After Season 3, Entourage was at the pinnacle of high quality television. The show moved from being a risky vanity project to a full blown dramatic comedy on par with Sex and the City. Johnny Drama became an established comedic icon and Vinny Chase is now a recognizable superstar. For super agent Ari Gold, his relationship with his assistant Lloyd has reached t-shirt status. The duo are strong enough to justify a spin-off series. With all of that to live up to, Season 4 had a tough standard 
to follow.
Season 4 starts with one of the most unique episodes in the series. Shot documentary style, the episode breaks ground as the first to include action straight from the set of a Vinny Chase movie. The episode documents the filming of “Medellin” the fictional movie within-a-show about the life and times of Mister Pablo Escobar. All four cast members are on the set, even though Turtle and Drama don’t necessarily have a purpose, while Ari has been left at home. This homage to “Hearts of Darkness” is a fun take on the well traveled wild movie director cliche, with the weight of the story resting on the shoulders of Bill Walsh (played by Rhys Coiro). This episode sets up the rest of the season well but unfortunately winds up better than most of what’s to come.
Overall, the season is entertaining; however, not up to snuff compared to Seasons 2 & 3. Three major points irritated me this season and kept me from loving the set. First, like with the appearance of Dom in Season 3, the beginning of the season depends far too much on characters external of the entourage. Billy Walsh is given far to much attention at the beginning of the Season (excluding his work in Episode 1), and not enough time is spent catching up with the boys.
Second, there are multiple web jokes that take up far too much of the plot development and don’t age well with time. The trailer leaks on the Internet via YouTube. Turtle finds a chick through Craigslist. What’s next for Season 5, Ari meets an ex-girlfriend thanks to Adult Friend Finder? These jokes are far too easy and although, may have been funny at the time, are less so now.
Finally two major story lines suck the show down late in the season - Anna Faris and the twins. The Anna Faris storyline was an interesting concept worth exploring. Unfortunately, it was poorly executed and presented new one-off characters that failed to deliver strong comedy or believable performances. The twins storyline was an entire episode about two identical twin agents working for Ari and not getting along. The twins are portrayed by real life twins Jason and Randy Sklar. They are never funny and the story feels like obvious filler just to get through another episode.
Despite these issues, I still enjoyed the season compared to most TV. The only episode that eclipses the first, is the final episode when the boys go to the Cannes Film Festival. Johnny Drama steals much of the episode with one of his best serious storylines. Meanwhile, the focus is back on “Medellin” and the bidding war for the distribution rights. All of the big players are roped in and co-stars Adam Goldberg, Constance Zimmer, Maury Chaykin, and Assaf Cohen, kill in each one of their bits. This final episode does everything right because it keeps the pace moving, tells a ton of story, and offers enough surprises to keep fans on edge until Season 5.
The performances didn’t really change much between Season 3 & 4. Last review I said:
“The individual performances all live up to the expectations created from the previous seasons. Adrien Grenier continues to look cute and grow into being a movie star. Kevin Connolly continues to keep the show in the realm of reality and believability. Meanwhile, Jerry Ferrara , Kevin Dillon, and Jeremy Piven maintain their brilliant comedic timing. If Piven goes serious one segment, you can expect Dillon or Ferrara will follow him up with some outstanding comedy. All of these actors are great comedic and dramatic actors, but they’d be nothing without the writing of the show. The characters never veer away from being believable and always speak like they should. It would be easy for a show like this to depend on gimmicks. Instead, the writers painstakingly find creative ways to homage great filmmaking without losing track of their characters.”
And, for the most part, I stand by those words. The only new performances worth mentioning are that of Rex Lee, who steals every episode as Lloyd, and of Perrey Reeves, who adds dimension to Ari without sucking the life out of him. Reeves’ character is less about being funny and more about providing Ari more space to work in. Lee’s character is about adding humor and does so as successfully as Drama.
Season 4 of Entourage is yet another entertaining look into the life of a fake celebrity living in a very real world. While I had my issues with some of the story arcs, Internet jokes, and overused characters, I still love this show. Despite its flaws, Entourage still has better characters and better storylines than 95% of what’s on TV. If you haven’t seen Season 4 yet but you love the previous seasons, don’t let my nit-picking hold you back.
Features are decent on this box set. Only three episodes have commentary and pretty much consist of the cast laughing at themselves and adding small bits of new info. The inclusion of the “Medellin” trailer was very smart but not my favorite feature. The best feature on this disc is the footage from the US Comedy Arts Festival Panel. This recording brings the main cast and talent on stage to take questions from movie reviewer Elvis Mitchell and to shed light on the whats and whys of this Season. If you are a fan of the show, definitely give this feature a look.
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(5 votes, average: 4.8 out of 5)
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