Episode 10 - Lose Yourself
14 September 2010
Synopsis: Vince is gone all night prompting Johnny to panic and set up an intervention. Sasha breaks up with Vince after he argues with her at work. Vince angrily walks out on the intervention and checks it into a hotel where Eminem is hosting a big party. Vince gatecrashes and gets beaten up after insulting the host. At hospital the police find drugs on him and prepare to charge him. Meanwhile Turtle manages to convince Mark Cuban to back off from his plans to buy Carlos out. Eric is angered when Terrence asks him to sign a pre-nuptial agreement before marrying Sloan. Terrence implies Murray was involved in the decision and so Eric aligns himself with Scott's plans to take Murray down. Ari's wife takes a break from their marriage just as Ari is hosting a big surprise party for her.
The Good: The edge of realism which the show often clings to was just about present. I liked that the intervention failed for more than one reason. Not only is Vince in deep denial but his friends admitted that he hadn't actually done a lot to hurt them. The arrest for drug possession is a low key and easily believable result of Vince's behaviour and by avoiding melodrama the show maintains its veneer of reality.
The Bad: However Vince's story rather suffered from this being a ten episode and not twelve episode season. The pacing of the story seemed poor and his arrest came too soon for me. The failed intervention demonstrated that Vince hadn't yet reached rock bottom. We now know season eight of the show will only be six episodes long and it's hard to imagine that his issues will be adequately dealt with.
It's tough to act like someone falling from grace. Unless you have really been strung out on drugs and behaving irrationally I doubt it's an experience the average actor can adequately simulate. Grenier has always played Vince's laid back charm convincingly but this story stretched him. He played it ok but I don't think he could carry the average telling of the story to something greater with his performance. His childish behaviour around Sasha felt believable enough but wasn't a very compelling breakup for yet another underdeveloped relationship (on this show).
Speaking of break ups Ari and the Mrs finally split and it didn't feel momentous. Every Ari marriage story ends the same way and I think a reconciliation will happen one way or another. It's been a strange season for them considering he has seemed no busier and no ruder than he always has. The writing didn't adequately communicate the build-up of frustration and sadness on her part. There was also irony in Marcy accusing Ari of throwing money at a problem and then accepting a bribe to help him out. I don't think it was a deliberate irony, I think the writing just went to Ari's go-to manoeuvre to solve his problems.
The never ending story of Turtle and his tequila has felt like a huge waste of time. Here we get more pointless celebrity cameos before Mark Cuban finally relents, for no other reason than apparently people find Turtle endearing. John Cleese and Christina Aguilera also pop in but add very little. Cleese was fine in his role but he wasn't given anything funny enough to do nor did the writing explain why Ari suddenly listened to him above everyone else who has told him to focus on his marriage.
Finally the Eric storyline was the most baffling of all. For years we have been waiting for some genuine characterisation with Eric and Sloan. A glimpse perhaps of what they see in one another beyond the obvious. But instead it seems we will get more fake tension and tension which Eric seems entirely to blame for. Terrence (Sloan's meddling father) asks Eric to sign a pre-nup. You would think Eric would just laugh and point out the Sloan has never mentioned it and indeed that if she wanted that it was fine with him. That would be the mature root for Eric to take, he must be a millionaire by now so what would he care? But no he instead accuses Sloan down the phone of having something to do with it and then foolishly agrees to join Scott's coup against Murray. This is another immature decision but it's also one that has no dramatic weight. Murray has been absent all season and Eric makes the decision to betray him based purely on Terrence's equivocations. It all seems silly and makes Eric look like a fool. I can't imagine that in six episodes time this will feel like a momentous story that takes Eric all the way to becoming one of Ari's rivals.
Comic Highlight: Johnny linking Vince's night out of the house to the disappearance of the Lindbergh baby was a typically funny idea. At the same time though it made light of Vince's situation in a context where his drug problems needed to be handled in a more serious way than the show is usually capable of.
Victory?: It's a disappointing end to another undercooked season of Entourage. We have six more episodes and a potential film to look forward to now. Frankly these characters have had so many second chances to be rich and successful that I don't feel much affection for them anymore. The show has steadfastly refused to move beyond the superficial and I don't see that changing. I anticipate a happy Eric wedding, a happy Ari reunion (with his wife), success for Johnny Bananas, Turtle's tequila and Vince, once he gets out of rehab. Nothing to get excited about basically.
Feedback
Add your comments on this episode below. They may be included in the weekly podcasts.
’)