ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 8
“Gary’s Desk”

E decides to get his own office, as working out of the condo isn’t really working for him.
His first order of business: get in touch with Peter Jackson, to try and get Vince some work on a video game. But no one knows who Eric Murphy is, so E tries to take an ad out in Variety. Of course, he doesn’t have any official paperwork to prove he’s actually Vincent Chase’s manager, so that idea goes belly up pretty quickly.
The aborted attempt at an ad reaches Shauna’s ears though (yay, Shauna!), who arranges a short profile on E. But the profile turns into a hatchet job as E is singled out as a prime example of Hollywood’s “New Nepotism” (stars’ friends riding on the coattails of celebrity).
The Variety profile does reach Jackson however, and he gets in touch with E, and they arrange a sit-down to talk things out.

The boys, meanwhile, set off to find a proper desk for E’s new less-than-glamourous office. They set their sights on a $42K piece with history: it was on Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Robert De Niro once owned it.
But it’s already been bought, by none other than Gary Busey (back for his third Entourage go-around)! Busey agrees to part with the desk, if he can paint Drama, which he does, literally, turning him blue.
But the crisis isn’t over. The desk is far too big to get into E’s rathole office, so the boys get an expensive office to go with the expensive desk, swanky work space that’s got offices for Turtle, Drama, and Vinnie too.

The episode’s subplot also kicks a$$.
Just as Mary J. Blige is about to come in for her annual meeting with Ari, there’s trouble that explodes between twin employees: one of them slept with his twin’s wife. To keep the office peace, Ari has to let one of them go. And the numbers indicate that the guy who diddled his sister-in-law is making the agency more money, so the other guy gets the boot.
It turns out though that Mary J. likes that particular twin, and when she finds out exactly why he was fired, she bails on Ari too.
Capping this one off, Ari goes on the warpath and fires the other twin as well.

This one more than makes up for the previous lackluster episode, and with the return of the Busey and the guest spots by Jackson and Blige, this one’s a keeper.

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 7
“The Dayf*ckers”

In what is arguably the weakest episode of the season, the boys get into a $5K wager: due to Drama’s belief that E cannot have unemotional sex, he places his money on Turtle getting laid with a complete stranger before E can.
Over the course of the episode, E sees Sloan (whom he broke up with because of the whole going-to-Italy-right-after-shooting-in-Colombia thing) and tries to re-establish communication lines, but it turns out Sloan’s met someone else.

Turtle meanwhile responds to an Internet personal ad and winds up with a hottie furry, a fetishist who has sex in animal costumes, and she wants Turtle to dress up as a pink rabbit.
In the end, E, reeling from Sloan’s rebuff, wins the bet for Vince, and Drama, cutting his losses, winds up getting laid in the bunny costume since Turtle’s too freaked about the furry scene. (In Johnny’s mind, if he’s gonna lose $5K, he may as well get something out of it.)

There’s also a subplot about Ari finally getting Jonah into the exclusive private school the Golds have long targeted.
It’s kind of sad though that we get two priceless moments in an otherwise lackluster episode: Turtle in the rabbit costume, and Ari actually shedding tears and begging to get his son into private school.

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 6
“The Weho Ho”

E and Vince want Billy off Lost in the Clouds, but Ari sold the Dream Team to the studio, and to have a split at this point in the game, when Medellin isn’t even out yet could reflect badly on both projects.
But Billy apologizes to E (it turns out someone else leaked the trailer) and E reluctantly agrees to have a four-way meeting with Dana Gordon to seal the deal.
The meeting goes well enough, despite Billy’s massive ego. E however, is convinced he cannot work with Billy again. But Vinnie still wants to do the movie, so E steps down as producer. But he does go on the record as saying he thinks Vinnie shouldn’t do Lost in the Clouds, and that he thinks Billy’s best days are behind him.
In the end, Vinnie still pushes on with Lost in the Clouds.

There are two subplots in this episode, one more effective than the other.
The first involves Turtle and Drama getting sucked into bidding for a Sandy Koufax jersey under the mistaken assumption that Koufax is dying and the jersey is soon to appreciate in value. It turns out it’s Koufax’s dog that died recently, and the baseball player is in the best of health. Of course, the boys find this out after they’ve already bid on the jersey.

The second subplot is particularly good, involving Lloyd’s break-up with his lover Tom.
Depressed, Lloyd takes a leave, throwing Ari’s office into a lurch. Needing to restore order to his work life (and because he really does care for Lloyd), Ari ends up playing matchmaker, and we get to see Tom, who reveals to Ari that Lloyd cheated on him, and that was the reason for the break-up.
Ari however, covers for Lloyd and says that during the night in question, Lloyd was with him at The Bourne Ultimatum premiere. Lloyd and Tom get back together, but Ari warns Lloyd that though he may like liars, he doesn’t like cheaters.
There’s also what seemed to me to be a passing insinuation that Lloyd’s dalliance with the barrista at the Coffee Bean may not have been a one-time thing.
Say it ain’t so, Lloyd!

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 5
“The Dream Team”

The episode’s subplot has Johnny trying to look young—since he’s the old fogey on the Five Towns set—by buying a cap that requires him to get a certificate that proves he needs to take marijuana for medicinal purposes. (Yes, all for the cap.)
The episode’s meat however, lies in the main plot, involving the Medellin triumvirate.

The simmering antagonism between E and Billy comes to a head when E is accused of leaking the Medellin trailer onto YouTube, and the smackdown that we’ve all been waiting for erupts.
But E and Billy still have to be civil to each other, at least for an interview with former New York Times critic Elvis Mitchell. E manages to keep it together during the interview, but is called out by Billy just as Mitchell drives off. They’re about to do Round Two but Vince takes things in hand and makes E walk away.
In the car, E says he’ll put up with the sh!t for as long as it takes to get Medellin done and out, and then he never wants to see Billy again.

Meanwhile, Ari zeroes in on Vinnie’s next project: the film adaptation of Lost in the Clouds, which is on the fasttrack under Dana Gordon, whom Ari inadvertently got fired due to the whole I Wanna Be Sedated debacle.
But when Ari drops by her office with drinks and cupcakes, it turns out that the project is locked, with Heath Ledger topbilling and Curtis Hanson directing. So Ari goes into stealth mode and discovers Ledger is being handled by his former-assistant-turned-rival-agent Josh Weinstein. With Lloyd’s help, Ari manipulates Josh into thinking this is a bad career move for Ledger by implying there’s some homosexual subtext in the material, and that with Brokeback Mountain still in the public’s minds…
So Ledger suddenly drops out of the project, but then so does Hanson, who only wanted to work with Ledger in the first place, leaving the film dead in the water.
But Ari works his magic behind the scenes, and gets the project up and running again by selling “the Dream Team” to work on it: E producing, Vinnie starring, and (uh-oh) Billy directing.

This is a great episode, as it brings back familiar faces like Josh Weinstein and Dana Gordon (who I loved in her past appearances). There are also quick cameos from Snoop Dog and Brian Grazer, as well as the slightly longer one by Elvis Mitchell.

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 4
“Sorry, Harvey”

Drama is taking the mayor of Beverly Hills out for the night, as he wants his condo (presently right at the border of L.A. County and Beverly Hills) to be part of an annexation that’s up for a vote. Johnny’s sucking up to the mayor, who wants to meet Vince. So Drama ropes Vince in, to help his cause.
Meanwhile, E girds his loins for his face-to-face with Harvey, who is under the impression that they’re all going to Cannes together, in glory. E has to face the notoriously volatile Hollywood power player, and tell him, “Well, we’ve screwed you again.”

At a club, Drama sets the mayor up with Anika, who as it turns out, is a transvestite. When Drama tells the mayor, he is at first shocked, but then asks for discretion from Drama, as he feels a “connection” with Anika, and doesn’t really care what’s under the skirt.
But when the mayor leaves with Anika, exactly what’s under the tranny’s skirt is caught on camera, and pops up on the Internet the next morning, effectively sounding the death knell on both the mayor and Drama getting a nine-oh-two-one-oh zip.
And E’s attempts at telling Harvey keep on getting aborted, until Drama gets tired of the song-and-dance and blurts it out, sending Harvey into an apoplectic fit.


There’s also one of the best guest turns on the show thus far, as M. Night Shyamalan has Ari read his next script. (The details are just too much fun to disclose here. Try and watch the episode if you haven’t seen it yet!)

Parting shot: One wonders what the Entourage writers have against Harvey. (The real Harvey, I mean…)

(Episode image courtesy of hbo.com; M. Night Shyamalan image courtesy of ifmagazine.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 3
“Malibooty”

E sleeps on his less than enthusiastic reaction to Billy’s first cut of Medellin. The next morning, he thinks with a little judicious editing, the film will be great.
When he drops by Billy’s, he’s given a DVD of the crackerjack trailer for the film. But when he tries to broach the subject of trimming the movie down, Billy pulls out the Final Cut card, and tells E to go frak himself. He also drops the bomb: he’s sent the cut off to Cannes and is waiting for a response.
E’s knee-jerk reaction: get Billy away from Medellin, ‘cause if Cannes rejects the movie, then everyone’s gonna know it’s a turkey.

And while Drama and Turtle have some sexual hi-jinx with a mom and her overweight friend (what happened to Kelly, Turtle?), Vince ends up at Dennis Hopper’s house.
Meanwhile, E talks to Ari about the whole Medellin thing. Since E wants Billy off the film, Ari has a solution: sell the film to someone else, who can then send Billy packing. And Ari has just the right target: Harvey, who the boys met (and ultimately screwed when Vince took the Aquaman offer) at Sundance.
But when Ari hears that Vince actually likes Billy’s first cut, he tells E to go frak himself.
So E sets up the meet with Harvey all by himself.
At the meeting, Harvey warns E not to screw around with him again. Harvey watches the trailer…

When E gets back to the condo, he puts Harvey’s offer in front of Vince: $25 mil; E sold a whole movie on the strength of a trailer! But just as important as the money, the film can be blocked from Cannes, where E still fears it will be rejected.
But it turns out that Medellin was accepted at Cannes, and now E has to tell Harvey that the film is no longer for sale (at least, not until the bidding war at Cannes).

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 3 Episode 18
“The Resurrection”

It’s the day of the premiere of Five Towns on NBC, and the reviews are out, but Drama wants nothing to do with them, so he spends the day trying to relax. But it’s as he’s getting a “massage” that he succumbs to checking out the Variety review, much to his aggravation.
One confrontation with a TV reviewer later, and Drama’s in a proper funk.

Meanwhile, Turtle picks up Drama’s car, which the boys have had restored at Rufus’ Body Shop (Rufus, who got them their home system in Season 2, is now into cars, apparently). While waiting at the shop, Turtle meets Kelly, Rufus’ daughter, who’s also a sneaker freak. (Turtle later describes her as “… like me, but with tits.”)
One minor car crash later, and Turtle’s got himself a date.

Meanwhile still, Vince and E head into Ari’s office, and though Ari thinks the boys are back, they’re really only there to tell Ari to resuscitate Medellin. Knowing this is the one way he can get Vince back as a client, Ari ropes in Joe Roberts, producer of Matterhorn, the film Vince passed on way back in the Entourage pilot.
Apparently Matterhorn hasn’t gotten made yet, as Colin Farrell (who signed up to star in it) broke his arm weeks before filming was to start. So, seeing Vince’s fervent desire to do Medellin, Joe proposes a back-scratching: Vince does Matterhorn first, then they do Medellin.
But Vince still doesn’t want to do Matterhorn, and Roberts announces he’s considering buying the Medellin script. So Vince does what he can do: he decides to buy the Medellin script, with the long-term plan of producing the film himself. In what is one of the best scenes in the episode, E puts up every penny he has behind Vince’s scheme, once again confirming the depths of his friendship with Vince, and his faith in him.
And Vince is willing to put the Aquamansion up for sale just to buy the script.
One call to Roberts later (in which he talks about his days as a P.A. on Apocalypse Now), and Vince is the proud owner of 150 pieces of paper, and Ari’s got the prodigal client back.

Oh, and one pilot premiere later, and Drama’s in a hit TV show.

(Image courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 3 Episode 17
“The Return of The King”

The whole Medellin thing comes to a head (as Ari said it would 4 episodes back) on Yom Kippur, of all days; and we all know how many Hollywood types are circumcised, right?
It seems Benicio’s walked away from the project (as has Paul Haggis, as we find out later on), and the producers need a star in place before sundown, or the project collapses.
But it’s Yom Kippur, and the fasting and the moratorium on business deals has to remain in place… till sundown.
With Ari’s regular cell phone as well as his BatPhone confiscated by Mrs. Ari, Ari slinks around with the producer’s son, making deals with Amanda in the back alley of Temple by the dumpsters!
Ari does his best to pull the deal together (ostensibly representing the co-producer, as he’s no longer Vince’s manager), but in the end, the deal falls apart.
Agreeing with E that Ari would have never let the ball drop on this one, Vince confronts Amanda, and though it’s made clear that this really wasn’t her fault, they still go their separate ways.

Meanwhile, there’s a subplot involving Johnny Drama and a race horse who happens to be the grandson of a horse that Johnny bet on years ago, and from whose winnings he bought a Lincoln that the whole gang remembers.
Though the horse loses, Drama ends up buying him as it looks like the owner’s about to send “King” off to the glue factory. But Drama spends a whole lot more than he bargained for on King’s upkeep, so he gives the horse to Ed Burns as a gift, much to Burns’ daughter’s glee.
And though that subplot is serviceable enough, the meat of the episode is in the Medellin subplot, as it picks up the thread of the long-running storyline, becomes the catalyst for the end of Vince’s professional and personal relationship with Amanda, and paves the way for next episode’s goings-on.

(Image courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE Season 3
Episode 14
“Dog Day Afternoon”

Vince continues to dodge Amanda’s calls, holding out for Medellin, while Sam Mendes expects an answer soon.
With that biz bit as backdrop, this episode is pretty much relationship stuff: Eric tries to plan a vacation with Sloane without Vince as tag-along; Turtle and Drama pick up girls at a dog park, with Arnold as bait (finally! A subplot with Arnold playing a pivotal role); Ari gets Lloyd to help rope in a gay client.
It’s that last subplot that’s probably the most interesting, as not only do we see Ari maneuvering his way through a crowded dance floor in a gay club (“No touching! Civilian!”), but he surprises once again, showing us his humanity by rescuing Lloyd from a compromising situation.
All this, catalyzed by a Donna Summer song about a hooker!* Brilliant.
Ari whips out a fantastic metaphor, Lloyd has a great scene at the club, and we see Mrs. Ari. Yay!! (I love Mrs. Ari.)

* Did I say “hooker”? Sorry. I meant “waitress.” (Heh.)

Parting shot: I may have initially missed Emily after she moved on to work with James Cameron, but I didn’t miss her for long. (Sorry, Samaire.) Lloyd is such a great character, and is a fantastic counter-balance to Ari. Given that the boys’ camaraderie is often something that we take for granted in the show, the Ari-Lloyd relationship is actually the most fascinating one to watch, and this episode brings that pairing further.

(Image courtesy of aol.com.)