Entourage: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Entourage: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

"We basically lived together our whole lives..."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown June 8, 2012

Even with eight seasons in the bank and a long-rumored movie on the horizon, Entourage will go down as one of HBO's most divisive and most successful series. Some deemed creator/executive producer Doug Ellin and his anointed cast and crew's brash humor off-putting, Vince and his cocky L.A. upstarts unlikable, and the boys' flash-pan Hollywood hijinks and heroics a complete and utter waste of time. Others found the show to be every bit the smart and savvy industry satire fans, apologists and many a critic have declared it. Regardless of your take, though, the Entourage boys -- Vince (Adrian Grenier), E (Kevin Connolly), Drama (Kevin Dillon) and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) -- have at least put in eight seasons of blood, sweat and tears to get where they are, each one having forged a path and spun a success story all his own.

With a long-rumored, widely publicized feature film in the works, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that Entourage's eighth season isn't so much a ride-into-the-sunset as it is a see-you-guys-in-a-few-months-on-a-bigger-screen. In fact, the final episode plays like any other season closer and ends with the same game-changing developments that have frequented each previous finale. The only real difference? Happy endings of one sort or another await everyone involved. Yes, after ninety days in rehab, Vince shakes the drug addiction that drug down Season Seven. Yes, after struggling to cut certain ties with Vince, Eric establishes himself once and for all. Yes, after countless failed projects, Drama mounts a promising comeback. And yes, after plenty of juvenile antics followed by a slow but steady maturation, Turtle grows up and proves he doesn't need to be attached to Vince's side to hold his own. Even hot-tempered super-agent Ari (Jeremy Piven) and assistant Lloyd (Rex Lee) get their happy endings (Ari would have a field day with that sentence), with enough gas in the tank to keep their stories alive and well (just be sure to watch through the credits of the finale). It's all so inevitable that it's reasonably safe to reveal it all; no real spoiler warnings required. How each movie star, Hollywood hopeful, and tenacious power-player arrives at their happy ending, though, is another matter entirely.

For eight seasons, creator/executive producer/writer/director/man-of-all-hats Doug Ellin and writer/co-executive producer Ally Musika have gone out of their way to show how tough and ruthless a town Hollywood can be. Vince, his entourage and even his agent have been beaten, crushed, humiliated and broken; chewed up, spit out, and chewed up again by an industry built on the backs of fallen stars and fueled by box-office millions. Season Eight doesn't suddenly go easy on the boys, instead making it more difficult than ever to survive and... well, survive. But that's exactly what makes the Chase crew so appealing. The harder Hollywood hits, the harder Vince hits back. The more aggressive rival agents get, the more aggressive Eric becomes. The faster projects fall apart, the faster Drama pulls himself back together. The trickier the cards that are dealt, the trickier the hands Turtle plays. The more demanding the business grows, the more demands Ari issues. For all their flaws and mistakes, for all their baser instincts and misdeeds, for all their wounded egos, bad luck and failed endeavors, Vince's crew refuses to give up. They retreat, regroup and relaunch their ever-fledgling brand, balancing personal issues and public scrutiny with an increasing understanding of how the game is played and how to play it.

There are missteps -- Eric's on-again, off-again relationship with Sloan (Emmanuelle Chriqui) grows tiresome and a bit too childish, Mrs. Ari (scene-stealer Perrey Reeves) is overshadowed by a separation subplot, Ari's kids are more obnoxious than ever, Andrew Dice Clay (playing himself) wears out his welcome, and Vince's obsession with Vanity Fair feels contrived -- but Season Eight brings the series full circle. Vince has come a long way, from breakout star to troubled celebrity to well-adjusted professional, and Eric, Drama, Turtle, Ari and most every recurring character (that appears of course) has an opportunity to see their arcs through to a fitting close. Even if a movie never materializes, Season Eight is a satisfying end to a largely entertaining, sometimes hit-or-miss series that could have easily been little more than a bad-boys-come-to-Hollywood gimmick. And yet Ellin and Musika have hit fans with one surprise after the other, none greater than this: over the course of eight seasons, Entourage has become an arresting ensemble drama. Don't get me wrong, the comedy is still there. The excess is still excessive. The pride still runneth over. But the series has reinvented itself time and time again (occasionally to its thankfully brief detriment), staying true to its girls-n-glory mantra while digging deeper, going darker, and testing Vince and his entourage's mettle, all without pulling many punches. It hasn't been a perfect ride, it isn't even a perfect eighth and final season. It's just turned out to be a far better show than most everyone expected.

Entourage: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hot and noisy as it can be, Entourage is a good looking show. The Complete Eighth Season's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation handles the rigors of Ellin's high-heat Hollywood like a pro with sizzling colors, blistering primaries, sunbathed skintones, and rich, inky blacks. Contrast is ruthless at times, but that's the nature of the series' photography; midnight meetings and L.A. nightclub encounters don't leave a much room for shadow detail, but DP-duo Todd Dos Reis and Robb Sweeney wouldn't have it any other way. Nevertheless, edge definition is crisp and clean (without many distracting halos to point to), closeups are striking, fine textures are nicely resolved, and crush and halos are really the only eyesores that occasionally hinder the proceedings. Artifacting, banding, aliasing and other deal breakers aren't a factor and distractions are few and far between. Like the series itself, Entourage's proficiently encoded high definition presentations go out on a high note.

Entourage: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Entourage has always featured something akin to mockumentary sound design. Voices are convincing within the confines of whatever interior locale or exterior environment sets the stage, wind hiss, traffic noise, background chatter and all. Ambient effects are light but natural; never overblown, overworked or overwhelming. And the soundfield, immersive as it is, never becomes all that aggressive, other than when a hard-hitting rap anthem, string-screaming rock song, or soft-strumming R&B hymn announces itself (something that happens at least five or six times per episode). The Complete Eighth Season is no different, thankfully, and its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix sounds just as good as the series' previous-season lossless tracks. Dialogue is clean and clear, regardless of how busy the club, chaotic the set, or spacious the lobby. LFE output is restrained but resolute, until that is one of the aforementioned doom doom boom burst of downbeats commandeer the soundtrack. Then it's all punch and power. Likewise, front-heavy as some scenes are, rear speaker activity is fairly reserved too; except, again, when the music kicks in and makes its presence known. Still, directionality is decent and cross-channel pans are smooth as well, making it that much easier to sit back, sink in and enjoy every episode on its own sonic terms.

Entourage: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Hollywood Sunset: A Farewell to Entourage (HD, 29 minutes): "If you can't cast it, there is no show!" Creator Doug Ellin sits down with writer/executive producer Ally Musika and actors Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara for a look back at the series' genesis, development, casting, production and eight season run. Along the way, Mark Wahlberg and the real-life inspirations for the members of Vince's entourage offer their thoughts on the show, Jeremy Piven and Rex Lee chime in, original audition reels and other behind-the-scenes footage are sprinkled throughout, and other surprises await. It's an excellent highlight to an otherwise barebones supplemental package and it almost, almost makes up for the complete lack of audio commentaries and other compelling extras.

Entourage: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Entourage sometimes traveled a rocky road on its way to its eighth and final season, but its last eight episodes represent a funny, dramatic and, above all, fitting end to a series that turned out to be far more engrossing and addicting than I ever expected. If a movie ever does make it to the big screen, it'll have a tough time wrapping things up as neatly and nicely as the series' eighth season. HBO's 2-disc Blu-ray release doesn't disappoint either. Its anemic supplemental package leaves something to be desired, sure, but its video presentation and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track closes out the series in style.