Set in L.A., is an occasionally merciless Hollywood satire, contains countless cameos by movie stars playing either themselves or a fictional character. Oh, and Jeremy Piven's in it. Sound familiar? At first sight, Entourage seems to have a lot in common with The Player, Robert Altman's superb cinematic murder of the industry he worked in, one of the darkest movies about movies since the classic Sunset Blvd. There are, however, a few crucial differences: first of all, HBO's hit comedy is considerably lighter in tone and a hell of a lot funnier, too; more importantly, though, it is less about the obscure machinations of Tinseltown than it is about that most universal of themes - friendship.
To be more specific, Entourage stems from this premise: how would you behave if your best friend suddenly became a movie star? The series shows three different reactions to such an event, all revolving around young new hot celebrity Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), formerly a poor kid from New York, now L.A.'s most wanted bachelor. His best buddy, Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly), who acts as his manager, tries to stay realistic about the situation and constantly reminds Vince of the constantly volatile status famous actors enjoy. Johnny "Drama", Vincent's older brother, who's also an actor, tries to profit from the kid's fame to get a job, since he hasn't worked in a few years (ironically, or maybe not, the character is played by Kevin Dillon, younger sibling of the more renowned Matt). And Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), the most fun-loving of the gang, lives with a "seize the day" attitude, i.e. weed, parties and girls all over the place.
As the pilot begins, Vince's celebrity is about to be cemented by the premiere of his new movie, Head On, in which he stars with Jessica Alba. Following the screening, the boys hit it to a club, where they are later joined by Vince's manager Ari Gold (Piven), a potty-mouthed scumbag who is desperate to secure a new role for his client. The project he has in mind is called Matterhorn, and everything seems to be all right until Eric expresses his reservations concerning the script and has a pretty rough meeting with Ari.
On a superficial level, one could boil down the show's core to the confrontation between Eric and Ari. Not that it is entirely wrong to think like that: the two rarely agree on a single thing. However, there is so much more to the series than the hilarious agent/manager verbal dueling. As mentioned previously, Entourage is first and foremost about the enduring friendship that links the four protagonists: the real heart of the show lies in how Vince, E, Johnny and Turtle interact and lovingly mock each other in that "pals for ever" kind of way. A great example of this is the in-joke of Drama having appeared in Pacific Blue and Turtle joking: "When the hell were you on NYPD Blue?". Aside from the self-referential nature of the gag (Kevin Dillon was a recurring guest star on NYPD Blue), the humor derives from the real chemistry between the characters and the actors playing them. Dillon and Ferrara, in particular, form a comedy duo to rival Jay and Silent Bob. Piven plays no second fiddle to these guys, though: embodying all the negative aspects of the movie business at the same time, Ari is a joy for the ears whenever he opens his mouth, especially if he has to use the F-word repeatedly.
Bottom line: foul language, great dialogue, a committed cast, splendid visuals and more cameos than one could imagine (in the case of this ep, Ali Larter and Mark Wahlberg, who also serves as an executive producer on the show). What's not to love?
To be more specific, Entourage stems from this premise: how would you behave if your best friend suddenly became a movie star? The series shows three different reactions to such an event, all revolving around young new hot celebrity Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), formerly a poor kid from New York, now L.A.'s most wanted bachelor. His best buddy, Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly), who acts as his manager, tries to stay realistic about the situation and constantly reminds Vince of the constantly volatile status famous actors enjoy. Johnny "Drama", Vincent's older brother, who's also an actor, tries to profit from the kid's fame to get a job, since he hasn't worked in a few years (ironically, or maybe not, the character is played by Kevin Dillon, younger sibling of the more renowned Matt). And Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), the most fun-loving of the gang, lives with a "seize the day" attitude, i.e. weed, parties and girls all over the place.
As the pilot begins, Vince's celebrity is about to be cemented by the premiere of his new movie, Head On, in which he stars with Jessica Alba. Following the screening, the boys hit it to a club, where they are later joined by Vince's manager Ari Gold (Piven), a potty-mouthed scumbag who is desperate to secure a new role for his client. The project he has in mind is called Matterhorn, and everything seems to be all right until Eric expresses his reservations concerning the script and has a pretty rough meeting with Ari.
On a superficial level, one could boil down the show's core to the confrontation between Eric and Ari. Not that it is entirely wrong to think like that: the two rarely agree on a single thing. However, there is so much more to the series than the hilarious agent/manager verbal dueling. As mentioned previously, Entourage is first and foremost about the enduring friendship that links the four protagonists: the real heart of the show lies in how Vince, E, Johnny and Turtle interact and lovingly mock each other in that "pals for ever" kind of way. A great example of this is the in-joke of Drama having appeared in Pacific Blue and Turtle joking: "When the hell were you on NYPD Blue?". Aside from the self-referential nature of the gag (Kevin Dillon was a recurring guest star on NYPD Blue), the humor derives from the real chemistry between the characters and the actors playing them. Dillon and Ferrara, in particular, form a comedy duo to rival Jay and Silent Bob. Piven plays no second fiddle to these guys, though: embodying all the negative aspects of the movie business at the same time, Ari is a joy for the ears whenever he opens his mouth, especially if he has to use the F-word repeatedly.
Bottom line: foul language, great dialogue, a committed cast, splendid visuals and more cameos than one could imagine (in the case of this ep, Ali Larter and Mark Wahlberg, who also serves as an executive producer on the show). What's not to love?