
(S04E01) "Medellín is not a movie. It's a life. It's how it is. And I defy anyone to define where life stops and the film starts... or vice versa." - Billy Walsh
I have to say, a two week season hiatus for a show like Entourage might be the best thing ever. Granted, once this season ends we probably won't see new episodes for another two years... but hey, live in the moment. What we got though was something special, unlike anything Entourage has tackled in its previous 42 episodes. A documentary look at the making of Vincent Chase's latest feature. A blend of the humor we've come to expect from this show was merged with a heavy dose of reality and drama -- what goes into making a film under the harshest of conditions. It's a layer of the show that we haven't seen before and I hope that it can continue when the normal format returns next week.
Plenty of the clichés you'd expect from "the making of a movie" were played out, but none of it felt used. It clearly paid tons of homage to Hearts of Darkness, the documentary that captured the making of Apocalypse Now. You have to admit, Walsh going nuts as the days in Bogotá progressed was pretty Coppola-esque.
Overall though, I just loved the character development that we got. Vince, as a dedicated actor, has grown immensely. He wants this film to be good. Same goes for E. He's come a long way. Drama was just there being himself. But we did find out that season one of Five Towns had wrapped, implying that the show had been picked up. Turtle had the least input, but he didn't really play into what this episode was about. Same goes for Ari. You had to love the little bits from Nicky Rubenstein (rehab!) and Steven Gaghan though. $275,000 down the drain because Billy finally decided to get creative with the script once Gaghan was already on a plane.
Other thoughts...
- Loved the nod to Martin Landau's season three character Bob Ryan. Eric had been reading his book, "Is That Something You Might be Interested In?" Hilarious.
- Why was Debi Mazar dropped from the credits? When I read that press release a few weeks ago, it said we were going to get more of Shauna. Perrey Reeves was added though, so maybe we're getting more from Ari and Mrs. Ari at home in the coming weeks?
- Speaking of Ari, was why he such a naysayer about this whole process? You know that once Medellín is a huge success, he'll be the first one in line for the credit.
Now the film is in the hands of "Wally Balls." With the way this mini-doc ended, that's got to be a little scary for E and Vince. Walsh already got his wish to shoot the whole film in Spanish and subtitle it. With Nicky sobering up and Ari not really caring, does this mean that Walsh got his wish to have final cut too? I'm fine with that... as long as Drama's one scene doesn't end up on the editor's room floor. Losing that would be the only strike against this great start to the new season.















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-18-2007 @ 10:44AM
ScreenwriterGuy said...
Wow. Entourage continues to do things I never expect. I would have guessed most of season four would be about the making of Medellín, and instead they move past actual production in a single episode. While I still have some problems believing that someone as insane as Billy Walsh could somehow be this savant auteur, he is an interesting source of conflict, painful to watch.
I thought the device of the documentary was dropped whenever it became inconvenient, but still worked nicely to give us a good look at the making of their film.
Perhaps the key ingredient to Entourage--which its creators pull of in a way no other show does--is the way the heroes fly by the seats of their pants. They don't honestly deserve to succeed, but you still want them to, and at the very last minute they do. Success always greets them and things just turn out their way. And deserving or no, the characters struggled and stressed enough that you're happy for them when they get some new big prize. Today's episode definitely fit the bill, with all sorts of panic culminating in a last great shot. And then the fact that maybe it's all horrible was a nice touch, too.
http://www.screenwriterguy.com
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6-18-2007 @ 10:44AM
MacGuffin said...
Wow. Terrific.
I wasn't expecting much from the season premiere, to be honest, but I was blown away. The documentary thing was handled beautifully and comically, and the film (NOT a movie) looks terrific. Makes me want to go see it.
I too, loved the Bob Ryan "Is That Something You Might be Interested In?" reference. Brilliant.
However, the one thing I had a hard time with is Vince playing Pablo Escobar. He looked really cheesy with the make-up and not believable at all. And Sofia Vergara not making reference to her ample curves--like she does in most of her roles--was a surprise, too.
Bottom Line: Top-notch season opener. Season 4 is going to be terrific. Entourage continues to be one of the most satisfying shows on TV.
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6-18-2007 @ 10:44AM
MacGuffin said...
P.S. Did anyone notice that this was the first time that Entourage has had a cold open?
Also the title sequence is new with great new cuts. Nice little changes to keep the show fresh.
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6-18-2007 @ 10:44AM
dannya said...
I definitely have to agree with whatseems to be the word of the day, wow. I was so impressed and felt like the show was reenergized and in one of its most briliant forms tonight. While I've always enjoyed the show I felt likei hadn;' been blown away in a while and this episode def. did the trick fore me. I enjoyed using sucha creative way to start off the season and look forward to how the story will develop, thw writing was great as alwasy and just creating the film within a show did not detract from the excellent wriiting, only enhanced it. Can't wait for next week...also, was it just me or did the show run longer than usual?
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6-18-2007 @ 10:45AM
khamel said...
i wasn't as psyched as you guys but i did like it. im also really glad they only spent one episode in columbia. more than one could have become really boring. no la and no ari maybe vinny something something.
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6-18-2007 @ 1:03PM
kip said...
I was worried that it was going to take all seasont o get htis thing over with. Suffice to say it did nto and did it in a way that is both creative and a great way to develop the plot line, even with 2 min interstitals(the cocaine scene, the Ari shots). This was sensational. Even using the real writer of traffic and a real cinematographer was a great shout out.
Lastly, Vince has matured greatly and his performance with Walsh were cool. E's development into a real producer and understanding what its like to manage someone, especially talent were great.
I'd only ask that we see more cameos of writers/directors and u2 ;)
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6-18-2007 @ 1:47PM
Bryan said...
I'm relatively new to the show -- last season was the first I watched from beginning to end -- but I thought last night's episode was horrible.
First, the documentary format was silly. Can you imagine any of the people involved allowing it to be shown anywhere? Eleanor Coppola was able to get such intimate footage because she was the director's wife, not some hired outside crew.
Second, the Billy Walsh character is a mountain of cliches. I'm sure there are plenty of egomaniacal directors out there, and no doubt many will defend him on those grounds, but there is nothing surprising or intriguing about him. You pretty much see everything he's gonna say or do a mile away.
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6-18-2007 @ 1:48PM
Jgavinmcdevitt said...
I nearly died laughing with the Bob "Is That Something You Would Be Interested In" Book scene.
Beyond hilarious right in the middle of the "take me too serious send-up shoot of an indie film" Although I have to admit, "Billy's" scene where he is almost in tears over the DP's work - he actually looked like he was...Wait a minute, was I on a flash back to a Sam Peckinpah set????
Now they have to drege up The Ramones.....more BOB!
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6-18-2007 @ 1:48PM
Jennifer said...
I nearly died laughing when they showed the book by "Bob" - "Is That Something You Would Be Interested In?"
What a great jab of comic relief for the "drama" on the send-up of the indie set in Colombia! Priceless!
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6-18-2007 @ 4:07PM
CinematicallyCorrect said...
I think Ari was down on the whole thing because he wasn't running the show. Vinnie is Ari's Golden Boy and he can't have him tanking.
http://www.cinematically-correct.com/
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6-18-2007 @ 8:55PM
Ben said...
Bryan,
You need to watch season 1 and 2 ASAP.
I thought last nights ep was awesome.
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6-18-2007 @ 9:38PM
Borat said...
Very good stuff, but I think Billy would want to re-shoot the whole thing.
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6-19-2007 @ 8:25AM
aly said...
Loved it!! Very refreshing format and it was good to see the "film" shot in one episode so we can move on to whatever may be next. My only off remark for the night is that Vince looked an awful lot like "Tony Clifton" with the wide nose and bloat LOL
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6-19-2007 @ 10:00AM
zero1 said...
Thank you Aly, it was bugging me how vince reminded me of dressed as Pablo. Great episode but I can't wait for the boys to get back to L.A.
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6-21-2007 @ 10:09AM
Big D said...
I loved the episode (and the show!), but c'mon people...what an awful moustache on Vinnie. Aly is dead-on with the Tony Clifton reference, ha.
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6-21-2007 @ 5:29PM
Joe S said...
Just remember that Wally Balls does have Final Cut over the film.
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6-21-2007 @ 11:18PM
NO2 said...
Hello! I love Entourage. I from Spain and here we have only the first and the second season in Spanish. But I prefer to watch it in VO. Because you feel it better.
I heve to say that Pablo Escobar´s Spanish is awful, it is not real, Pablo Escobar can´t speak as a tourist visiting Colombia. I suposse that it must not be easy to learn, but i think they should try to do it better.
The Show is incredible. I need more!!!
PD. I am sorry if my english is like Vince Chase´s Spanish
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6-28-2007 @ 10:33AM
Emdee said...
But what about Medellín the film? It looks like a cheesy Hallmark film! Escobar looks like a dodgy used-car salesman. And the love scene! Peeeeewk! And the final battle, it was actually in the suburbs, not the frickin jungle!
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8-28-2007 @ 7:49AM
MosquitoControl said...
Finally watched this. One of the funniest episodes.
Yes, the movie looks awful. Yes, Vince looks awful as Pablo. He sounds awful. The swirling camera was awful. And Johnny Drama's floating head for one scene was terrible.
But I think that's all part of the point. Aquaman had to be awful. Head On was probably awful. It's all a bit of a metajoke.
Doesn't make the show awful. One of my favorite episodes. We've never actually seen the film making process, it's always been handled during the offseason, and we resume when the shoot is wrapped. Here we saw some insight.
Billy is one of the funniest secondary characters. Perfect actor. Nothing will beat how insane he looked two seasons ago when he shaved his head.
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