Sing it, brother. I think the movie making it in to Cannes is the iconic jump-the-shark moment. What made it interesting was the struggle. Now that they've made it, there's no drive to the plot.

All true, but even the one dynamic that could drive the plot, namely the friction between E and Vince, has been so thin and unsatisfying.

Are the first two seasons out on DVD? I watched season 1, but dropped my HBO subscription before season 2 started.

They are. I think even seaon three might be.

Yeah, it's pretty terrible. I think the problem is partly that Ari has run out of steam -- there's only so much you can do with the character, and everyone else on the show is both detestable and not particularly funny. In the absence of anyone being amusing the misogyny and shallowness take center stage.

On the other hand, I'm usually pretty tired on Sunday night and in the mood to zone out. Given the lack of decent Sunday night programming (Flight of the Conchords is pretty funny, but I think it's already wearing a bit thin), I've been watching this season of Entourage more diligently than previous, better seasons. I wish The Wire would hurry up.

It's like the writers themselves have run out of steam. Like I say, the E/Vince dynamic had potential, and I think featuring Lloyd could be awesome, but we aren't getting any of that.

I wish The Wire would hurry up.
Sing it, again.

I think (I hope?) they'll be bringing more of Ari (and Lloyd) - at least that's what I got from the "Next time" teaser at the end. I was surprised to realize I miss Lloyd.

And I think there's more potential with Ari - didn't they just write in another child for him to torment? They could do a whole "Park Slope West" season. That, or they could have Miller/Gold blow up or something.

Incidentally, on my (first) brief trip to Chicago in March, I saw Rahm "Not Just Brother of Ari" Emmanuel in a hotel lobby there. He looked finely-tailored and intense.

Word up on the analysis.

The show has two key problems:

1. The awesomeness of Ari and Lloyd, which takes away from the central Entourage characters. Lloyd makes everything better. That pep talk he gave to Ari was probably the single best moment in the series.

2. The show isn't that good. The jokes aren't there this season. There isn't much story. What story there is almost always seems to get too neatly resolved in the short time frame.

Also, does anyone else have trouble buying Vince as a big mainstream movie star? He seems a little too reedy and cute for that movie star type charisma. I mean, I can definitely see him as a popular actor, but he doesn't seem like the leading man type.

I have to say, though, I enjoy that show almost regardless of quality as a kind of voyeuristic fantasy of LA life. It helps that it's only 30 minutes long.

When secondary characters overshadow the main characters, that's a sure sign a show's well on the road to suckville.

We caught a snippet of Burn Notice this weekend and it looks promising in a shallow, frothy kind of way. Also, Bruce Campbell. The first three episodes are getting TiVo'd and I'll take it from there.

I'm kind of done with serious dramas in the summer. I think there's just too much backstory for me to try watching The Wire at this point, and Rescue Me hit my limit for misogyny midway through last season.

I'm also disappointed that a good reality show hasn't materialized yet (either good-good or so-bad-it's-good). The season 1 vs season 2 showdown for Top Chef annoyed me sufficiently that the actual season 3 episodes are gonna be piling up for a while before I get around to watching them. Age of Love is just bad-bad, though I might watch the finale anyway just to see if the cougars prevail. It had the whiff of epic, Paradise Hotel level of awesome-bad suck, but no, it just sucks.

The "Making of Medellin episode" was very boring and nevertheless probably the best way they could handle the actual making of the movie (other than not showing it at all). Nothing's been particularly good since then either, with lots of bits thrown in for no reason (gambling on soccer with Dennis Hopper?) and no payoff.

But last night was actually very funny, I thought, in the way that a good sitcom episode is funny. The mayor's character was very over the top, but the payoff on the joke wasn't bad. Harvey is funny.

When secondary characters overshadow the main characters, that's a sure sign a show's well on the road to suckville.

But this has always been true of Entourage, at least after they realized that Piven was their best asset towards the end of the first season.

The new season does suck. I was kind of hoping that Medellín would be a total disaster, but they're clearly not going that route. As it stands, they've really got nothing to say that they haven't said already

Entourage is basically Sex In The City for hetero guys. It's really easy to watch even when it's bad, but it's lifestyle porn a la Cribs.

That said, I liked the first two seasons, when there was enough possibility of failure to keep up the tension. Ari stopped being interesting exactly when he stopped being desperate.

The first couple seasons, you had him scrambling to get Vince in Aquaman, getting fired, etc. It felt like it mattered, and Jeremy Piven was playing it like Tony Curtis in Sweet Smell of Success.

Now he's got his own big agency and other clients, and his plotlines are filler (the private school, Lloyd and the gay writer, his frat buddy's hot wife).

At this point, Entourage is watching rich people kill time. I guess it always was that, but now there's nothing else going on.

Entourage is basically Sex In The City for hetero guys.

This has always been true, and is oft-remarked upon. If anything, based on my limited experience with SITC, Entourage is much more of a fantasy. For whatever level of upper echelon of society (in terms of wealth and fame) the SITC main characters were operating at, the Entourage leads have to be an order of magnitude higher, at least.

That said, while I didn't (and don't) regularly watch it, Sex In The City was an above-average sitcom, so I don't think it's that much of a knock on Entourage to compare the two.

SATC had a character who owned 400 pairs of designer shoes on a columnist's salary. I'd say the fantasy factor on both shows is about equal.

I thought Sex in The City was nightmarish and bone-chilling and horrible. I guess I feel more threatened by seeing shallow assholish behavior valorized for women than for men. With men I kind of expect it. I'm sure that's sexist, but there you have it.