Entourage Season 8 Review

Entourage (2004-2011)
Season 8 - 8 Episodes (2011)

Entourage Season 8

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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 eight is all about relationships, Ari & wife, Eric & Sloan, and Vince & a reporter. If you thought this series was about Hollywood, this season attempts to disprove that, and the finale is disappointing.

Verdict
This was a disappointing season, especially since it was the final season. It focuses largely on relationships, abandoning the Hollywood backbone. The final episode forces happy endings on all the characters, in some cases apparently without prior planning..
You can't skip the final season of show, but it's a disappointing close to a series that has been much better. It's easily my least favorite season. Not only does it lack Hollywood, the guys aren't even hanging out together. This season could have been so much better.
Watch it.

Review
This is a disappointing season on the level of season 6 (read my review), but with a finale that felt completely forced. This season is more relationship drama. Eric and Sloan are at odds after apparently resolving their issues last season. It just feels lazy to milk their relationship drama. Why can't the show push that story forward or focus on Eric being a manager? Mirroring that story line, is Ari's wife wanting a divorce, unable to resolve her feelings about the tabloid stories from season 7.

Vince is out of rehab and ready to work., but his arc quickly becomes him chasing a female reporter. So much for getting back to work. The show decides to pair everyone off with a finale that has very little lead in, deciding to ram a happy endings down our throats.

This could have easily been remedied, and I'll detail exactly how at the end of this review.

Read my previous Entourage season reviews.

Vince has a script about trapped miner's he's developing and would like to direct, but everyone is handling him with kid gloves telling him it's great when it's not since he's fresh out of rehab. He's upset when he finds out.
The first episode has Turtle burn the house down for no explicable reason. If the show wanted to move them out of the house, have Vince justify it as wanting a fresh start and selling the house.

Vince and Turtle sell their tequila business stock when the owner forces Turtle out. Turtle's plan is to start a restaurant, but the people he chooses to plant the restaurant don't seem like business people. I wouldn't trust them to run a lemonade stand. They run around Hollywood with stars in their eyes. Of all the bad plot lines this season, this might have been the worst.

Vince re-imagines the movie as a network film for Johnny. Johnny is excited to get screen time, though his animated show Johnny's Bananas tests through the roof. Johnny's co-star Andrew Dice Clay talks him into quitting in a bid to get paid more when the show hasn't even aired. This ends up backfiring, which was easy to predict. Drama may lose out on his show and the movie.

Ari's wife has been dating Bobby Flay, which aggravates Ari to no end. I noticed the paintball gun from season 5 is hanging in his office. I assume it's been there a while, but this is the first time I noticed it. This is also the first time I've heard his wife called by name, Melissa.

Carl Ertz gets another chance from Vince, with Vince explaining he feels like he has to support another addict. Ertz has selfish intentions yet again. In another over the top scenario, Ertz kills himself in episode three with Vince and Turtle in the house.

Vince (Adrian Grenier) chasing Sophia (Alice Eve).

Vince has to pass a drug test which has it's own complications, but Billy Walsh helps him. Vince wants to resume work on the miner movie and Airwalker from last season. Vince's plans are derailed for the rest of the season when he is smitten with a Vanity Fair reporter, Sophia played by Alice Eve. That's the end of anything film related for Vince and it's only episode five.

Eric teams up with Sloan's ex-stepmother to stop Sloan dating Johnnie Galecki.

Eric gets involved with Sloan's ex-stepmother and then gets jealous when Sloan starts dating his client Johnnie Galecki. Episode seven is just manipulative, with Sloan now pregnant. That's the best they could come up with?

Turtle's arc works out a little too neat. He sold his stock from the tequila business before it went public, costing him millions. Vince saves the day having kept his stock and buying Turtle's, giving Turtle the proceeds. At least this story was planned out from the start.

All the characters happily ride off into the sunset.

In the finale episode Vince wants to get married to Sophia after one night. Eric quits his job and will chase Sloan to New York. Ari realizes he's a horrible husband and father and quits.
Ari and Ms. Ari reconcile, as do Eric and Sloan. Everyone will fly to Paris to watch Vince get married. In a scene after the credits, Ari is offered the job of CEO at Warner Bros.

How should this season have unfolded? Vince pushes to direct his miner movie. With it being a network film, he has a better shot but it's not easy by any means. Have him meet Sophia but just start dating her. Even she wouldn't agree to marry him after one day. Directing could be a new career path and the show could hint that he and Sophia have a real relationship.

Eric and Sloan shouldn't have broken up between season seven and eight. Using a baby to force them together is cheap. Have Sloan get pregnant, forcing Eric to re-evaluate his work life balance. He could have chosen a less demanding job.

Johnny's arc works out fine. He gets to be a middling actor which is perfect. Have Turtle open the restaurant and struggle to make it work. Ari should realize his mistakes and accept them. The Warner brothers offer undoes him quitting anyway. Him getting that job should be his reward for being a terrible husband and father. Don't reconcile his relationship just to have him screw it up again.
The show could have at least given Lloyd a promotion.

The finale should be open ended, but hint that each of them has a distinct future that will be separate from each other. In their own way, each of them would have grown up with my arcs. Instead the finale throws everything together with no forethought or planning. It's like the show was cut from twelve episodes to eight half way through and the writers didn't care to fix it.