DVD Review

Title: Entourage: The Complete Sixth Season

Principle Cast: Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrera, Jeremy Piven

Released: June 22, 2010

Distributor: HBO Home Entertainment

Hollywood. It's a place where the stars shine bright, but the question is: do the stars themselves shine or is it the spotlight trained on them? The flashing bulbs of paparazzi always desire younger, sexier, and newer. When season five concluded for Vince and the entourage, things had gone from terrible (living with mom in Queen’s) to flourishing (an offer to star in the Martin Scorsese remake of The Great Gatsby). That is the Entourage universe.

Vince, Eric, Johnny Drama, Turtle and Ari have dominated the scene for the last five seasons and the entourage themselves are now stars. Vince is flying high with the success of Gatsby meanwhile Eric has taken a firm hold as a manager. Ari is taking flight with his expanding talent agency while Johnny Drama is on a hit TV show and the normally underachieving Turtle is sleeping with Jamie Lynn-Siegler. Everyone is happy. In Entourage speak, that’s nothing new. We’ve come to realize there’s little these boys can’t accomplish, no dilemmas threatening enough to stifle their mojo.

In a sense, season six is the most void of inherent drama. It’s a familiar story to watch as Vince and the gang sidestep adversity like it’s no big deal. Every season sees them flying high upon takeoff only to suffer some career engine failure, then manage to land cool and collected like a Buddhist monk. For a time, this was addicting. The ride was an exhilarating barrage of famous faces, both fictional and not, laden with industry syntax. The stars, the agents, the cars, the mansions, the parties, the movies, the TV shows, the egos — Entourage commanded our attention and got it. This is why season six was the weakest of the seasons so far.

How many times must we see Vince emerge unscathed and confident from career-threatening drama? Must we see Eric butt heads with producers and women once again? Will Turtle ever amount to anything? Is Johnny as famous as he seems to think he is? The only question mark that’s always fresh is Ari. He’s written and performed so well it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll provide the oomph. Jeremy Piven could play a scene with Miley Cyrus and turn it into a scorching moment of comedic bravado.

Granted, the show still has all the great features mentioned previous. It’s always fun to see famous people play themselves. It’s always fun to see fast cars, fast women and fast lives. The problem is that it’s similar to watching the Victoria’s Secret fashion show every year. It’s great for twelve minutes before you realize the scenery is all that’s keeping your attention. You realize behind the beautiful faces and hard bodies is, well, not much.

The bonus features are decent enough. It’s unfortunate that they haven’t improved from season to season, however. It’s too bad. The potential for the bonus features is best reflected with an inventive and funny Matt Damon PSA playing off of the plotline from the show. This provides enough laughs to justify the other bonus features. It only goes to show how little the DVD takes advantage of these things.

Entourage is a great show. Hands down one of the tops on television. Even at it’s weakest it’s the pinnacle of entertainment. Packaged shows like American Idol or Dancing With The Stars are like Zac Effron to Entourage’s George Clooney. They don’t compare in any department. That’s why Entourage stays fresh and watch \able. Who cares if it’s not as good as it once was? Sometimes younger, sexier and newer can wait.

Written by :

rdowb

 

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed