America loves few things more than Hollywood, and Hollywood loves nothing more than itself. How else to explain the endless deluge of television shows and movies all about the business of making television shows and movies? The latest entry in Tinseltown's navel-gazing, self-congratulatory canon is HBO's Entourage. The show follows newly-minted movie star Vince Chase (Adrian Grenier) as he navigates the perils and pitfalls of celebrity.
And where would a star be without his best buddies? Johnny "Drama" Chase (Kevin Dillon), Vince's brother, has no qualms about riding his more-famous sibling's coattails to whatever acting gig he can land. Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) uses his friendship with Vince to entirely visceral ends: he's all about the fast cars and loose women that go hand-in-hand with having a famous friend. Lastly, Eric (Kevin Connolly), works to keep Vince's career on track, reading scripts and offering practical advice that often flies in the face of the rest of the group's fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants attitude. Rounding out the cast is the Vince's uptight agent Ari (Jeremy Piven), who's only goal is to make as much money for his clients (and himself) as he can.
The premiere episode of Entourage is almost painfully uneven. The introduction of the players is forced and awkward, and their interaction is stilted across the board. While each of the young men seems to be decent enough actor in his own right, they never manage to pull off the sense of a tight-knit inner circle that the show's premise supposes them to be.
There are one or two bright moments when the cast does gel, such as a mildly funny sequence in which Turtle, decked out in full hockey gear, allows the group to sic their new guard dog on him as payment for attending a lingerie party at the Playboy mansion. But these moments a few and far between.
Mostly, we're presented with a view of Hollywood that we've seen countless times before. Whether in a trendy restaurant or at a premiere party, the glitzy sets and unbelievably beautiful people are as fake as the real thing and just as uninteresting.
Entourage has a glimmer of potential, but just a glimmer. If the writers can rev up the humor and the actors can get comfortable with each other, the show could wind up as mildly entertaining. If not, HBO will just have to keep looking for another hit comedy.
Article comments
1 - Chris Kent
Hey Scott, interesting work on this new show. HBO has been dying for a male version of Sex and the City and I think executives hope this will fit the bill. Mike Binder's Mind of the Married Man started off well enough, and was expected to be that male Sex and the City, but eventually became unbearably bad. What was supposed to be a comedy had become a miserable drama about marriage boredom......it was cancelled after barely a season. Entourage doesn't look much better, but at least the kids are single.....