I’ve had an amazing breakthrough.
For weeks, I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly the plan was for Vince this season, and I was also wondering aloud if the producers were honestly happy with him just plodding along the scenery while his friends had relevant and interesting things to do. Well, I think this week’s episode tipped me off.
Adrian Grenier must have physically accosted a high-ranking Entourage producer in his office.
In a brilliant bit of self-reflexivity, the show tipped its hand as Johnny Drama tried desperately to right his very egregious, though noble, wrong from last week. The gamble evidently paid off, but it was heavily implied that his character on Five Towns will suffer from some pretty lousy story arcs in the future.
That might explain why the best we could come up with for Vince this week was “Vince is terrorized by an underwear-snatching stalker and feels compelled to buy a gun.” I’ve done a lot of apologizing for this show in the past, but that is just lazy, wheels-spinning scriptwriting.
So that’s the bad news. But there was lots to like about this episode, most notably Drama’s cathartic plea for mercy (even if he was recording it) to Coakley in his office. His original apology did not go so well, considering it involved the words “You’re a fucking dead man” But on his return trip, he laid it all on the line. In this little diatribe, Drama admitted all of his deficiencies including, but not limited to, inadequacy and anger issues. Kevin Dillon brought it so hard in this scene, and it’s just the kind of thing a character like Drama needs at this point in the show’s run. Even if the whole thing was an elaborate ruse, it was still great to hear a complete admission of his career shortcomings from the elder Chase.
Things were also looking up for E, as he began his new job at Murray Berenson’s managerial firm. I was a very big fan of Ari’s pizza gag, as it had been quite a while since we had a good E/Pizza boy joke on the show. Remember when there seemed to be one every week? Also, the girl who delivered “You are no longer pizza boy, you are now a pizza MAN” just killed me. Funny, funny stuff. Less funny: E retaliating by sending a dildo to Ari’s office, but I guess they can’t all be winners.
Also killing me was Scott Caan as E’s new co-worker Scotty Lavin. A greased up, testosterone-fueled would-be manager of Bob Saget, Scotty made it clear to E that they would not be sharing the artist formerly known as Danny Tanner as a client, even if E was the one who got him in the door. I think this whole new job for E raises a lot of interesting possibilities for the show, as E works his way to Hollywood legitimacy and some promising characters emerge. For example, I’m really hoping that chemistry between E and his smokin’ hot assistant Brittany was an indicator of a budding romance since that girl is actually, you know, likable.
I also like that E is working at a managerial firm as opposed to an agency, as it avoids the very contrived “E competes bitterly with Ari” storyline. Good move by the writing staff.
Saget was all for signing with E, but at a price. He wanted to christen E’ new boss’s office with a nice little tryst with his lady friend. I loved Saget last time he was on the show as Vince’s Malibu neighbor, and he delivered again. By now, it’s not a secret that the former Full House star is a completely foul-mouthed Hollywood cavorter, but that doesn’t make it any less funny. Not to me, anyway.
E obliged Mr. Saget, and proposed the solution to Murray, who, after running a little subterfuge, was more than happy to rent his office out for a midday fuck, with a cleaning crew involved after all. Not too bad for E’s first day.
I’ve made my feelings known about this stalker thing, but it did give us two pretty good moments as Turtle and Vince were considering buying firearms. The first was Jamie-Lynn warning Turtle that he would end up like Plaxico Burress, shooting himself (topical). The second was Turtle surmising that he would be good with a firearm since he is "a good free throw shooter".
Anyway, that’s about all we have here. I’m pretty interested to see what happens to Drama in the coming weeks. Are they going to turn him gay? Or give him some sort of hideous skin disease? Do you buy into my behind-the-scenes Adrian Grenier flip out theory? If there’s even a shred of truth to it, that makes this episode all the more awesome, but I doubt it.
Stay classy, y’all. See you next week.
