The Review (25 Jul. 2004)

While Drama practices for his acting class over breakfast, Turtle enters with some bad news: an important trade magazine has given Vince's performance a negative review (including calling ... See full summary »

Director:

Julian Farino

Writers:

Doug Ellin (creator), Doug Ellin

Stars:

Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Kevin Connolly	...	Eric Murphy
Adrian Grenier	...	Vincent Chase
Kevin Dillon	...	Johnny 'Drama' Chase
Jerry Ferrara	...	Turtle
Jeremy Piven	...	Ari Gold
Samaire Armstrong	...	Emily
Jessica Alba	...	Herself
David Faustino	...	Himself
Leighton Meester	...	Justine Chapin
Paul Herman	...	Marvin
Marshall Manesh	...	Rolls Royce Manager
Monica Allgeier	...	Eric's Girl
Nicole Garza	...	Girl #1 in Car
Frank Medrano	...	Liquor Store Cashier
Armando Ortega	...	Urth Caffé Valet

Storyline

While Drama practices for his acting class over breakfast, Turtle enters with some bad news: an important trade magazine has given Vince's performance a negative review (including calling him a "fly-by-night pretty boy"). While paying Ari an office visit to discuss it, Eric meets Ari's new assistant, Emily. Following Ari's advice to show Vince a good time to get his mind off the review, Eric okays Vince's poor decision to lease a new Rolls Royce. Jessica Alba bumps into the boys during their luncheon and invites them to her party for Justine Chapin, her virginal pop-singer friend. The party proves to be a good time for everybody: Justine hits on Vince, Turtle shows off the Rolls to some girls, Eric gets some much needed assurance, and Drama finds that he isn't the only one skipping his acting class. In the morning, Eric reads Vince a review from the New York Times proclaiming him to be "the next Johnny Depp."

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Plot Keywords:

review | rolls royce | sunbathing | pool party

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 July 2004 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Home Box Office (HBO), Leverage Management

Technical Specs

Runtime:

26 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When the gang are driving/smoking the new Rolls Royce down the street, Eric remarks, "we should roll down the windows, we're stinking this beast up." However, in the beginning of the scene, the window on Eric's side is clearly seen rolled down already.

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Quotes

Johnny 'Drama' Chase: What a view.
Vincent Chase: We're at a party with some of the hottest girls in the world, and we're staring at a bunch of fuckin lights.

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Connections

References Dark Angel (2000)

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Soundtracks

"99 Problems"
(uncredited)
by Jay Z
The guys take out the new Bentley and smoke a joint

User Reviews

Let's hug it out!

Normally, there are two things an actor fears more than anything else: unemployment and bad reviews, especially when the latter leads to the former. In addition, negative criticism can be most harmful if the targeted thespian is a newcomer, because he will most likely have a rough time getting his career back on track. It was therefore quite hard to avoid that one of the first episodes of Entourage be centered around this kind of incident.

The whole tragedy is kick-started by a review in Variety that carpet-bombs Head On and reduces Vince to a "fly-by-night pretty boy". While Drama works on his acting class and the others cope with the bad news, Eric goes to discuss the story with Ari. On the plus side, he gets to meet Ari's new assistant Emily (Samaire Armstrong). On the minus side, he gets lectured for worrying Vince and is subsequently asked to distract the poor boy, before receiving Ari's ace "let's hug it out, b*tch!" treatment. E complies, accepting his friend's foolish decision to buy a new Rolls and agreeing to accompany him to a party hosted by Jessica Alba (a genuinely hot cameo). As it turns out, that's what everyone needed, particularly Vince who gets to make out with a virginal pop singer.

Being a comedy series, there is no doubt the potentially upsetting premise leads to a sort of happy ending (though later seasons have become bolder in that sense): what really matters is what happens in between, more specifically those little moments that help establishing the characters - E is a truly concerned friend, Vince is far from the "shallow sex symbol" type, Drama is an adorable loser and Turtle... well, he's just Turtle. And what about Ari? Oh, man, his charm is summed up in one sentence: Let's hug it out!