Entourage – The Final Season

With the blinding glitz, the shameless glamour and veritable galaxy of stunt cameos lined up like the Hollywood Walk of Fame unable to disguise any longer that nothing actually happens in this show, HBO has called time on the light as helium adventures of Vincent Chase and his eponymous gang. For those of you sorry to see this one go (all four of you) there is already a movie in the works, and, given what the Sex and The City movies raked in, likely a sequel, too.

The aimless, meandering nature of the series has been in evidence for sometime now, carried by the boundless energy of Jeremy Piven’s super-agent, Ari, and Kevin Dillon’s perennially disgruntled Johnny Drama. The endlessly quotable rants of those two aside, Entourage has become a sorry affair to tune into where rain merely heralds a rainbow, and nothing bad ever occurs that cannot be swiftly dealt with between seasons, or even one episode to the next.

As many critics have observed, this show runs screaming from actual conflict like a vampire flees from the sun (or at least they used to. Thanks a bunch, Twilight!) Take last season’s climax as a prime example. Out of his mind on booze, drugs, and with his entire career in real, actual jeopardy Vince was in the darkest place he had ever been. Come the hotly anticipated new season and he is already, clean, sober, repentant, and ready with a new project in hand to get his career back on track. Come on! Sure, this town loves a comeback but can we not at least make people earn it?

The story has simply run its course. Vincent Chase is no longer the inexperienced up-and-comer, attempting to navigate the choppy, indifferent waters of the entertainment industry while trying not to get eaten alive by it's many sharks. He's an A-list movie star. His story is over. Similarly, E is no longer the insecure best friend, forever shackled to his buddy's success and unable to strike out on his own. He's a successful Hollywood agent. His story is over.

The same is true of Drama and Turtle; Drama the faded has-been and Turtle as the runt of Vince's litter. Now Drama has had his comeback first with Five Townes and now with Johnny Bananas, and Turtle has been to college and is running a business. They're done. Ari Gold is no longer scrapping and needing to mix it up each week so as to stake his own claim. He's running the biggest agency in Los Angeles. Their stories are over. This final season has been marketed by HBO under the mantra “It starts and ends with your friends.” That’s fine and all, but it helps if your friends are doing something other people might be interested in watching.