Entourage Season 5 Review

Entourage (2004-2011)
Season 5 - 12 Episodes (2008)

Entourage Season 5

Buy Entourage Season 5 on Amazon
Watch Entourage on Amazon - Free HBO 30-day Trial to Prime Members 
Created by: Doug Ellin
Starring: Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Jeremy Piven
Rating: TV-MA

Plot: 
Movie star Vince Chase navigates the road to stardom with his agent and group of friends.

Season five has Vince trying to overcome the disaster that was Medellin. In Hollywood one good movie makes you a star, and one bad one makes you a pariah.

Verdict
This season is much darker. Vince's ride of success has hit a telephone pole called Medellin. After that flop he has no job offers.
While I've wondered if Vince can act, this season begins to answer that. He can't, but when you're the 'it' guy that's okay. Now that he isn't linked to a blockbuster film, he gets fired from a movie.
This season still nails the cameos and chemistry, but it looks at the cycle of Hollywood failure.
Watch it.

Review
I love the insight into Hollywood that's built around a tight knit group of friends. Each season seems to focus on a different aspect of the business, slowing widening that focus and providing a complete picture of Hollywood. We've seen success and a comic book movie, the indie film route and passion projects, now it's the failure. Vince has been incredibly fortunate, but now he's vulnerable. One movie can make or break a career. Vince's success and failure directly affects Eric, Johnny, and Turtle.

I've always wondered if Vince is a good actor. He did well in Queens Boulevard, but this season seems to reveal that Vince, much like Adrian Grenier, just looks the part.

Read my previous Entourage season reviews.

Vince looks happy, but he's not.

Vince is hiding out in Mexico as bad reviews for Medellin are still rolling in. Vince's passion project is a straight to DVD release. Vince claims he's okay, but he's hiding out and trying to avoid the reviews and press. He needs to start playing the Hollywood game and act like a movie star.

Eric's managing business now has more than just one client. He's found another indie script, 9 Brave Souls. Eric thinks it's good, but Ari doesn't want another indie flop. When Ari wants to turn it into a studio movie with Vince as the lead, the writers up their price.

Vince wrestles with whether he should settle for a kids movie just for the money or keep chasing Smoke Jumpers, re-titled from 9 Brave Souls.
He decides to pursue Smoke Jumpers, despite it being out of reach, after a weekend with actor Eric Roberts. In episode five, Roberts takes the guys and Ari on a mushroom trip in a national park. The cameos are great. Mark Wahlberg is golfing with Ari in episode two. The cameos are always quick, but help to reinforce this is Hollywood and that you would see movie stars as you're walking down the street.

Johnny Drama is still riding the success of Five Towns. He has an online girlfriend, the one he met at Cannes last season, but that goes south and he manages to embarrass himself on The View.

Vince playing a role on Smoke Jumpers.

This season is Vince falling further down. He's chasing Smoke Jumpers, and when he finally gets a role, Werner Herzog fires him in the middle of production. Herzog and Jason Patric have great cameos. Vince's issue is that Patric is stealing all of his lines, but he's too scared of Patric to bring it up. It turns out Herzog was giving Vince's lines away. He never wanted Vince and finds a way to remove him, insisting that Vince isn't getting a scene right despite many takes.

Vince is losing it. He was at the top with Aquaman, but as it happens in Hollywood, one bad role can quickly devastate a career. Vince didn't want to just take a paycheck for studio films, and that hurt him. This is a much darker season. You feel bad for Vince as you realize his air of confidence is often just a show. Once that bubble gets pierced he's not that laid  back. His friends help maintain that bubble. You can tell Vince likes having them close. They help insulate him from the world.

Turtle and Jamie-Lynn.

The most surprising arc this season is the relationship Turtle starts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler from The Sopranos. While the guys don't believe his boasting at first,which gets back to her, their relationship doesn't end.

Vince lashes out at Eric when Gus Van Sant doesn't even want to see Vince audition.  Vince blames Eric, but Eric has been trying everything to get Vince a job. Vince is desperate, heading back home broke.

In the final episode, Eric's attempts prove successful. Van Sant sent Vince's film reel to Martin Scorsese. Socrses swoops in and offers Vince the lead in his remake of The Great Gatsby, saving the day and Vince's ego.