About This Seventh Season of “Entourage”

Dealer on the line.

In case you haven’t heard/been watching, “Entourage” is back and – just maybe – better than ever. With the season seven finale just under two weeks away, I’ll take a look at the reasons why.

It’s the show that won’t seem to die, even though it’s kind of already given itself a pre-determined death date (Summer 2011 will be its final season).

Critics have been ready to write off HBO’s “Entourage” as repetitive fluff ever since the show dedicated itself to depicting the “Medellin” storyline that seemed to stretch on for forever. And for the most part, they have a valid argument. The show has been called visual junk food and episodic cocaine (irony later).

Through entertaining dialogue and a depiction of a male fantasy life, “Entourage” has strutted through six seasons by delivering similar plots.

Vince is offered the movie. A series of things happen to put Vince actually doing the movie in jeopardy. Vince ultimately gets the movie, the season ends and we start back the next season around premier time.

That’s not a formula that anyone on the show will deny. “Entourage” isn’t made to change the world. It’s made to entertain and have every blue-blooded 18 to 40-year-old male rushing to the nearest television set at 10:30 P.M. on Sunday nights.

Premium cable's dream team.

Ultimately, with only the season finale left in this year’s rendition, we could have about the same thing. But damn does it feel different.

The primary reason? Vinny Chase is in love.

After opening the season by doing his own stunt for the first time, Chase walks away from the scripted car crash feeling invincible. He goes skydiving, buys a motorcycle but then meets the one girl that can keep him content.

Now in almost any other situation, this would seem much more like it is an ending road for “Entourage” rather than a fresh beginning. Vinny in love would mean an actor finally tamed down after six years of running around and Tiger Woodsing his way through Hollywood. It would mean settling down to a lifestyle more similar to that of  best friend Eric Murphy than Jim Morrison.

Except this relationship has made Chase more dangerously raucous than ever before. Maybe it has something to do with the girlfriend in question being a porn star. Who knows?

Regardless, Vince has gone from being the happy-go-lucky nice guy movie star to a rebellious drug addict with virtually no loyalty to anyone other than his girlfriend (played by real-life “adult entertainer” Sasha Grey) and new pal Charlie Tweeder.

Yes, this guy. Eleven Years later.

Vince is easily agitated, completely care-free and often strung-out. He has chased away directors, made studios leery of his lifestyle and plunged the life of agent Ari Gold even deeper into hell. But this transformation has truly made Vince the marquee character of “Entourage” for the first time.

I know what you’re thinking, and yes, Vince has always technically been the main character of ‘Entourage.” His character is the reason the show exists and the reason why everybody involved has the life that they have.

But until this point, I would argue that he has never been the definitive star of the show. Gold gets the powerful, vulgarity-laden monologues that have won Jeremy Piven three Emmy’s, Drama and Turtle are a dynamic duo of slacker comedy and E is the hard-working sidekick who has become more due to his surplus of ambition.

Vince has just always kind of been there, funding his friends and doing what the “suits” tell him to.

“Suits” like Ari Gold who has plenty of his own quandaries going on in this seventh season. When the season began, Gold was on top of the world, running the biggest agency in Hollywood and on the brink of bringing an NFL franchise to Los Angeles. Gold’s big beginning would obviously only lead to his world crashing down.

By crashing down, I mean that his marriage is in shambles, his favorite client is no longer trustworthy and his entire public reputation has pretty much been trashed by a former assistant who has given the media tapes of offensive things that Gold has said over the years. Not to mention, by falsely accusing rival agent Amanda Daniels of releasing said tapes, he has ruined his chances at being any part of his NFL passion project.

These two storylines bring the most effective drama aspect to “Entourage” that the show has ever had. It has the legitimate feel that Vince could be rushed to the hospital or lose everything at any moment, and Ari may be brutally close to seeing his family walk out the door along with his “A-list” agent status.

Hell, we even saw Gold come close to shedding tears when he first saw his vulgar rants that were made public (think lots of “C” words and ‘P” words). Sunday’s episode included a restaurant confrontation scene between Gold and Daniels that was so well done it will make any man with professional or family goals absolutely cringe.

Warning: The following clip includes plenty of offensive language and could be taken off of the Internet at any second. That warning was for you, Mom.

Part of the restaurant meltdown scene.

Jeremy Piven called the scene the best thing that he has done in his seven years on the show. I know nothing about acting, but can’t deny that claim at all.

Yes, there’s still plenty of the fantasy aspect of “Entourage” to keep viewers entertained and cheerful in between Gold and Chase death wishes. A sober and married Billy Walsh has created a cartoon based around it’s lead character, Drama, and Turtle is pioneering for a tequilla company whose biggest problem is that its growing too fast and not quite ready for Mark Cuban’s investment.

There’s still the private jets, the mansions and some of the wittiest commentary yet. Each episode contains a ridiculous amount of celebrity guest stars which I do not even have the time to begin to name.

But things are different, and for a show with seven episodes and a film left in its existence, that’s proving to be a very good thing.

-Bryan