Episode 7 - Tequila and Coke
25 August 2010
Synopsis: Turtle begins promoting the tequila despite not being authorised to do so. Vince takes cocaine and another vicodin and makes a less than favourable impression on Randall Wallace. Vince lies to Eric about his use. Lizzie feels uncomfortable blackmailing Ari and returns the tapes to him in exchange for a network job. Unfortunately someone leaks the contents anyway. Billy pitches Johnny a show where he will voice an angry monkey and he does not like it.
The Good: Billy does seem to be a changed man and he makes for a handy signpost to show the road Vince is heading down. His pitch to Johnny is a fun idea and absolutely true to his character Johnny hates it. Johnny sees himself as the leading man and dreams of being a big Hollywood success story. He does not want to be a voice artist and his offended reaction was spot on.
Vince taking cocaine was the next logical step and the writers are definitely telling a culturally relevant story. I still like the way the story is being told but I don't have great faith that the show can follow through with it.
Turtle's wheeling and dealing was something of a fluff story. The connection to Vince's reputation is the relevant part and I did like the way he cut a deal with the TMZ reporter. You know that must go on all the time.
The Bad: The Ari story seemed to be evaporating until the news of his behaviour got out anyway. I'm sure next episode we will see all kinds of crap raining down on him. But for now the story is missing details. All we know for sure is that the press knows that Ari berates his employees and uses foul language. Was that a secret? Surely he uses language like that in front of his wife all the time, why would she care? The loss of the NFL franchise is definitely a blow but it wasn't as if the whole town knew about that and will now blame him. The writing needed to be clearer as to what the consequences would be because otherwise it didn't seem such a big deal.
Lizzie looked like a moron for handing over her leverage before Ari had even got her a job yet. Perhaps she knew what was about to happen and wanted to get in his good graces while she still could but it still seemed foolish. In general the story just hasn't been clearly told and still doesn't feel like it could bring Ari down. At this point he is so powerful that only losing his family or his job could really bring some genuine drama.
Comic Highlight: Not a lot on offer I'm afraid. Ari's delivery of the "Howard Stern is gonna be the new host of Jeopardy...You didn't hear it from me!" was fun.
Victory?: Hmm. It's difficult to know if the writers are up to the challenge of addressing Vince's issues in an interesting and sensitive manner. With high profile actors dying in the last few years owing to substance abuse issues it should not be an issue Vince can shake off by season's end.
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