After two episodes of playing the background, E was finally given a major plot again this week, a development that saw the return of his ex-girlfriend Sloan and the irrepressible Seth Green reprising his role as a brash, repulsive version of himself. After disappearing in the wake of their infamous battle of the entourages in season three, Seth Green resurfaces as a possible casting choice for Charlie’s sitcom. The development team implies that securing Seth for the pilot will guarantee production (I guess Vinnie’s offer to cameo in the episode “Redomption” is now considered worthless) so Seth makes E jump through a series of hoops in order to get him to commit, the extent of which culminate in E paying a visit to Sloan, the cause of E and Seth’s contention. Once again this season, Kevin Connelly makes the plot work thanks to his ability to exhibit E’s suppressed insecurities through eye-rolls and fleeting hang-dog expressions – his nervousness around Sloan is the episode’s highlight.
Ari’s plot began superbly with a breakfast scene between him and his children in which his daughter sagely advised Ari to curb his insults and antagonism toward his business partner and instead attempt a little bit of politeness if he wants her to agree to something. The scene demonstrated how much Entourage has matured over the seasons, such a suggestion would have never been fielded in the early years. However, the episode concluded with Ari using the same old offensive, asinine public ridicule to coax Babs into hiring Andrew Klein. How his behavior convinced her to capitulate rather than disenfranchise herself from the company is beyond me but at any rate, she’s agreed to let Andrew join the company, which I guess is a good thing? Is it just me or does Gary Cole’s performance seem like it’s geared more toward Mad Men than Entourage?
Much to my shock, we’re at the tenth episode of the season and Vinnie’s career is still floundering. Last night’s episode found Vinnie repeatedly butting heads with maverick director Werner, who continues to cut Vinnie’s lines and ignore his takes. I can’t tell whose side the show wants the viewer to take but I for one side with Werner on the matter. I don’t know if it’s the desired intent or just a reflection of Adrian Grenier’s limited acting skills but Vinnie Chase looks entirely out of place in Smokejumpers. If the goal is actually to show Werner as crazed and obtuse, it would have been effective to see more of the dailies that he was criticizing rather than concentrating on Vinnie’s infantile denials.
One thing that seemed unarguably correct on Werner’s part was finally banning Drama and Turtle from ‘video village.’ With the dominance of the three other plots, the dynamic duo’s role was essentially reduced to a brief, inconsequential and largely unfunny segment of them playing Wii. Speaking of superfluous, to offset all the continued doom and gloom plotting, the writers begin the episode with the most gratuitous nudity in the show’s history – and that’s really saying something.
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