My issue with shows like Entourage is that the writers and producers often forget what got them their popularity in the first place. Entourage has always been its best when the majority of the show revolved around Ari Gold and Johnny Drama. Even though the show was about Vince, he was best served as somebody to move the story along while the best characters, Ari and Drama, where there to make the show entertaining.
Kevin Connelly as Eric was always a poor casting job, IMO. I think the same way about Grenier as Vince...a guy that's supposed to be a street guy from Queens, yet doesn't have an ounce of that in him. But, that's because Grenier is really an awful actor. Not that it really matters that much in a show like this, but you'd like to see him put in some effort to be better than awful.
But Entourage went too far into the lives of Eric and Vince and Turtle (a very good wise-arse sidekick, but a terrible focal point of a story) and the show became at best...inconsistent. Also, a lot more of a focus of trying to be cool and in the Generation Y way of 'this is cool because it costs an ungodly amount of money' instead of 'this is really cool because it is genuinely hip and somewhat irreverant.'
It happens all of the time. Rescue Me has fallen into that trap even worse. The show was at its best when Tommy Gavin was the reckless, messed up guy that nobody wanted to mess with but loved because of his good qualities. And it was at its best when it revolved its stories around the crew with real 'guy talk' and dealing with working as firemen and dealing with a reckless loose cannon like Gavin. Instead it became about Tommy's massively annoying family that changed characters more times than a stewardess changes flights.
That's what makes shows like The Wire so rare. They were able to make the right changes but still held true to its roots and the show never really dropped off. In fact, it just got stronger as time went along.
YR
