When it was first broadcast in 2004, Entourage seemed like a singularly bold piece of television, thanks to its unique selling point of containing no dramatic tension whatsoever. Here was a show in which jeopardy was non-existent and the only thing that remained a mystery was how much better things might get. In other words, it was a pretty plausible depiction of life on Hollywood’s A-list.
Like a lot of people, I stopped watching the show around season four, when bad things started happening to the protagonists – don’t mess with the formula, guys! – so when I sat down to watch the saga’s big-screen finale this week, I did so unconversant with the last five years’ worth of Vince’s vanity, E’s exasperation, Drama’s disgruntlement and Turtle’s total narrative irrelevance.
I needn’t have worried. In this feature-length farewell, show creator Doug Ellin hits the reset button, stripping each character of the baggage they’ve accumulated over the years and restoring them to their embryonic forms (the opening scene finds Vince celebrating the annulment of his marriage with an impromptu yacht party).
From there, we follow the gang as they attempt to shepherd a $100m movie through the studio system without sacrificing artistic integrity, although swaths of that process – not least the production itself – are skipped over entirely, lest the audience worry that a positive outcome is anything other than guaranteed.
All this should prove reassuringly familiar to fans of the show, but the no-stakes formula that worked so well a decade ago feels a little hollow now that the cast have a combined age of 165 and their characters have grown jaded to the luxuries of fame. Indeed, the show’s whole concept may no longer have the cultural cachet it once did, as evidenced by an excruciating sequence in which Piers Morgan is forced to explain to the viewer what an entourage actually is.
Also out this week
Mr Holmes Baker Street’s most famous resident returns, only older.
Poltergeist The 80s horror franchise returns, only worse.
Pay The Ghost Nicolas Cage returns, only sapped of all enthusiasm.
