Tag: Ari Gold (Page 5 of 8)

Entourage 6.5 – Fore!

August 9, 2009 /

There are good filler episodes, and then there are bad filler episodes. Last week definitely fell into the former category, and although I assumed that this week’s show would belong to the latter, I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. There wasn’t a whole lot going on tonight with everyone involved in the charity golf tournament in some form, but it was the hardest I’ve laughed at an episode of “Entourage” in quite awhile.

Since there was only a little bit of actual plot development this time around, let’s get that out of the way first. Eric may be the only character this season who’s actually getting a proper story arc, but it’s been entertaining thus far. Now that he’s dating Ashley, Eric is a little weirded out about seeing Sloan at the tournament, but when she informs him that he’s been paired with Hollywood bigwig Maury Barrinson at his request, Eric’s interest is perked. As it turns out, Maury is actually scouting Eric to come work for his company, and though it sounds like a promising opportunity, he turns it down when he learns that it was Sloan’s idea. For some reason, Eric believes that he’s being treated like a charity case, and while I understand where he’s coming from, he should know by the now that she’s only doing it as a friend. Unfortunately, Eric still sees her as an ex-girlfriend, which only means one thing: these two are going to get back together real soon. Sorry Ashley, but this was never a battle you were going to win.

Meanwhile, Vince and Drama are paired up with Mark Wahlberg and Tom Brady, and Wahlberg is having a field day teasing Drama about his surprisingly high handicap. Drama, looking for a little retribution, suggests a friendly little bet between them, only to slice his first drive into the trees. Drama’s day doesn’t get any better from there, either, and he eventually breaks Brady’s driver (which the Super Bowl MVP had just let him borrow) in a fit of rage. You’d think Turtle would be crying in joy after declaring his hatred for Brady (he even plans to tell the Patriots quarterback that he sucks balls, much to the behest of Jamie-Lynn), but that was before Brady invited Turtle over to his house to have dinner with Giselle. You can call him a sellout if you like, but you know you’d do the exact same thing.

By far the funniest pairing of the night, however, was Ari and Jeffrey Tambor – and for once, it wasn’t because of Jeremy Piven. Tambor was absolutely hilarious in his second guest spot to date as he cheated every chance he got in an attempt to impress his kids. Just watching him cut up the green was funny – especially while Ari was busy stressing out about his wife’s unhappy reaction to him keeping knowledge of Andrew’s affair from her. Of course, there’s no way this argument is over yet, despite Ari buying her a brand new Maserati. Still, for as much as Piven has proven the show’s savior these last few weeks, Tambor single-handedly stole the show in his response to his kids’ explicit-laced complaints about being bored: “Hey, this is a family day. So shut the fuck up and hit the ball.”

Actors, Celebrities, Entourage, External TV, TV, TV Comedies

Entourage 6.4 – Runnin’ on E

August 2, 2009 /

I’m sure some people will look at the title of tonight’s episode and crack a joke about how “Entourage” isn’t as good as it used to be, but not every episode can be as good as the one from last week. There are bound to be shows of the filler variety every once and a while (it’s the nature of the series), just like Eric isn’t always going to be as busy as he’d like. Unfortunately, with Vince’s Ferrari movie pushed back 12 weeks due to pre-production troubles, not to mention Eric’s decision to pull out of producing duties on Charlie’s sitcom, the Murphy Group has become a dead zone. Vince suggests Eric join him on a trip to Paris, but he’d rather just hang around the office with Ashley, leaving Vince to sex up waitresses and surf the web (“How come you’re not on this Facebook thing?”) to keep busy. In the end, however, Eric decides to shut down the Murphy Group for good, and I must say that I’m a little disappointed. I hope that doesn’t mean Eric will stop managing altogether, because he’s easily the show’s most interesting character.

The other two guys didn’t have much to do this week, either. Turtle was stuck shopping for back-to-school clothes with Jamie-Lynn, while Drama spent the day auditioning girls (read: making out with hot models) for his character’s new love interest on “Five Towns.” What could have been a great subplot for Kevin Dillon, though, quickly turned into typical Drama shenanigans. Upset over the lack of talent in the pool of candidates, Drama demands they audition real actresses for the role, and even visits Ed Burns with the suggestion that they go after Natalie Portman or Rachel McAdams. I find it hard to believe that Drama is so stupid that he would expect the network to chase down A-list talent for a brief kissing scene, but he gets his wish nonetheless when he begs Turtle to convince Jamie-Lynn to do the role. Granted, Meadow Soprano is certainly no Natalie Portman or Rachel McAdams, but she’s definitely a step up in quality.

It’s not exactly the kind of stuff that will affect the overall arc of the season, though, so it’s a good thing that Jeremy Piven is still around to save the day. It may be the writers who are responsible for giving the actor such great material, but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t knock it out of the park every time. Ari has grown so much as a character over the last two seasons, and now that he’s trying to run a successful business and be a good husband, father and friend, the stress is really starting to show. I don’t know how much longer Ari is going to be able to play babysitter to Andrew, and quite frankly, the subplot is beginning to show signs of wear.

For the time being, it seems like the affair really is over, but now that Andrew’s officially left his wife, will he just go running back to junior agent Lizzie? And just who exactly ended the affair in the first place? From the way Lizzie “manned up” to Ari and apologized to him in person, I have a strange feeling she was the one who pulled the plug. That would certainly make more sense, because Andrew nearly flipped out when David Schwimmer started flirting with her in the business meeting. Now, Ari has a big decision to make: side with his wife and get rid of Andrew before he makes an even bigger mess of his life, or keep his latest Employee of the Month around long enough to reel in one of television’s most admired creative forces. With Vince cruising along in his career again, he certainly has the time to make up his mind.

Entourage, External TV, TV, TV Comedies

Entourage 6.2 – Amongst Friends

July 19, 2009 /

Last week’s season premiere received a bigger negative response than I expected. In fact, I’m kind of surprised that more of these detractors didn’t come out of the woodwork last year, when there was actually something to complain about. At least then it looked like the show was taking a turn for the worse, because as far as I’m concerned, the first two episodes of the new season have been nothing but classic “Entourage.” If you’re not enjoying it now, then I find it hard to believe you ever did. Sure, it might seem a bit repetitive after six years of the same thing, but the chemistry is still great and the story arc for this season actually shows real promise.

As for boys still being boys, well, that’s very much in full swing at the beginning of the episode when Turtle launches into a rant about how Katherine Heigl’s character from “Knocked Up” would never bang the guy played by Seth Rogen. (Our own John Paulsen would likely agree.) Apparently, being funny doesn’t make up for being ugly. I don’t know what that means for Turtle and Jamie-Lynn (he claims that girls think he’s cute, even though he’s always had a hard time convincing them to have sex with him), but for the time being, they’re very much the happy couple – so much so that Jamie-Lynn finally makes their relationship official at Vince’s big movie premiere. The rest of the guys score dates as well. Vince brings some chick he hooked up with last weekend, Drama convinces a vivacious retail clerk to tag along, and Eric goes with Sloan… as friends.

Obviously, the ever-changing relationship between Eric and Sloan is going to play a big part this year, especially now that they’ve introduced the superhot Alexis Dziena as Eric’s new “friend,” Ashley. I mean, he didn’t even seem that interested in the girl at first (her appearance at the party definitely caused some awkwardness between him and Sloan), but after confessing his true feelings to Sloan and getting denied, he was more than happy to use Ashley as a last-minute back-up plan. Sloan’s text message apology (what, she was too busy to call?) seems to indicate she cares more than she’s letting on, and you can be sure that once Eric finally starts getting serious with Ashley, Sloan is only going to want him back.

Also, is it just me, or does it seem like Ari doesn’t even work for Vince anymore? With the exception of the odd run-in with his star client, he’s been spending most of his time these days with Andrew, who Ari discovers may or may not be having an affair with a junior agent. It’s the kind of news that Ari doesn’t want to hear, especially since he’s just gone out of his way to convince Mrs. Ari to become friends with Andrew’s wife, Marlo. He’s urged Andrew to put an end to the fling before his wife becomes any the wiser, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that this is going to end very badly. And poor Lloyd is going to be one that gets punished for it. Oh well, we knew Gary Cole wouldn’t be around for the long haul. It was just a matter of who would be the one to push him out the door.

Entourage, External TV, TV, TV Comedies

Entourage 6.1 – Drive

July 12, 2009 /

Fans of “Entourage” know that season premieres have never been one of the show’s strong suits (they tend to act more like a prologue than an actual part of the story), but while tonight’s episode wasn’t particularly memorable, it did set up quite a few interesting arcs for the coming season. The most obvious of the bunch is Vince’s return to the big time after the colossal failure of “Medellin” nearly ruined him for good. Granted, working with Scorsese will usually do that for you, but it’s just nice to see Vince back in his old digs worrying about things like getting his driver’s license instead of how he’s going to climb his way out of debt.

It’s a shame we didn’t actually get to see any of the footage from the film (maybe next time), but he did talk with Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” about his new gig: a biopic about Enzo Ferrari, hence the reason why he needs to learn how to drive. The actual exam didn’t go over quite as well as Vince’s confidence would have implied (he practically ran over the entire course of traffic cones), but he was still able to earn a passing grade after bribing the instructor with premiere tickets for his new film. Not exactly a sign that Vince has matured, but with everyone else in his life doing just as good as he is, it’s probably about time he starts.

After all, with Drama constantly working and Turtle always hanging out with Jamie-Lynn, the one person Vince has always been able to rely on is Eric. That’s all about to change, however, now that Eric has agreed to sublet a house from one of Sloan’s friends. Why he’d want to live in that house for only a year is beyond me, but Eric clearly understands that if he ever hopes to get a second chance with Sloan, he’s going to have to be a little more independent. Vince doesn’t seem to have a problem with it at the time, but now that he sees just how lonely life could be without anyone there to keep him company, it might just force him to reassess his bachelor lifestyle.

Meanwhile, with Vince back in the industry’s good graces, Ari is having the time of his life alongside his new partner-in-crime, Andrew, who’s settled into the agency quite well with a string of new clients. (Of course, if the writers knew that “My Name Is Earl” would be cancelled mere months after the episode was filmed, they probably would have chosen a different client for him to sign.) Okay, so maybe business isn’t exactly booming, but that doesn’t stop Lloyd from demanding his long-awaited promotion. Ari finally gives in to Lloyd’s constant bickering and offers him a deal: do whatever he says for 100 days and he’ll make him an agent. I’m really hoping Ari doesn’t follow through, though, because while Lloyd certainly deserves the promotion, the show would be better off maintaining that dynamic. It’s worked this long, so why mess with a good thing?

Entourage, External TV, TV, TV Comedies

The Further Adventures of Ari, the Agent

June 11, 2009 /

If you’re like a lot of people, myself definitely included, you kind of wish “Entourage” were all about Ari the agent. The lovable a-hole played by Jeremy “insert sushi joke here” Piven.

I’ve got no “in” with the producers of the show, who may already feel they have enough Piven in their lives, but Ari Gold’s famed real-life doppelganger, super-agent Ari Emanuel, has apparently pulled off the kind of power-consolidating coup that would no doubt have his fictional equivalent furious with envy and heaping extra abuse on his long-suffering assistant, Lloyd. The short version is that his agency, Endeavor, has taken over the venerable, but declining, William Morris — once by far the world’s best known agency — and reportedly fired many of its staff while hanging on to most of Endeavor’s.

It’s just slightly like Marilyn Manson staking over Capitol Records. And, oh yeah, one of his brothers runs the White House, whose tough/manic rep could probably be the basis of an entertaining cable series of its own.

I’m an old-school guy who feels that it’s kind of an inevitable travesty that agents like Emmanuel wield as much power as they do, even if it’s now less than what they had not so long ago; I largely blame them, in part and as a group, mind you (I don’t want Ari mad at me!) for the steep decline in the quality of mainstream studio “product” since the early eighties. Of course, it’s not just agents who are behind the “filmed deal” school of moviemaking, it’s also lawyers and producers. Two more widely beloved professions.

Moreover, the references to ex-super agent Michael Ovitz, who maybe did more than anyone to enshrine a new level of douchiness as part of Hollywood culture in his day, don’t warm my heart. On the other hand, at least Ari and I have similar politics. Still, the problem of movies-as-deals rather than movies-as-movies goes back at least as far as original super-agent Lew Wasserman, who as questionable as he often was, was really only filling a power vacuum left by the decline of the studio system, and his work occasionally certainly resulted in some great movies too. (Oh, and by the way, was a purported liberal who wound up helping ex-actor Ronald Reagan to become president. Thanks for all your help to the cause, Lew.) Let’s face it, complaining about agents in Hollywood is a little bit like complaining about L.A. traffic — it’s an inevitable part of existence, an unavoidable flaw in the local ecosystem, until we figure out something better.

There’s much more to be read via Kim Masters, Sharon Waxman, and the New York Times. Anne Thompson also has a very good piece up on last week’s “Produced By” conference, including comments from Clint Eastwood, which I think is sort of related.

Entourage, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies, News, TV Comedies

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