TVSquad

Mark Wahlberg has stated in an interview that he believes that Entourage, the HBO show in which he serves as executive producer, has two more years left in its television life before making the jump to the theatrical screen. The show has just been renewed for a sixth season.

It's not a bad idea, although the concept of a Hollywood insider movie has been done in Hollywood movies before, most notably with Robert Altman's The Player. However, it's been 17 years since that movie was released, so its ripe for recycling (It's surprising it hasn't been redone yet).

HBO has seen tremendous success with one of its franchises moving to the big screen, Sex and the City (which has a sequel on the way). On the other hand, The Sopranos hasn't made it to the big screen yet for some reason. Perhaps David Chase didn't want to ruin a perfect ending to the series.

Huh?!? Was that really an Entourage season finale? It was so... good. It was as if every conversation I've ever had with my buddies after another season of Entourage and all of the "man, I really wish they had done this or included that" requests were jammed into this episode. Maybe Entourage should have double-length installments more often.

(S06E11) "E, I've had most of this town, so it was bound to happen that our trees would dabble in the same forest at some point." - Drama

One down and one to go in Entourage's sixth season - a season I should point out that started off incredibly strong and ended up flopping around like a dead fish after those first few stellar eps. However, last week's installment, "Berried Alive," redeemed much of what had been bad and for the most part, "Scared Straight" continued that trend.

With that in mind, there's at least a little excitement going in to next week's finale because we really don't know what's going to happen on a few fronts.

Ari has always been mean to Lloyd. He treats him like crap, makes him do chores rather than his job, and constantly insults him. However, at the same time, Ari has always been nice to Lloyd too. He's given him one helluva job opportunity to learn underneath him and to some extent, I can understand Ari's plan to toughen Lloyd up a bit before a bump to junior agent occurs.

We know what Lloyd is like though -- he can only take so much. So it was only a matter of time before Ari pushed too hard. On a day when Ari stole Zac Efron from Adam Davies, there should have been a celebration and instead, Ari treated Lloyd worse that we've seen in ages. It's about time this plot went somewhere.

(S06E08) "I'm glad you finally admit the last five years of your life were all fantasy provided by me." - Ari

Because I've been such a big proponent of this season (despite what I'm about to say, I still say this has been the best season since the third), I'm starting to think that everything has been a fantasy up until this point when it comes to Entourage.

There are so many solid plots going on this season and every time I think that something big is gonna happen, it falls flat and leaves me disappointed.

(S06E07) "That's not what this is for." - Lloyd, upon seeing Eric's "gift" and message for Ari

Eric taking Murray's job offer may be the best thing that's ever happened on Entourage. It's opened up this whole new dynamic on the show and honestly makes things a lot more interesting.

Granted, it does push Vince even further into the background of the show, but that's been a steady trend for a while now. I'll put up with anything to get Bob Saget back.

(S06E06) "Listen, from here on, I swear, if one of my friends so much as jerks off, you're gonna be the first to know." - Ari

I don't want this review to come off sounding like I'm annoyed with how this season of Entourage has gone (so far, it's already better than last season and I loved this episode), but I really don't see what direction it's headed in.

Going into this season, there was a lot of speculation that landing a role in Marty Scorsese's latest flick would finally nab Vince the attention, and Oscar, he's been longing for. After the premiere, where all we heard was how amazing Gatsby was, there hasn't been a single mention of that plot. Instead we're getting a lot of smaller mini-arcs that just don't seem to tie together.

Seems like the dynamic of Entourage is really shifting lately, huh? Over the past two or three episodes, Eric has moved to the head of the class, taking over the biggest parts of each half-hour. I'm not complaining, but earlier in the season I did wonder what the result of Vince's success would be. Now we know.

This is shaping up to be a helluva season for Entourage. Only four episodes in, and it feels like a completely different show than we're used to. Rather than wallowing in endless "woe is me plots" (every character on the show has been guilty of them in the five previous seasons), things feel fresh and the characters are growing up. Plus, instead of making me constantly laugh, Entourage is making me do something I never expected -- think.

• The entire Sunday summer lineup: Entourage, True Blood, and Hung will be coming back next summer.
• They've ordered an animated series from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant based on their podcasts with the ever-entertaining Karl Pilkington.
• On a third season of Flight of the Conchords: "We're ready when they're ready."
• The pilot of Boardwalk Empire, directed by Martin Scorsese, has been delivered to HBO. It will be picked up based on what they see. They like what they see so far.
• No more Little Britain USA, but they are working with the producers to create specials with all-new characters.

(S06E02) "Who would've thought I'd be the only one guaranteed to have sex tonight?!?" - Turtle

I know I've said it before, but one of the things that I've always loved about Entourage is how the writers behind the show seem to have this uncanny knack for re-creating exact conversations that I've had with my friends before. I know I'm not the only one out there who's had a laugh with their buddies trying to figure out how exactly did Seth Rogan get laid in Knocked Up? When Turtle made his final point ("His ugliness is oddly fascinating."), it was like deja-vu for me.

Then they went and killed the moment when Vince got that nudie pic of Sloan's friend. That never happens to me or my friends.