously amazing and also devastating to hear the object of my childhood nostalgia talk about blowing lines of cocaine off his girlfriend’s ass. All it’ll take, he says, is for him to, um, make use of Murray Berenson’s private office with his lady friend – and while Caan recoils when E tells him Saget’s demand, E decides to loop Murray in and seal the deal. Then Murray says he wants a cleaning crew with Haz-Mat suits on to come do damage control after Saget leaves. Kidding.  Not really.

A few things stuck out in this episode, thus making it the strongest one this season so far. First of all, the banter was pure entertainment – when Ari sent E a stack of pizzas at his new office as a reward for moving further away from his pizza delivery guy roots and then E retaliates by sending a sex toy to Ari, I was positively gleeful. That’s the kind of shtick they’ve been missing lately. Drama’s story line was also hysterical and the Bob Saget thing was just the icing on the cake. I mean, I have known that he was a foul-mouthed dirt bag prior to now from his earlier Entourage and un-Full House-related television appearances, but something about hearing him fling the ‘F’ word around made me sad for DJ, Stephanie and Michelle Tanner. In any case, that shizz was just plain funny and also long overdue. The fact that the show ended with Drama bringing over some (illegal) guns to his baby bro and the boys accidentally shooting out a window seems like foreshadowing to me, but honestly who really cares? Just keep the good episodes coming, and well done this week.

For another take on this episode, Tanya Lane’s review here.

Season 6, Episode 7: No More Drama (originally aired August 23, 2009)

For more Entourage, click here.

Sundays at 10pm ET/PT on HBO

Photographs courtesy of www.imdbpro.com