Does Entourage get better after the 1st season?

Cafe Society
#1

I’ve heard for years how great this show is so I decided to start watching it on DVD. I think I’m in the demographic as I’m a young 30’s male and I have a good sense of humor.

Thing is this show isn’t entertaining in the least, the first season anyway.

None of the characters are the least bit likeable. There’s no one to root for, though Kevin Dillon’s character is fairly sympathetic.

The women are not particularly good looking. Thin as rails.

Turtle is particularly annoying, though I think that may be the intent with that character. I can’t see him getting laid even WITH the boost from being Vincent’s buddy.

There’s really not an overarching story. They seem to do the same thing over and over episode to episode.

Does this get better? I’m about to give up.

#2

I too gave up after watching the first season. It seemed they were all just a bunch of asshole parasites mooching off of their rich, semi-famous friend. They get to live a great life without having to actually work for it. That just pisses me off. I want to watch them all go broke and be forced to work at McDonald’s flipping burgers. Maybe that was the whole point of the show, but I didn’t find it entertaining at all.

#3

If you don’t like the first season, I doubt you will like the later ones.

My wife and I LOVE this show, basically because EVERY character is such a fuck up idiot, living the fuck up idiot’s dream. But our kids don’t see the appeal.

Actually, I like the first couple of seasons the best, before they went into much (but not too much!) character development. And there do develop some ongoing stories. So hey - maybe you WOULD like the later seasons better. But not enough so to make it worth your while to keep watching.

If nothing else, tho - you oughta do yourself a favor and catch at least a couple of eps featuring Sloan. YOWZA!

#4

I love it and so do most of my friends but no it doesn’t get any better if you don’t already like it.

My latest Entourage moment:

I emailed all my friends this

Eat your heart out Billy Walsh

#5

One thing I have learned by watching the first season of Entourage is that you don’t say goodbye when talking on a cell phone. You just slam it closed when you are done speaking.

I never saw anyone end a phone conversation in any other way on this show.

#6

Its just not a good show. Its an idealized movie star dream. Nothing really bad happens. The star isnt rude, never gets into serious drugs, never gets into fights, etc. Its kinda a Disney fantasy for the Hollywood life.

The Ari Gold character kinda helps it, but the show lacks any realism, its all “hey, even though we’re total morons who deserve to be penniless, thanks to Ari and some good luck everything is good again!”

#7

The second season is better than the first, but it’s still the same characters and the same dynamics.

But the second season introduces Emmanuelle Chriqui as Eric’s girlfriend. Yes, she’s skinny. The show is set in Hollywood. Who in Hollywood isn’t skinny? Think of shows like Better Off Ted, which features the beautiful and skinny Andrea Anders as a major character. Yet they have to take care to keep her away from Portia de Rossi because comparatively de Rossi makes her look like a blimp. Who’s on your not “thin as rails” list? I’ll bet they are all size 4 or less in reality just like Anders.

Anyway, Chriqui (pronounced creaky) was just named AskMen.com Most Desirable Woman of 2010. She looks better in the show than she does in the pictures from AskMen. And Eric is a sympathetic character. He’s the adult of the group, even though he doesn’t want to be. That’s powerful.

#8

I have to say that I thought the first season was weak and considered not watching the 2nd season. Yet I did watch the 2nd season and now I love this show. Ari and Johnny Drama are 2 of the great comic characters of all time IMO.

#9

I don’t have HBO but it’s been in the back of my mind for awhile now that I should check out this show. Maybe I’ll get the first season DVD sometime. Thanks for starting the thread.

#10

Every season is exactly the same. Every episode is exactly the same. A gang of self-satisfied, rich little,parasitic assholes going to endless parties, engaging in sophomoric sexual discussions and behavior and worshipping their talentless, uncharismatic, movie star leader/lunch ticket, interspersed with scenes of the movie star’s agent harrassing his assistant with racist, homophobic taunts. The whole thing is held together with anemic framing narratives focusing on weak tension about what Vince’s next movie will be or how his last movie did at the box office. B plots involve tedious, lowbrow sex comedy and contrived, secondary “career” plots for the parasites.

The only thing I ever like about it is Kevin Dillon, and that’s not enough to keep me watching anymore. I think a show just about the life and trevails of a long time, bottom feeding, Z-list actor, tenaciously hanging in there year after year on the fringes of the business would be a better show, actually.

Honestly, I get sick to death of every single episode having to feature a party with girls in bikinis.

#11

Its Sex in the City for guys. It’s not supposed to be great, but it is entertaining.

#12

That’s basically it. It’s a male fantasy. None of them, not even Vince, is especially good looking. So it’s amazing that they manage to get the women that they do. And even the lifestyle they live doesn’t seem justified by what he’s making in the movies (especially in the early seasons). And I don’t know why Eric would have any doubts about Sloan. She’s gorgeous, she loves him and also she’s really rich.

#13

Yeah, if you don’t like the first season, then you won’t like the rest - it is pretty consistent.

Ari, Drama and the frequent cameos are the main reasons I like the show. And the knowledge that Mark Wahlberg’s early hollywood life was the inspiration for the show that he produces, is kind of interesting. Not everyone’s cup of tea, of course.

#14

I think Jeremy Piven does a great job in this series. I also love celebrity cameos and this show has a ton of them, due to the nature of it.

But yes, plot wise there’s not a lot to get. It’s hard to feel sympathetic towards a character whose main concern in the world is whether he feels he can turn down a huge movie offering or not.

#15

It’s male escapist fantasy. Sort of like Sex and the City is for women. I think the show gets better about midway through Season 1. It does sort of start out as 4 sortof douchey guys running around Hollywood getting into as much sex and drugs as they can.

The next several seasons get better as they flesh out the characters and their relationships a bit. They aren’t just 3 parasites living off their high school friend. There truly is a genuine friendship there. And the characters do show some growth. Eric tries to develop his own career outside of his relationship with Vince. Drama’s own career starts to take off. Turtle goes back to college. Even Ari comes to recognize the importance of his relationship with Lloyd.

IMHO, the best seasons are the early ones where Vince is one movie review away from being sent back permenantly back to Queens Blvd. To a certain extent later episodes have become somewhat “this week on Entourage - tragedy strikes the boys as their life becomes slightly less awesome for a short period of time.”

I guess you missed the episode where they got into a fight with Seth Green and his entourage.

One of the best parts of the show IMHO is when real actors play douchey or crazy versions of themselves. Paricularly Matt Damon, Seth Green, Gary Busey, and Bob Saget.

#16

It’s a fairy tale for douchebags. Jeremy Piven is amazing—or at least lucked into a chance-in-a-million role fitting his real-life asshole persona—but even Ari isn’t enough to sustain interest after a while, IMO.

I’d probably love the show if I were 13. Being <ahem> a bit older now, I just feel like giving every one of the characters a good smack.

#17

I don’t know about you guys but I love Entourage, including the first season, though I do see your point about there not being much of a story in it (the first season). IMHO the best seasons come after the first and before the fifth, though if you don’t like the dynamics between the characters and their lifestyle itself annoys you then I’m not sure that you’ll like the show at all.

I started with the third season and fell in love with the show, then worked my way down to the first. YMMV.

#18

I used to like Jeremy Piven in the show, but I think his character just became too relentlessly assholish to Lloyd for me. At some point that kind of behavior stops being politically incorrect tweaking and starts to become genuine abuse. I do like his relationship with his wife and kids, though. He’s a devoted family man, at heart, which is redeeming for his character.

The stuff I like best is stuff about Drama’s career and his persistence in it. I liked the episode when he went to the science fiction fan-con, and was treated like a huge celebrity for his Viking Quest role.

I think a great way to end the show would be for Vince’s career to come to an end, while Drama, the brother who actually worked his ass off trying to be a real actor all those years, strikes gold with a character role in a movie, and wins a Best supporting actor Oscar, rejuvenating his career, and reversing the dynamic between him and his brother.

#19

I’d buy a ticket to see that. Matinee, anyway.

#20

It’s not Shakespeare, it’s bubblegum.

After a day’s work, when we sit down with my wife to watch something, she’ll prefer Entourage over something more serious, even if the more serious show is better made (e.g. Mad Men)

BTW, I do think the show gets better in later seasons. Either that, or, once you get to know the characters after the first season or two, you care more about what happens to them, which increases the interest of each episode.