It’s just a habit for me now. I don’t expect anything great. But I domexpect some basic level of comedy and T&A. This season was almost excruciatingly not funny and the sole highlight was naked Sasha Grey, which is easy to find anyway. Criminal underuse of Carla Gugino and Billy Walsh.
Mark Cuban seems to think he can do anything. Bur he cannot act.
I was debating giving up on the show. I kind of got sick of the whole “Everything works out for Vince” endings. Oh no, they guys missed a plane to the film festival. Oh wait here comes one of their celebrity friends with an EVEN BIGGER PLANE!! YAY!!
What kept me is I am a sucker for the “Inside Baseball” Hollywood stuff. I actually liked the darker tone of this season and since next season is the last, I guess I may as well finish it out.
The Vince stuff bores me, but I’ve been liking the storylines for the ancillary characters. Except Ari, whose wife makes me go :rolleyes:
I still watch it, but I don’t really feel good about myself afterwards.
They keep trying to make E and Turtle interesting, and they need to understand that it’s not going to happen. They almost succeeded with Vince this year, but I honestly think they’re limited by Grenier’s (lack of) acting ability. Johnny Drama is the most interesting of the four, and he’s usually relegated to comic relief.
It would be a far, far better show if they gave 90% of the screen time to Ari and Lloyd. The show went downhill when Lloyd got promoted from being Ari’s assistant, because they didn’t have any reason to interact anymore. And with E handling Vince’s day-to-day management, the only person Ari has left to interact with much is Mrs. Ari, which I’m very much over.
I watched it, but it was disappointing. The early seasons, showing the struggles of a up-and-coming actor, was interesting. It was fun to see the hangers-on, like Turtle, who were basking in the reflected glory, and the over-the-top lifestyle (endless babes, parties, alcohol and pot). As said above, Johnny Drama is more interesting than Vince. And Ari and Lloyd were fun as well.
Well, I suppose that (finale spoiler below)
the season finale ended the “everything works out for Vince” streak, with him
being arrested for possession of cocaine.
I watch it. I get enough laughs to keep coming back. And I watch, Hung, too. They’re both about the same in quality, although the latter has a “newer” feel to it, for obvious reasons.
I stopped watching after last year’s shitty season. Where did they get the idea that what everyone wanted to see was more ERIC???
I agree with all of this. I like that they at least tried to break up the forumla of everything always working out for Vince, and having him get caught up in a cocaine addiction was a good idea on paper, but,as you said, Grenier isn’t a good enough actor to sell it. He never looks coked up or strung out, he just looks like he’s trying to play coked up or strung out and it’s not convincing at all.
I’ve never like the Turtle character – always found him loathesome – and I’m not getting drawn into his storyline and find that I always want his business endeavors to fail.
E just doesn’t work for me either. His relationship story is a snooze, and I don’t find anything compelling about his personality. He doesn’t grate on me the way Turtle does, but his storylines bore me.
I agree that Drama is by far the most interesting character (and Kevin Dillon is by far the best actor among the four leads), and I think his character is the most inherently intriguing. The journeyman actor who has scratched and clawed, and stayed alive at the Hollywood D list is much more compelling to me than a pretty boy success who can’t really act.
I think a great way for this show to go would be to end with Vince’s career burning out while Drama gets the role of his life in something and gets an Oscar nomination, comletely revitalizing his career and getting the serious actor cred he craves. A reversal on the status of the two brothers would be also be funny, and would even have an object lesson in the difference between one brother working his ass off and paying his dues for years compared to the brother who takes nothing seriously and just expects everything to be handed to him.
Lloyd somehow rising higher than Ari and reversing that dynamic would be satisfying too.
I love the show. I am sooooo not the demographic for loving the show (40something woman) but I totally do. I watch and rewatch the episodes, just as much as I do Sex and the City eps; they’re my trashy comfort food. I even like everyone in the cast, with the exception of Scott Caan’s character and a few of the girlfriends (Kristin, the nutty 24-year-old stalker who demanded to see E’s email, Sasha, and Turtle’s current inamorata).
Eric and Ari are my favorite characters; E, whom sadly most people seem to despise, seems like a generally good but flawed guy, and I think Kevin Connolly does a solid job portraying a not-very-flashy role with plenty of heart. Ari… well, what’s not to love? He’s an asshat but owns it, and his relationships with Mrs. Ari and the kids are his saving grace. The Piv rules.
I actually rather like Turtle, especially when he was with Jamie-Lynn. He has a strange sweetness to him despite his more repugnant qualities; same can be said for Drama, for that matter. On the shallow side, Ferrara sure toned his body this year… the shots of Turtle playing the Kinetic (or whatever that was) were rather revelatory!
Vince is the weak link, both character- and acting-wise, but I believe Grenier rose surprisingly to the occasion in the last episode. Vince’s main problem has been coasting through life, which is tough to relate to because it makes him so laid back and mellow that he’s almost backgrounded by the more colorful entourage (and staffers) surrounding him.
Lloyd is a hoot, but y’know, I don’t mind his having been sidelined a little.
Sure, the quality’s gone down a bit, and Sasha Gray and Marc Cuban sucked life and energy out of every scene they were in, but I’m still having fun. I loved the arc relating to Ari’s tapes and the potential lawsuit, and the final few eps with everyone realizing Vince is fucked up / Ari possibly losing Mrs. Ari.
I’ll miss this show very much when it ends next year.
That reminds me of one of my favorite episodes. It was one in which Ari totally alienated the headmaster at a private school and then came home to his son pleading to be able to go to that school to be with his best friend, so that Ari had to grovel in front of the headmaster to get his son in.
Another favorite episode is the second-season one called “I Love You Too” in which the boys go to San Diego Comic-Con and Turtle sends the Pussy Patrol to appease a bitter journalist (modeled on Harry Knowles) and at the end they attend a U2 concert in which Bono calls out to Drama. The last favorite episode is the third-season one called “One Day in the Valley” in which the boys go to the San Fernando Valley to see Aquaman among the regular people, and then wind up at a high school graduation party where Vince has his “Almost Famous” moment and then gives the Maserati to two social outcast high school students.
I liked the one where Drama made a fan-con appearance for his Viking Quest role and was treated like royalty.
I think that’s the second-season episode called “I Love You Too” that I mentioned. (Vince went to Comic-Con to promote Aquaman while Drama went to sign autographs for the Viking Quest fans.)
Drama can be a doofus in his personal life, but he’s a dedicated professional. Well, that is until he freaks out over some trivial matter.
Turtle is so dull and boring. I find, like Dio, that I hope his businesses fail. And also that he doesn’t score. I guess the intend is that he is the one we identify with. Doesn’t work.
The best stuff was back when there was tension with Ari and the entourage. Because he is far the most interesting character. And tension with his wife and that not-fully-believable agent girl isn’t as good.
Sasha wasn’t any good. Instead of watching the last couple of episodes, I have followed some of her other work. And I think that is the right decision at this point.