Entourage Season 3 Part 1 Review

Entourage (2004-2011)
Season 3 Part 1 - 12 Episodes (2006)

Entourage Season 3 Part 1

Buy Entourage Season 3 Part 1
Created by: Doug Ellin
Starring: Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Jeremy Piven
Rating: TV-MA 

Plot
Movie star Vince Chase navigates the road to stardom with his agent and group of friends.
Season three is split into two parts. Part one comprises twelve episodes and part two eight.
In part one of season three Vince rides the success of Aquaman, though it doesn't provide the freedom he anticipated.

Verdict
I like the second season just slightly more than the third. This season was listless by design as Vince tries to find his next project while enjoying the success of Aquaman.
The satire and celebrity cameos are still solid. It's a lot of fun to watch, though this season had  a bit too much Ari.
This seasons does a great job of developing Vince. The camaraderie seems effortless, and at it's core this is a window into a group of friends that we get to hang out with thirty minutes at a time. It just so happens that one is a movie star.
Watch it.

Review
Read my previous Entourage reviews.

This is a solid season, though I like season two more (read my review). While season two was finding the movie and signing on, this season is finding the next project. Season three didn't have the same focus, but part of the movie star life is waiting in limbo and and failing to secure the next project.
This season did focus a bit too much on Ari. While he's a great character, it's a situation where less is more. The problem may lie in what we saw of Ari. We see too much of his agency's woes. This doesn't add anything to the story which is the struggles of an actor. This isn't a show about an agent, at least not directly.

Vince moves from the success of Aquaman to pursuing his passion project Medellin. Unfortunately that conflicts with Vince's obligation to Aquaman 2.  Trying to pursue both lands Vince neither. While the sequel would have been his biggest paycheck yet, it's not about the money. Towards the end of the season, Eric discovers a new project, but that too may slip out of their grasp.

The boys and their mothers.

In episode one, Vince takes his mom to the premiere of Aquaman. It may topple Spiderman for the biggest opening weekend. I wondered if we'd get to see a clip of it. We do, though it's brief. In what has to be a clever joke, a blackout ends the clip we're seeing prematurely. While this show tells me Vince is a great actor, I've never actually seen that. The rolling blackouts could decrease the expected box office earnings. James Woods has a terrific cameo, vying for tickets to the film.

This season more than the previous shows how kind Vince is. He goes out of his way to reward his friends and share his success with them, though he expresses his thanks primarily through financial rewards. It also could be his way of maintaining the security blanket his friends create. Vince doesn't have to do much, and with his live in staff, they're happy to do whatever he needs at the promise of Ducati motorcycles.

Not everyone is smiling when Dom returns.

In episode three Vince's old buddy Dom is back in town. Everyone but Vince is ready to get rid of him, until Vince too realizes Dom is a hindrance, despite Dom helping Vince land Medellin.

Turtle briefly is a music manager.

Vince wants to push Aquaman 2 back so he can work on Medellin with Paul Haggis. He meets resistance and becomes even less interested in Aquaman when he learns James Cameron isn't returning, instead replaced by Michael Bay. The studio puts a halt to the Pablo Escobar biopic and Vince demands twenty million, thinking he can't be replaced. He can, and the studio opts for Jake Gyllenhaal instead. In case of fiction meets reality, four years later Gyllenhaal would do Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010).

In another instance of mocking Hollywood execs, Vince's film Queens Boulevard gets picked up for a wide release but the studio changes it from black and white to heavily saturated. Neither the director nor Vince will stand for that.

Turtle becomes a music manager, and while he gets paid his job doesn't last long.

This season focuses more on Ari. At first he's renting office space as now he runs his own agency. He wants to open the largest agency in town, but has to take on a partner he doesn't want. This arc was never relevant to the show. Sure, it' the lead in to Vince and Eric wondering if they need a new agent, but it felt like a promoted side character that shouldn't have been promoted. Ari is unresponsive and yet we see more of him this season than in previous seasons. I like Ari, I just don't care about how he runs his business.

Ari, Eric, and Bob

Continuing their animosity, Ari shutters Eric off on retired music producer Bob. Eric can't escape Bob's house, but finds Vince's next project, a biopic about The Ramones. Bob and Ari fight over who the lead producer role, which puts the entire project in jeopardy.
Eric and Vince talk to other agents as Ari's been unresponsive since opening his new office. The season ends on a bit of a cliff hanger.