Grade: C- | Genre: Drama Summary: So another episode ends with less hope than when it began. The taste of mediocrity is nasty and disappointing. It stays with you for weeks on end while the writers keep serving this dish up like its filet mignon. Can someone please tell me what is going on with Entourage? This season has been so friggin' weak. Every week, we have to deal with this bizarro world where Vince is scraping the bottom of the barrel as E and Drama have dropped a supercharged engine into their careers. All is not right in Hollywood and instead of the series writers working out this cleaver kink in Vince's career, this malaise continues week after week with no end in sight. This hugely compelling insider's look at the Hollywood process has become a massive yawn fest whether we are wasting time searching for Vince's soul out in the desert or dealing with Ari's crisis of conscious as he debates whether or not to take the studio head position. This show is about Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) with a 2000 watt spotlight blazing at him. Right now, this is no better than every other forgettable drama on television.

Coming into this week, we have Vince's director Verner (Stellan Skarsgard) trying to massage the bad acting habits out of Vince so he can "enhance" the director's film. This coming after Verner slashed Vince's lines or divvied them up to other actors. Being the laid back kind of guy he is, Vince decides to play ball, trying to give the director what he says he wants. As we cut to this week, Vince gears up for his big scene, dangling from a tree, seconds away from taking the big sleep. We do take one, take two, take forty-two and none of them work for fickle Verner. Vince unholsters himself from the tree and gets in heir director's face, commanding direction as to what exactly the mad director wants from the scene. Instead of throwing Vince a bone, Verner launches into a tirade about how Vince was never right for the part and how the studio attached Vince to his film without his approval. A few choice words later, and he pulls out his best Donald Trump, "ya fired." Vince's fragile self-esteem goes peeling off into the set's burning inferno.

Back to Vince's meltdown. As Ari is initiating his old mentor Andrew Klein (Gary Cole) into the agency, the frantic phone calls descend about Vince's untimely demise from Smoke Jumpers. Ari is livid, flying a helicopter in to tell the German director how it is. Unfortunately, Verner flicks him away like an annoying fly. Ari (Jeremy Piven) calls in the big guns of studio head Dana Gordon (Constance Zimmer) to tell Verner to get with the program, or he'll quickly find himself directing dog food commercials in Uzbekistan. The powder keg of Ari, Dana, Vince and Verner meet at the studio office only for Verner to launch out of the meeting to go over Dana's head to the chairman John Ellis. All said and done, Smoke Jumpers got smoked for being over budget and in utter disarray. Vince can't seem to win for losing.

All told Vince and the boys pack it up for Queens New York to shake off the funk of Hollywood and get back to their roots. One small hitch. Turtle has to blow off his romantic weekend with Jamie-Lyn for his boys trip yet he can't tell anyone what he's giving up due to his prior airplane indiscretions. Turtle -- Jamie-Lyn isn't going to come around for your dougy a$$ a third time. You needed to find a way to be supportive of your boys while getting down with that.

So another episode ends with less hope than when it began. This trip to New York better resurrect Vince's confidence and career like JC, or fans of the show are going to start dropping like lemmings into the sea. The taste of mediocrity is nasty and disappointing. It stays with you for weeks on end while the writers keep serving this dish up like its filet mignon. Four solid seasons in the can tells you its going to get better. Entourage is destined to be Entourage again. The question is, do we have the patience to see this story arch through to its hopeful payoff?

Episode #65 - Play'n with Fire
Original Airdate: November 16, 2008