Well here it is, the complete series of Entourage. The entire tale of actor Vincent Chase, his brother Johnny Drama and their friends Eric Murphy and Turtle. Well, not the entire tale as there is a movie on the horizon, but every episode of the TV series is here, all 98 of them.
From his humble beginnings in indie films to his rise to stardom in Aquaman to his downfall after the flop Medellin, to his return to stardom with Gatsby to his downward spiral into drugs and his final resurrection with the Stan Lee superhero film Air-Walker.
Yes, Vince has had quite a rollercoaster ride of a career. He hasn’t always made the right decisions, but he’s managed to keep him and his friends living the life through eight seasons of pretty damn good television.
In case you’ve somehow never watched this show, Entourage is loosely based on executive producer Mark Wahlberg’s early career in Hollywood and his friends. Wahlberg also appears in several episodes as himself. In fact there may be more celebrity cameos in this show than any other. I could list them all off, but then this review would just be a list of celebrities and that’s no fun. If you’re curious enough, Google it!
Entourage is a very consistently entertaining show. Season seven was the only one that lost me a little, but even then it still had some great moments. Vinnie’s drug addiction didn’t interest me all that much, but Turtle’s tequila and Johnny’s Bananas more than made up for it.
Then of course there is larger than life agent Ari Gold played by the amazing Jeremy Piven. I always knew Piven was a great actor loving him in films like PCU and Grosse Pointe Blank. I was very happy to see him get more wide spread notice because of this show.
What’s really great about watching Entourage in one big run, is that you really see the development of each of the main characters. They all grow as people, which keeps the show interesting. They make mistakes and fall, but they always get back up again. It’s sad to see such a great show come to an end. Hanging out with Vince and his entourage makes you feel like you’re in Hollywood yourself.
This show is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround. The show looks great. I’m pretty sure these are discs from the individually released seasons so if you’ve seen those you know what it’s going to look and sound like. The menus are still a little glitchy and the packaging leads to skipping DVDs. On a few occasions I had to take out the discs mid-episode and clean them so I could finish the show. But that’s always been a problem with these cardboard slide cases.
There are hours of special features on here, but as I just stated these are the individual seasons repackaged together so you don’t get anything new. But you do get 21 commentary tracks and about a billion little documentaries about the show running anywhere from 2-3 minutes to about an hour.
Entourage is really a fantastic show. When I first started watching it my roommate kept saying how she didn’t understand the appeal. By season three she was talking about how Johnny Drama and Lloyd were her favorite characters. If you’re not a fan of the show, you probably haven’t given it a fair chance. Sit down with this set and you’re sure to love it. If you already own all the seasons then there really isn’t a reason to upgrade to this set.
HBO presents Entourage (The Complete Series). Created by: Doug Ellin. Starring: Adrian Grenier, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara. Running time: 96 episodes on 18 discs. Not Rated. Released: November 6, 2012. Available at Amazon.com.
