Ushering 'Entourage' Out the Door

Vincent Chase is Hollywood's newest "hot young actor." His first movie, Head On, received so-so reviews, but after The New York Times declares Vince "the next Johnny Depp," his career takes off.

Vince, played by Adrian Grenier, moves to Hollywood with his "entourage"—really just his boyhood friends from back on the block in Queens, N.Y. There's Eric (Kevin Connolly), his manager; Drama (Kevin Dillon), a has-been bit actor hoping that Vince has long coattails; and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), all-round gofer and general hanger-on.

But to be successful, Vince knows he needs more than just his friends. He needs some Hollywood insiders. That's where cutthroat super-agent Ari (Jeremy Piven) and his ultra-cynical assistant, Shauna (Debi Mazar), come in. Together, Vince and his crew set out to climb to the top of the pile—having as much fun and sex as possible along the way.

More of the Usual HBO Fare
Entourage is an HBO original series, and it shows. Each half-hour episode features gratuitous sexual content, including implied sex in a hot tub; a threesome among Turtle, Drama and a buxom Peace Corps volunteer; and an impromptu discussion of male impotence with celebrity psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers in a supermarket aisle. (Real-life celebrities such as Brothers, Mandy Moore, Jessica Alba and James Cameron make regular appearances on this series.)

And the profanity flows freely. One half-hour featured more than 30 (unbleeped) uses of the f-word, which works out to more than one per minute. All of this, according to series creator Doug Ellin, serves the basic purpose of telling a story about ... friendship.

"It's not supposed to be a cynical look at Hollywood. It's supposed to be a look at friendship," Ellin says. "Hollywood just happens to be the backdrop. To me, these guys could be real estate brokers, they could be investment bankers, they could be medical interns. It's just about four friends and how they're all trying to make it."

Well, yes, but I'm guessing that most real estate brokers and investment bankers don't have nubile women trying to hop into their bed or hot tub at every turn, nor do they get into profanity-laced shouting matches in public places.

Inside Hollywood's Head
Entourage does have an insider's feel. Executive produced by Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights, Three Kings), there are sly jokes about Hollywood pretensions scattered through each episode. For example, a woman insists she's not a mere publicist; no, she's a "publicitist." An affected art film ends with the French fin instead of a simple "The End." And Vince confronts his agent about lying, asking, "Do you ever tell the truth, Ari?" To which Ari glibly responds, "I tell the parts that matter."

Heading into its third season, Entourage finds the entourage in full crack-up mode, with Vince not sure he wants to take the role of a lifetime as Aquaman in a James Cameron mega-production. It seems that Cameron's Aquagirl is to be played by Mandy Moore, a former flame of Vince's now engaged to another man. "It would be awkward," Vince explains.

Ari finds out that he's not so super after all, getting fired by his agency for being on the losing end of some hardball office politics. And Turtle and Drama are beginning to wonder if Vince has any coattails at all, never mind how long they might be.

This might all be interesting if we actually cared. As is, the guys in this Entourage are a bunch of self-centered perpetual adolescents who throw a wobbly for the most petty of reasons. (For instance, Drama finds out just what a 9-iron will do to a nice Mercedes-Benz that dared to tailgate him.) It really makes you wonder why anyone would aspire to Hollywood stardom. Watching an episode feels close to the experience of watching an elementary school playground fight.

Throw in—or out as the case may be—the bucketloads of profanity and sexual content, and the only place for this Entourage to go is out the door.