Entourage: An Overview

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

Hey there. I'm SA [sathinks] and it's my pleasure to introduce Entourage to crack_van. I love this show like I love pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, and let me tell you, I love pumpkin pie a lot.

The show is basically about Vince and Eric's true and pure love, and their attempts to hide it from the paparazzi. Or it could be about a bunch of guys actually making it in Hollywood and the crazy things they deal with as they go up and down the fame ladder, but I prefer my version for obvious reasons.




The Premise
Four dudes, through-and-through New Yorkers, live and work and deal with moving to Hollywood on the strength of actor Vincent Chase's career aspirations.

The show is driven primarily by the characters and the relationships between the five male leads. Vince and Eric's friendship, and the challenges of being boyfriends with a business relationship in a high-stress environment, tends to be the centerpiece. Vince and Eric's cautious but intense relationship with Ari Gold, Vince's agent, is a close second. (Not to mention the epic love-abuse relationship between Ari and his long-suffering assistant Lloyd. Lloyd is the only reason Ari doesn't spent every episode in a jail cell.) The continuous b-story of Turtle and Drama's lives, and the ways they develop their own careers while still obviously putting their ties to Vince first, is generally hilarious and is a nice counterpart to the bitchy seriousness of Vince and Eric's careers. At the end of the day, though, you see these dudes sitting down for a beer with each other and setting all their life shit aside, because they would be the first to tell you that family comes first. And they are each other's family.

Uh, and there's a lot of cursing, drinking, controlled substances, and poor decision-making. It's an HBO show, after all.

The Show
The show premiered July 2004, and is based loosely on the career of Mark Wahlberg, who is a producer on the show. (Fun fact: in the pilot episode, Vince and his dudes cross paths with Mark Wahlberg and his real-life dudes on the Warner Brothers lot, where Entourage is produced. Oh, show, you are your own in-joke.)

It's hard to pin the show down to a genre: it's funny, but it's not a traditional comedy. It's got a documentary-style feel, but there's definitely a fourth wall there. It's a window into "real" Hollywood, but it's scripted and the main characters are, well, characters. Entourage is surprisingly complex, though it's not going to make your head spin intellectually.

As a program, Entourage always has ridiculously low numbers, and yet it's been greenlit for a fifth season. Why is this? Well, it's kind of a reflection of the industry that produced it. All the clubs and restaurants and location shots done in Los Angeles are real, and the show goes to great lengths to portray celebrity reality as accurately as possible. It's what people who work in Hollywood talk about on their breaks, and can be about as self-referential and in-jokey as that implies. That being said, it's also the closest anyone who isn't in that world, on either coast, is probably going to get to living that life, so it's entertaining in that way as well. I don't know. It's a show about a life that anyone who refreshes Oh No They Didn't on a semi-regular basis will have some familiarity with, and it manages to be both interesting and funny without being wanky. And everyone's hot. So that helps.

A brief note about the high quality of the show--it's on HBO, so the production values are predictably through the roof. But more than that, the actors are what carry this show from being summer-league entertainment to something worth considering a little more closely. Jeremy Piven, who plays Ari Gold, is on fire in every scene he's in. Adrian Grenier compels sympathy from you for the A-list actor, which is no mean feat. Kevin Connolly makes Eric into this deeply personal, challenged man who has been given the opportunity of a lifetime, but is more likely to throw it away than embrace it--you can't help but watch this character grow with an absurd sense of pride. You may also want to smack him with a newspaper, but it would be affectionately so.

Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara hit Drama and Turtle (respectively) with note-perfect accuracy, and you love them even as you laugh so hard you break a rib. The recurring secondary characters, like Mrs. Ari and Shauna and Lloyd and Billy Walsh, are all so well-developed that the creative ruse of the show's "reality" becomes that much more convincing.

Being a show about Hollywood, it's not surprising that a parade of actual celebrities have crossed Entourage's set. Sometimes they play themselves (Jessica Alba, James Cameron, Mandy Moore, Seth Green). Sometimes they play characters (Val Kilmer as The Sherpa is the funniest pot grower of all time).

Seasons 1-3 are available on DVD. Season 4 should be coming out soon. Season 5 was set to air in summer 2008, but due to the writer's strike that has been pushed back to fall.

The Characters

So these are the dudes. From the left: Turtle, Eric, Vince, Ari, Drama. They're a team, they're friends, they're drinking buddies, they're all in business together. It's a complicated life, Hollywood. Most of the time we're following these guys running around LA together and the shenanigans they get up to. They are generally hilarious shenanigans.

This is Vincent Chase. Vince, Vinnie. He is what I like to call a "hotass." He's also an actor. And a manwhore. Basically, what I'm saying is that he gets around. You would think this would have a negative affect on his relationship with his boyfriend/manager Eric. You would be right.

Vince lives the muskateer ethic, in that he is bound and determined to bring his boys along for the ride. He is totally committed to the belief that it wouldn't be worth it without them. He's also a complete sucker for giving them all what they want, whether it's new suits, matching Aston Martins, or VIP treatment at any joint in LA. It would be a little more endearing if Drama and Turtle didn't take ridiculous advantage of him for it, or if he didn't try to fix things by using his money and his fame. But whatever, he loves his boys and they love him back.

Vince's first major flick was a thriller with Jessica Alba called Head On. Then he did an indie film called Queens Boulevard with director Billy Walsh (also known as The Pain in Eric's Ass). On the strength of QB he was offered the lead role in James Cameron's superhero blockbuster Aquaman, which he co-starred in with Mandy Moore, who was kind of the female love of Vince's life. That ended, and so did Vince's association with Aquaman. Because Vince can be a pissy bitch uncompromising actor, he didn't work for awhile until he got his dream project in Medellín. At the end of season four his career, which was banked on that film, was a little shaky since Medellín kind of sucked. Oh well, at least he still has Eric. Speaking of--

Meet Eric Murphy, frequently called E. Eric is a stubborn, short, mouthy bastard, and god we love him for it. He and Vince have been friends since they were children, growing up in Queens. When Vince moved out to LA to pursue his acting career, Eric stayed behind. He eventually became the assistant manager of a Sbarro's. No doubt he was awesome at it, but Vince convinced Eric to move out to LA so he would have a date for awards shows to be his manager as Vince's career took off. Eric couldn't resist Vince's stupid face, so he went, though he wasn't formally Vince's manager until the end of season one.

Eric keeps trying to date women and fails pretty miserably at it because he always chooses Vince over them. Funny, right? His major relationships were with this chick Kristen, who was kind of a bitch; one of Ari's assistants, Emily, who was too good for him; and Sloan, who admirably put up with a lot of his bullshit until Eric ran off to Colombia with Vince to make a movie and didn't call for six months. Fun fact: the closest Eric has ever come to moving out of Vince's house was to move to the guesthouse of Vince's house in season one. Really, what says life partnersbest friends more than cohabitation? (Okay, the other dudes live there too, but Drama does so until he buys his own condo and the house/Vince's domestic life is pretty much Turtle's job. Eric...doesn't really have an excuse.)

Over the last four seasons Eric's career has gone from nonexistent to omnipresent. I could say a lot of glowing things about Eric Murphy on the subject, but my perspective is pretty skewed, so I'll just say this--once people started taking him seriously, they started taking him really seriously, and now he's Vince's manager, a film producer, and is starting a business called The Murphy Group because he's going legit. It's been a long time since he was Vinnie's childhood friend helping Vince out, and finally he believes that. So in short: this is three times longer than Vince's section because I think Eric Murphy hung the stars and the moon. Vince agrees with me on this, I'm sure.

Johnny "Drama" Chase is Vince's older brother. He had lived in LA for years before Vince moved out there; Vince lived with Drama until he could afford his own place. While his career never reached the heights Vince's has, when Vince first moved out to LA Drama had quite a lot of work. Seriously, a lot. In fact, here's Drama's resume so you can see what I mean. He's had a bit part in every episodic show produced in LA. It's pretty hilarious. His career is a source of great amusement.

He is most famous for a role in the short-lived science fiction show Viking Quest. (Think Beastmaster with worse production values.)



Luckily Drama's career has taken a turn for the better. He's a lead character on a show called Five Towns, which is doing well enough that he is a little less likely to hang on to Vince's coat-tails.

Turtle (no other name given, seriously) grew up with Vince and Eric, and moved out to LA with Vince. He's pretty much been hanging out with Vince ever since. Once Vince made a little money, Turtle took it upon himself to be Vince's driver and general bodyman. (Vince has been behind the wheel of a car exactly once. He can't drive for shit. I don't think he has a license.) Turtle doesn't get a lot of love from the ladies, mostly because he acts like a sleazebag whenever he's within two feet of a female, but I suspect that the right woman would make all the difference for him. (That right woman may very well have been a cute girl named Kelly, but we will never know because the show made her disappear after exactly one episode. This is just one part of a long, extended grudge I have against the lack of character development Turtle has seen in four years; but that is neither here nor there.) In season two he stepped up to manage aspiring rapper Saigon, but that fell through in the end. However, the potential for Turtle to actually make his own dreams happen and stop running around carrying Vince's bags is there. I live in hope that it will be used.

The other thing about Turtle is that, as mentioned, he's pretty much the group/Vince's bodyman, but it's important to note that he is damn good at his job. Anything Vince (or Drama, or E) wants in Los Angeles, Turtle finds a way to make happen. If he has to beg, borrow, or steal, he does it with charm and almost no trouble. It's kind of impressive.

Ari Gold defies words. He's been Vince's agent since Vince moved to LA, and always thought Vince was going places. Ari is fast-talking, potty-mouthed, bitchy as hell, and possibly the most awesome character HBO has produced ever. He and Eric are constantly at war over the direction Vince's career is going. Ari is an abrasive jackass; but he also genuinely cares about these guys and will go out of his way to help/protect/fix them.

Ari's career has been a wild ride, but the short of it is that he is now co-operating his own agency with another Hollywood power player named Barbara Miller, and is ridiculously successful. His working relationship with Vince and Eric was tested in season three, and for half of the season Vince dropped his representation with Ari and was repped by a woman named Amanda. Ari schemed, stole, and eventually put his balls on the line to get Vince back to his agency by getting Medellín on the table. It worked, and now they're together again. It is a very sad thing when Ari, Vince, and Eric aren't working together.

Ari loves three things in life: his family, his crackberry, and his job. His wife, Mrs. Ari (also with no other name) has a hold on him that sometimes manages to supersede all else, but not always, because Ari is a committed workaholic. Still, it's always hilarious when she yanks his chain and he comes running. We love Ari.

Secondary Characters

Billy Walsh is a foul-mouthed unwashed film director who falls somewhere between genius and psychopath. He directed Queens Boulevard, which Vince starred in. QB never got released because Billy hated the way it was treated by the studio after production, and Vince stepped in as well to voice his objections. Thus it essentially got canned. When Medellín became a possibility, Vince wanted Billy to direct, despite the serious tension between Eric and Billy. Medellín kind of tanked too, though only at Cannes, so it could still be saved. Yet Vince keeps working with him--at the end of season four, Vince, Billy, Eric and the boys ran off to produce another film called Silo, though why they think a third film with Billy will do any better than the first two is beyond me.

Lloyd (no last name) is the only one of Ari's assistants that has managed to stick. Somehow able to take all of Ari's verbal abuse and give it right back to him without losing his job, Lloyd is probably single-handedly responsible for Ari keeping his sanity and regaining his powerhouse position in the Hollywood hierarchy. He's quite flamboyantly gay, which is the source of a neverending stream of bashing from Ari. You'd think this would make Ari an unlikeable prick, but when Lloyd was on the rocks with his boyfriend in season four, Ari went out of his way to get them back together. Ari actually likes Lloyd, which suprises him but he eventually rolls with it. Lloyd is pretty much amazing. He could probably get you anything you could ever want in LA with a quick phone call. He wants to be an agent once he can convince Ari to give him a job.

Mrs. Ari (no first name) is Ari's wife. She can kick his ass with an arched brow. She used to be an actress on Young and the Restless, but left acting to start a family with Ari. They have two kids, Sarah and Jonah. She became a regular in season four.

Shauna Roberts is Vince's publicist. She is impeccably dressed and brutally honest. Every time Vince (or one of the boys) gets into a mess, it's her job to get their asses out of it. She's damn good at her job. Debi Mazar, who plays Shauna, took maternity leave from the show, but appeared in Season Four, so one assumes she's still around, if not as much. Shauna is awesome.


The Gay: Or, What to Expect From Fandom



Unsurprisingly, from the tenor of this post, Vince/Eric is the OTP and most-written pairing in the fandom. This is because they are life partners. Okay, I'm not going to turn this into more of a Vince/E manifesto than it already is, but they've been friends since they were six and Eric dropped his life in Queens to move out to LA and be with Vince. Eric's life is pretty much centered on Vince, from their job to their friendship to their plans for the future. Canonically, they both freak out when the other gets seriously involved with a girl. When Vince went nuts over Mandy Moore (again) we learn that Vince had hidden the whole thing from Eric. Eric is Very Concerned about Vince's relationship with Mandy, and everyone is relieved when it ends.

The three relationships E has had on the show have been met with reservation from Vince (and teasing from Turtle and Drama). Eric always goes with Vince to whatever movie he's shooting, even at the expense of his relationship with his girlfriend. When Eric took on another client to manage, Vince came the closest he ever has to throwing a fit. Really, it's better for all concerned if they both just go public with their great romance.

The other source of tension between Vince and Eric is their working relationship. The major fights they have tend to be over where the line between friendship and employee lies. Eric has threatened to walk if Vince doesn't take him seriously; Vince goes cold if Eric's work grows big enough that Eric might leave him. They're not done finding that balance yet, especially since Eric's business, The Murphy Group, has just started. But what's never compromised is how important they are to each other's lives.

But I want to point out that most of the time they get along, which is what makes it so notable when they don't. They do everything together, they build their lives around each other. And frankly, they are ridiculously in love. I mean, look at the evidence!



Okay, technically this is a picture of Jeremy, Adrian, and Kevin. But we're just going to play pretend, because they are obviously channeling their characters here. Whatever. The point is that Vince/Eric is an awesome pairing, what with the lifelong friendship and the constant time together and the being ridiculously in love.




Ari/Eric is another possibility. The crackling energy and rapid insult-swapping is a slash basis anyone can get behind. There's not a lot of it out there, but it does exist.

Other possibilities include Turtle/Drama (canonical threesome!), Vince/Mandy Moore, Eric/Sloan. But, let's be honest, it's not that present or that likely to be written. This is a fandom with a big honkin' OTP, so there you go.

Places on the Internets

This is a pretty small fandom, with a decent amount of output. The two main sources for fanfic are the_guesthouse and entourage_fic. Also, it's been a staple of Yuletide for the last few years, so it's always worth checking it out there to see what's been posted for that year's Yuletide and New Year's Resolutions.

_entourage is a general fan community. Entourage is a summer show, so these places tend to get more active during those months.

There's also the Entourage Wiki, which is a good source for general information. The Miller Gold Agency is a fan board, but it's not terribly active. And of course there's the Official HBO Site, which isn't too bad; there's some amusing stuff on there, and a decent episode guide.



I hope this has convinced you to give Entourage a try, or to revisit the show! Remember, I love it like pie and you should too.

Thanks to hackthis for awesome beta fu on this thing.

Comments

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

Wow, you did a great job!

I think Eric Murphy hung the stars and the moon. Vince agrees with me on this, I'm sure.

This sums up the show for me. I completely agree. I ♥ Lloyd and Ari too. Can't wait for the recs!

[nic]

This post totally sold me on the show. Awesome review of something I've never really paid attention to before!

[twigged.livejournal.com]

Nice overview, thank you!

[sarkastic.livejournal.com]

This is awesome! And anyone who watches Entourage and doesn't see the big honking OTP has got to be pretty blind. Also, yay, you touched on the Ari & Lloyd relationship of bizarre verbal abuse and love! It's one of my favorite things about the show. :)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Oh, fabulous job with the summary!

I love this fandom, and it's a source of great sadness to me that I only have twenty-odd stories to rec in it. I'm really looking forward to your recs. (Vince/E OTP!)

[delurker.livejournal.com]

Good overview! I await your recs eagerly.

[littlerhymes]

Yay, Entourage!!!

Re: your long extended grudge against lack of Turtle development - dude, if you write it, I will read it. I keep hoping they'll bring Kelly back!

[elsmoka.livejournal.com]

Awesome summary!! I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH!! :D

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Eric is totally my favorite. I don't mind showing my obvious, blatant bias.

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

Awesome, I'm so glad you're giving it a try!

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

My pleasure. :)

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Lloyd is made of love. And win!

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Sadly, we are probably sharing the same twenty-odd (well, I've got about 30, maybe 35) stories. It's sad that more people don't write in this fandom. Though I'm one to talk, seriously.

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

Me. Too. Augh, how could she disappear after one episode? So lame.

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Though I'm one to talk, seriously.

*looks at two unfinished Entourage stories, one of which is set during a writer's strike that has since been settled*

*nods guiltily*

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Nice job!

[seraphim-12.livejournal.com]

I got into the entourage fandom maybe a month and half ago . . . in fact I loved it so much that I watched all four seasons in about a week. BEST WEEK EVER. hahaha!

Love everything about this show, but most especially a certain Eric Murphy. Man, do I love that dude! Great overview, it just makes me crave some more entourage. I eagerly await your recs (and you do know about the entourage_fest yes? Can't wait for those fics!)

[tiki-92090.livejournal.com]

even though I saw a part of the Pilot, I can't believe I didn't get into this fandom sooner. thanks for intorducing me and can't wait for more!

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

They are pretty high up there on my slashy slashiness continuum.

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

Thanks again for your help!

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

I do know about entourage_fest, and I wish I had time to participate. More stories are always good though!

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! We're happy to have you.:)

[spatula.livejournal.com]

I'd never even heard of Entourage before I read this, but you did a very good job convincing me to watch it and now Ive seen the first season and am half way through the second and really love it - thank you very, very much!

[poisonapple73.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to thank you- this wonderful essay and your recs convinced me to give the show a try, and I absolutely love it. I've marathoned my way through seasons 1 and 2 and can hardly wait to start the third season. I doubt I would have given it a shot without such a well written recommendation.

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

That is so awesome! I'm so glad you like it!

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

Ack, that's the best thing you could ever tell me. I'm so glad you like this show! Because I love it so much.

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

hahahahahahahah I'm in love with Eric, too. I was just on the phone tonight w/ someone and I said "Eric Murphy, stealin' the gay!!!" and I meant it! You didn't even mention his VOICE. My god. The casting on this show is AMAZING. All around, but Eric's casting is just tip top. Yeah, put a fork in me.