The Mac Ads and Entourage
Seth Stevenson of Slate (happy 10th!) writes an excellent piece about the recent Apple ad campaign that I initally loved, but have grown to hate. I’ll let him hammer out the whys, but lets just say that, as a Mac user, these ads seems to be going after the wrong people (or maybe they’re going after the right people, wrongly).
As for Entourage… well, meet me after the jump…
My problem with the show, as I’ve said on numerous occasions, is that there is no conflict. NOTHING BAD HAPPENS TO THESE PEOPLE. And if this pattern continues, at what point does the audience say, “Hey, fellas! How about you not buy another fifty-thousand-dollar watch! We get it already, you’re rich and famous and the world is your oyster.”
What does that mean, “the world is your oyster” anyway.
But I’m beginning to think that I’m missing something. People love this show. Perhaps I’m over thinking it (could this be?). Maybe the key to Entourage bliss is to simply free one’s mind. Shut it down. Shut it all down and let the good times roll. The show certainly has its share of laughs, and there’s no reason we should let a little thing like conflict get in the way of enjoying those laughs. Look, “Drama” is actually a character in the series; there’s no need for redundancies.
Also: will Samm Levine ever not play a high school nerd? Ever? Isn’t he like 40 or something?
Tags: Commercials, Entourage, HBO
June 19th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Here’s the thing you need to understand about Entourage RP You actually hinted at it in your post but I will spell it out for you. You cant go to Entourage looking for drama. Its a comedy pure and simple. I find it highly doubtful that the creators view it as a drama (based on the first 2 seasons), HBO sure doesn’t view it that way (otherwise it would be an hour long) why should you? Also, every episode follows a tried and true sitcom formula. Namely, the characters find themselves in various good/bad situations and have different reactions, laughs are had, but in the end EVERYTHING REMAINS THE SAME. Look, Im not saying its a great comedy, it might not even be a good comedy (if it wasn’t for the Aquaman sequence the last episode would have been a complete waste) but you need to just take it for what it is. A kind of funny cool comedy with really really good looking female extras.
June 20th, 2006 at 12:18 am
Maybe the secret is the show is actually about Ari Gold? Bad things happen to him, I think.
Caveats:
a. I’ve never seen a single minute of this show in my life.
b. I’m not sure there’s a difference between Ari Gold and Jeremy Piven anymore. Bad things happen to Jeremy Piven. Therefore bad things certainly happen to Ari Gold. Right?
3. PTI has a “funny” Piven highlight tonight. Enjoy!
June 20th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
I’ve been seeing this complaint for the last two days all over the web, and I just don’t get it. It’s a sitcom; why does it have to have drama? Is it some kind of correlation, that if it’s on the same network as ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Deadwood’, it has to be dramatic?
I don’t remember anyone ever complaining about the lack of drama on ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ or ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’.
Problems do arise during each episode, but they get resolved before the half hour is up - that’s how it goes in sitcoms.
And I agree with Paul: if there is drama to be found in the show, it’s in the storylines for Ari Gold.
June 21st, 2006 at 12:43 am
Here’s what I perceive to be the difference. Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore (both, interestingly, in my top-10 television comedies of all time) were traditional sit-comes in the sense that each episode was designed to stand on its own. While there were storylines that did progress over each shows run (like when Mary moved apartments), for the most part they weren’t trying build season-long arcs. Entourage is. While it’s all well and good to be funny and carefree, its hard to invest in these characters knowing that nothing bad ever happens to them. A character can go from being a cardboard cut-out to a living, breathing, human being simply by reacting to adversity.
Sex and the City is a perfect example. At its high point (season 3) the episodes were both hillarious and carried with them a bit of weight as Carrie dated and eventually cheated on Aiden. But when one character’s life became more dramatic, one of the other three could pick up the slack with the comedy (which would fit Entourage perfectly, as Drama and Turtle, really serve no other purpose that to elicit laughs). Also on the HBO front is Curb Your Enthusiasm, one of the most unique and hillarious comedies in the last decade– and a show built entirely around conflict. In fact, Curb with no conflict becomes 30-minutes a week of a blank screen.
Look, I accept that the model for Entourage is the traditional “everything works out ok,” but I simply can’t agree with the notion that this makes the show 1) funnier and 2) more enjoyable to watch.
“God, why do good things happen to good people???”
June 25th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
The show should stay the way that it is…comedy and/or drama, who cares because the show is sweet. It just needs to be an hour long, because for now it’s just a cock tease. There should be an entire blog that is dedicated to persuading the producers (c’mon Markey Mark) to making this show an hour long. That is all.