After an exemplary start to the eighth and final season of Entourage, it was inevitable that things were going to slow down and return to the Entourage of old. Last week it seemed as if we had hit that slump, when “Whiz Kid” chronicled Vince urinating in a cup for its extremely limited twenty minutes of screen time, but as much as one would have liked them to be, things weren’t quite done with yet. Whilst outshining its predecessor in terms of content, “Motherf**ker” did little in the way of plot progression to the extent that it is now becoming frustrating. With only three episodes left in its run, Entourage has managed to waste two consecutive episodes on very, very little, and of the few things that did actually happen, you’d require a season nine to truly give them the resolution that they deserve. Nevertheless, what’s done is and forever will be done and Entourage will have to live with that.
Of the few things that the show did get right this week, its title amazingly wasn’t just profanity for profanity’s sake, rather, for perhaps the first time ever when the word has been used, a mother was truly f**ked. Still broken up over his break-up with Sloan, Eric has been keeping a calm exterior in front of his friends despite absolutely no one believing his positive outlook. When Melinda Clarke (played by the actual Melinda Clarke but not really as herself), Sloan’s ex-stepmother, set up a meeting with Eric he was warned off on more than one occasion, but feeling mildly down as he is, he went ahead with it anyway. With Melinda looking for new representation Eric was thrown a little off his game, expecting the conversation to be of a more personal nature, but wising up afterwards, he went to meet her at a bar to accept her as a client. As the alcohol flowed and the two bitched about the McQuewicks, the inevitable side effect of loneliness took place and they ended up in bed together. Unbeknownst to E however, that was Melinda’s plan all along, just to make her ex jealous.
Whilst title appreciation is one thing, the actual storyline itself did not really work for me at all. If the two had ended up sleeping together because that’s just the way it goes, it could have worked fine as a way to make Eric feel guilty and try even harder to get Sloan back, but being tricked into sex that the woman actually wants everyone to know about is just kind of silly. Eric and Sloan getting back together has felt like a certainty since the second that they broke up, but with this now hanging over his head, it may well be the unnecessary relationship destroying thing that takes away one of the best and more serious parts of an otherwise juvenile show in need of adult supervision. Eric’s lapse in judgement wouldn’t be the only relationship error of the week though, with Ari’s job getting in the way of his personal life just one time too many for his wife’s liking.
On his day with his children following his separation from Mrs. Ari, Ari looks to score some points with his kids by taking them to Disneyland - much to their dismay. Unsurprisingly things start to get in the way, most notably a meeting with Dana Gordon. When the day ends with his kids having not even left the office, Ari returns them to their mother to some news - she wants a divorce. Whilst nothing is set in stone, the divorce angle really is an odd move for the show to take. Mrs. Ari has always been fairly likable, but this season she has gone from bad to worse and now divorcing Ari for making more money than God is just a step too far. She started seeing someone else far too quickly after they separated and now she wants a divorce for little reason at all. The writers have written her to be hated, and on that count they have succeeded 100%. The only mild positive to be pulled from the ashes of the relationship is that the Ari-Dana thing may actually have some legs after it seemed like it was over last week, but that still remains to be seen.
Relationship drama aside, Vince was in a sort of damage control mode this week after his involvement in a drug induced suicide a couple of weeks ago. Taking a more serious interview than usual with Vanity Fair, he was thrown off his game not only by the questions, but by the extremely attractive woman asking them. When the interview flopped because Vince spent too much time hitting on the interviewer and not enough time talking about his father, he went behind Shauna’s back to make things right - arranging another meeting at his hotel. Taking the questions head on this time around, Vince seemed to be in the clear, but when the reporter still dismissed his advances once the interview was through, Vince was in love, unable to have a girl for about the first time in his life. Based on the “next time on Entourage” following the episode, this thread is not done either, so potential relationship drama or at least an attempt at getting some may be on the horizon for Mr. Chase after all. Vince wasn’t the only Chase with issues this week though as Drama, following Dice’s continued refusal to rejoin Johnny’s Bananas, finally walked off the show in an attempt to get the network to act.
As I said before “Motherf**ker” wasn’t exactly what one might call the best episode of Entourage, but it did remain entertaining. The show’s problem right now is that it feels kind of lost. Setting up a timetable in which Vince doesn’t have a movie to act in for the entire season may not have been the best approach and Turtle is at this point just an unfunny comic relief addition to the show. His business idea will probably end up going somewhere, but it needs to come together very quickly to work at all, otherwise it will just come across as little more than an afterthought to the season. Drama’s fight with the network is at least more engaging than most of the other story lines but the problem is, he is about the least likable character in the show anyway, so caring about his success isn’t exactly a hot issue. The best parts of the season by this point should have been the relationship battles of Ari and Eric, but instead E’s has been pushed completely aside and Ari’s is just becoming doomed. With only three remaining episodes, a quick recovery wouldn’t be the worst thing for the show.