You know, outside of an extremely lazy episode title, last night’s episode of Entourage was actually quite good…okay, that was kind of a lie, I’m ambivalent towards the episode as a whole. But KANYE was there. I’m biased towards Mr. West, and perhaps I’m biased against Entourage recently.
The episode had some decent plot progression, but my general complaint is that I feel as if it will all be rewritten in time. While I like the return of celebrity cameos, I feel like they’re being used as distraction from the fact that we spent yet another episode in pre-Cannes mode. I think that they earned this episode in comparison to the entirely non-Cannes episodes that preceded it, but I still tire of the delays.
But even what happens in the episode just gets erased in the end, or perhaps eventually: Ari and his wife resolved their fight by the end of the episode, the Entourage were off to Cannes without a hitch within hours of the airport closure, and this episode might as well have not happened…except for the apparent resolution of the Anna Faris storyline.
I say apparent because I’m not convinced that it’s over: in order for there to be drama at Cannes, there absolutely needs to be a split of Eric and Vince. It’s inevitable: after ending 3.0 with Ari and Vince breaking up, I think that Season Four (However long it ends up officially being after next year’s episodes) will end in the split between the actor/manager combo.
Which is why I’m unlikely to be saying goodbye to Anna Faris immediately. We have nothing but E’s hear say evidence as to her firing him, or having no chance at a romantic future: unless she suddenly had to go shoot a movie, getting rid of her offscreen like that doesn’t make any sense. I may have a bit of a harsh opinion of the series recently, but my view is that Doug Ellin and company aren’t that stupid.
The show doesn’t have enough drama inherently found within Cannes to survive without any of it. Cannes, like Sundance, represents a place where that drama will be heightened, and it makes sense for it to be E and Vince’s creative differences that are most effected. This is, after all, the film that created the rift if you will. Which is why I’d expect Eric setting off on his own with Anna, following the Cannes premiere.
But that’s just speculation: for now, everything seems rosy for the Entourage as they fly to Cannes. With Kanye.
According to CTV’s Fall Schedule, 
I don’t know about you, but I had a morbid fascination with American Gladiators as a kid. There was something about the over-muscled gladiators, the athletically minded contestants, and feats of agility and the studio-lit environment that was just really interesting to me. It’s one of those shows that, if I came across a rerun, I would probably watch just to remember a time when a show like this could be produced.
CBS’ fall lineup certainly has its problems, but one of its show has been forced to deal with a large portion of the media blitzkrieg. Kid Nation was conceived to draw some level of controversy: placing forty kids into a ghost town on their own is never going to be seen as anything less than exploitation upon first glance. However, beyond that point, the series has been attacked from all sides.
While it technically released yesterday, I figure that today is as good a day as any to suggest that any TV fan out there should get their hands on Showtime’s Dexter. The show’s first season debuted on DVD yesterday, at a fairly reasonable price for its 12 episodes, and the show’s second season premieres on September 30th.
This evening will be a strange night of television for viewers who tune in to see the finale of FOX’s On the Lot, airing tonight at 8pm on FOX. Shortened to one night and quietly eliminating contestants each week with not even the tiniest bit of fanfare, the show will pretend tonight as if none of that ever happened.
Cultural Learnings 