Ranking the seasons of "Entourage"

Entourage has to be one of the best shows during HBO’s early days when they started making their own shows. Mark Wahlberg produced the show loosely based on his experiences and exploits as a rising movie star. The show centered around Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), an upcoming movie star coming all the way out from Queens to make it big in Hollywood along with friends, Eric “E” Murphy (Kevin Connolly) and Salvatore “Turtle” Assante (Jerry Ferrara), his brother Johnny “Drama” Chase (Kevin Dillon) and his headstrong agent, Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven). The series dealt with how the Hollywood business works, a series of themes on male friendship and of course the show had a variety of celebrity guest appearances from musicians, athletes and other actors. The show was one of HBO’s most successful shows and ran for eight seasons. Now with the movie out I’ve re-watched the whole series to get ready for the movie so I thought I would do a ranking of each of the seasons from least favorite to most favorite. I would’ve ranked it from worst to best but I thought that didn’t seem necessary since even from the not so great seasons there’s at least some good out of it. Plus I’m a huge fan of the show and it’s impossible for me to hate a moment about the show.

(NOTE: There are some spoilers so if you haven’t seen the show read at your own risk)

8) SEASON 8

Ok so starting with the final season…it is slightly bittersweet but at the same time there are just some shows that don’t have the advantage of going with a bang in their final season. This show was one of them. But at the same time at least we got to see everything with the guys get their dilemmas resolved in time for the final episodeAt the end of the episode it posts credits opening for the movie. The biggest flaw in this season was prior to Season 8, Season 7 ended on a big down note and with  plot holes that just cut away a few months after the last season:

1)   Eric and Scott were planning to take down the head of their current management company to start their own firm. They didn’t show what happened.

2)   Turtle and the whole resolution of the business conflict with the Tequila Company and Mark Cuban. They came to a compromise eventually over the business rights but once again they didn’t show what happened.

Everything else was pretty self-explanatory with Ari continuing to resolve his issues with his wife and family along with Vince getting back after coming out of rehab. Overall it could’ve been better but at the same time it wasn’t too bad.

7) SEASON 7

Season 7 started off well but in the end it wound up being kind of depressing and disappointing towards the season finale. Picking up where the gang last left off in Season 6 coming off a big hot streak with Vince getting up on top of the A-list; Eric gets signed on working for a big talent management firm; Drama ends up getting a holding deal with CBS; Turtle making progress with some business ventures and Ari making his agency the biggest one in LA.

But the season took Vince on another downward spiral. This time with him going on the wild side by cutting his hair, dating a porn star and dealing with drug abuse. All of which happened after Vince took a big risk doing a dangerous stunt while filming an action movie and survived.

Another moment that made the season depressing is Ari dealing with problems with his wife. Both of those moments made the season end on such a big down note especially with Vince getting caught with drugs. The season finale on this season could’ve better and done differently.

6) SEASON 5

This season does show a lot of struggle especially with Vince falling off the top of the A-list. At the end of Season 4, Vince finally got to make the movie he wanted “Medellin” (a biopic on Pablo Escobar) but what hoped to be Vince’s chance at an Oscar turned out to be a major disaster to point where he was no longer in demand. The main flaw to this season is I thought they dragged out the whole post “Medellin” thing too long in the season. Sure we had to see Vince experience a flop but not that long.  I thought it was great in the opening of the season they included a cameo of TV film critic, Richard Roeper reviewing Medellin.

5) SEASON 1

The season of where it all began. This season kept it simple for what it was and did a great job of introducing the characters to the audience. They started off with Vince being an “on the rise” actor which was appropriate because it would’ve taken too long if they started the show off with the guys moving out to LA searching for fame and fortune. It gave us a quick idea of the background of all five characters without going into too big of a back-story of how they got to Hollywood from Queens. Vince is getting supporting roles while finding his first big project to be a leading actor, Eric begins managing Vince’s career (this part in the season does cause some tension between Vince and Eric), Turtle starts off as Vince’s go to guy, Drama is the C-list actor getting by with guest starring roles and small parts with a desire for bigger roles and Ari is the super agent. Vince starts in a popcorn thriller with Jessica Alba and then gets on an indie project for his first starting role. But the season did a great job for a beginning that lasts 8 seasons eventually.

4) SEASON 4

Picking up where we left off from the second half of Season 3, Vince and company were continuing to pursue his passion project, “Medellin”, the Pablo Escobar autobiography. During the second half of the Season 3, the movie went back and forth from being in production to being in development hell to being up for grabs. So Vince and his Entourage decide to fund the money themselves to buy the script and make the movie. It was especially awesome how they opened the season with showing behind the scenes footage on the making of the movie. The rest of the season just leaves us guessing wondering if this movie was going to be Vince’s biggest game changer, whether it was going to be an Oscar contender or a complete disaster, but unfortunately it ended up being a complete disappointment to audiences and critics.

3) SEASON 6

This season made up for the long drawn out storyline in Season 5. Although at the end of Season 5 ended on a high note when Vince gets offered a starring role in a new movie directed by Martin Scorsese. With his recent movie Vince finally is back on the A-list. The rest of the season consisted of Eric dealing with business struggles as he tries to expand his managing career aside from managing Vince as well as reconciling with Sloan for the third or fourth time. Other parts of the season consisted of Turtle pursuing his business ventures by going back to school to try to start a business, Drama going from Five Towns to another show and finally Ari dealing with the struggles of a business partner and promoting his assistant Lloyd to being an agent. In a way a good amount of the season seemed to revolve more around Vince’s friends, which makes sense seeing how a good amount of last season revolved around him.

2) SEASON 2

After a small first season, the second season has the same vibe as the first season although it’s on a bigger scale. Vince and the guys return to LA after going back to Queens to film an indie movie, “Queens Boulevard,” and now Vince wants to take a shot at the big time with a blockbuster project. There was some minor struggle with him finding his big project until Ari lands him “Aquaman” with James Cameron directing. A good amount of the season follows the pre-production of the movie and Vince rekindling a love affair with Mandy Moore. The only major side story of the season involves Ari leaving the mega agency TMA to go start up his own agency.

1) SEASON 3

This season had to be my favorite out of all the seasons. Season three shows everything that happens on the show especially now that Vince hit it big with his blockbuster hit, “Aquaman.” This season was split into two parts. The first with Vince now in demand he is in hot pursuit of his passion project, “Medellin” the story of Mexican drug lord, Pablo Escobar. Although he struggles to get the movie with the project going back and forth from studio to studio, casting changes, producing changes and scheduling conflicts with Vince doing a sequel to “Aquaman.” Meanwhile as for everyone else: Eric begins his relationship with Sloan, Drama finally gets a starring role on a new TV show called “Five Towns”, Turtle is the only character that didn’t have much going for him in this season (which is the only flaw in the season) and Ari becoming a super agent by creating a massive talent agency. One of the conflicts in Ari’s storyline is although he becomes the top agent in the business he losses track of Vince by trying to secure his passion project and Ari ends up getting fired for it at the end of the first half of the season but eventually redeems himself in the second half of the season. All and all this season is the one that really defines the Hollywood lifestyle of the show.