Entourage finale

[JasonEvans]

I hate, hate, hate that part of E getting Sloan back is that everyone lies to Sloan about E sleeping with her former mom-in-law. Deception ain’t the way to win Sloan and you know she will find out someday and really hate the guys as well as E for doing that to her. I wanted one of them, perhaps E himself, to be honest and the honesty to win her back.

Vinnie getting married on a whim is fine, but that VF writer was too level-headed to let that happen. It did not feel realistic. We needed more of a courtship or something. She knows too much of his flighty history with women to marry him after one night together.

Vinnie needs E to be there with him in Paris… wants E to be his best man… but then sends E and Sloan off somewhere else at the last minute!?! Come on! How about “Here’s your own plane… fly it to Paris and talk to each other the whole way. Fall in love again. After the wedding, the plane is still yours– fly it anywhere you want!” That would have made more sense than not having E at Vinnie's wedding.

I was disappointed that they tried to tie everything up so neatly so quickly. I am glad Ari and Mrs. Ari are back together tho! I loved the ending with Ari being offered the CEO of Time-Warner job!!

--Jason "the 'three men and two little men' line was great... a good episode, but not the ending I had hoped for" Evans

[Rich]

I was disappointed that they tried to tie everything up so neatly so quickly.

I thought it was lame, lame lame for precisely this reason. Johnny and Turtle going around everywhere together making everything right was totally unrealistic. I was very disappointed.

[NashvilleDevil]

I thought it was lame, lame lame for precisely this reason. Johnny and Turtle going around everywhere together making everything right was totally unrealistic. I was very disappointed.

I thought it was lame as well. I knew it was going to wrap up nicely and tease a potential movie. Best part was hearing the opening chords to Going to California as they wrapped the show up.

[Lord Ash]

Ugh. Just watched... bad. Then again, it hasn't been a good show for a few years... much like Curb.

[weezie]

LOL, this whole season was so epically bad, it was must see, cringe-making awful tv.

The finale must have been written by a 7th grade girl's sleepover party group. Ludicrously bad. Equal to if not worse than "Sex and the City 2" which set a new standard of dopey drivel.

[BD80]

... Equal to if not worse than "Sex and the City 2" ...

That may be the meanest thing ever said on this or any bulletin board

[davekay1971]

None of the finale worked for me. Really the final season simply didn't satisfy. Maybe it's the cynic in me, but I was hoping to see the self-destructive tendencies, particularly those of Vince and Drama, destroy their careers and have them going back to NY to uncertain futures. Alas, someone decided on the happily ever after route. Hollywood style happily ever after. Vinnie has a whirlwind romance and gets married after knowing a girl for 24 hours (the divorce to be breathlessly covered by US magazine within the year, no doubt), Turtle gets a cash windfall because he's lucky, Drama gets handed a job, E wins back the girl of his dreams partially thanks to a lie, and Ari gives up his job for his family, but only on the justification that they have enough money for "5 lifetimes."

I enjoyed the series, but feel, especially at the end, that the series had no cojones in it's storytelling...and was basically as good as it was because of Ari and Lloyd.

It was a puff pastry, in the end, and won't be missed nearly as much as, say, Deadwood (a rerun of which is on my tv as I write this)

[Rich]

Ugh. Just watched... bad. Then again, it hasn't been a good show for a few years... much like Curb.

I actually think that Curb has made a comeback of sorts. I stopped watching a few years ago, but started up again last season and thought this season was particularly good. I especially liked the "Palestinian Restaurant/Jewish Deli" episode and the "Juicing" episode. If you haven't seen those, they're worth a look.

[Lord Ash]

Okay, time for a Curb thread

[JasonEvans]

I enjoyed the series, but feel, especially at the end, that the series had no cojones in it's storytelling...and was basically as good as it was because of Ari and Lloyd.

I think Entourage jumped the shark when Lloyd was made into an agent. By the way, that was pretty much the end of anything interesting involving his character too. Pity.

I know a lot of people think it jumped the shark earlier... and I might be convinced that the Cannes premiere of Medellin was the last great moment of the series. Sigh. Pity. It started out so strong.

The final few seasons were brutally bad and ratings went into the toilet. 3.1 million people watched the series finale. If all those folks watched an Entourage movie, the flick would only make around $30 million at the boxoffice. A movie may be a tough sell.

-Jason "I'd love to see the cast get some meaty other acting gigs -- I cannot explain why Adrian Grenier hasn't done more than a bit part in Devil Wears Prada" Evans

[Lord Ash]

Jason, TOTALLY agree on the Lloyd/Ari comment... Lloyd went from funny and a key piece of the show to completely unneeded, uninteresting, and uninvolved. It was a real shame.

My wife started watching the show last year. She was left shaking her head wondering how the show was so popular.

[UrinalCake]

I'm a huge fan of this show and thought the finale was pretty predictable. Before it aired I guessed at what would happen with each character and was basically right, although I thought Ari would leave his share of the company to Lloyd.

Here's what I don't get about Sloane... between seasons 7 and 8 she breaks up E. They never explain things fully but it seems like it was mostly caused by E refusing to sign a prenup. But in season 7 when the prenup is initially brought up, it's Sloane's father who demands it. When E then tells Sloane about it she is shocked and swears she knew nothing about it. So, if she had nothing to do with it, then why does it cause her to break up with E? That doesn't make any sense. Unless it's just that she refuses to go against her father's wishes. But that again is a bit of a contradiction, why an otherwise strong and independent woman would be so tied to her father's wishes.

Anyways, the show has always been about mindless entertainment for me and it never failed to deliver. I'll miss the show but agree that it was time for it to end.

[Udaman]

Loved the first season. Really liked the second and third...but it all went downhill from the start of the 4th.

Hated, hated, hated the character of Lloyd. It was homophobic gay bashing at its worst. So maybe I could tolerate that...but it was just so completely out of character for the LA scene. Tons of artists are gay, and there is no way a top agent would treat/speak to someone like that. Maybe back in 1982 they would, but never in 2007. And when they made him an agent, that's when the show lost us for good.

Too bad. But not uncommon. Weeds used to be great...then it got awful. Six Feet Under was amazing...then it wasn't. Breaking Bad was exceptional...and this season has me nervous (thankfully it is ending soon, so I have hope). About the only long standing series that never lost it was The Sopranos.

[Bostondevil]

At least it wasn't as bad as the last season of 'Lost'.

The main problem with finales is just that, it's the end. If you tie up everything neatly, you lose the drama and any edge that the series may have posessed. If you leave it open-ended, if there's 'more to the story', you will leave fans frustrated and disappointed.

Besides M*A*S*H, has any series finale lived up to the series that preceeded it? Perhaps Gilligan's Island did it best, they never filmed a series finale. (I don't count the made for TV movies that were done years later.)

[Lord Ash]

Hated, hated, hated the character of Lloyd. It was homophobic gay bashing at its worst. So maybe I could tolerate that...but it was just so completely out of character for the LA scene. Tons of artists are gay, and there is no way a top agent would treat/speak to someone like that. Maybe back in 1982 they would, but never in 2007. And when they made him an agent, that's when the show lost us for good.

Uhm... as someone whose wife knew Ari Emanuel from work in a previous career, I can say that he had no qualms about being a very offensive man in almost every respect. I don't think he was particularly sensitive to ANYONE. Many of the top guys in Hollywood do and say pretty horrible things pretty regularly... I've heard some Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein stories that would curl the ends of your hair.

Oh, and I would say that the "Six Feet Under" finale knocked it out of the PARK and ultimately almost justified the entire existence of the series.

[JasonEvans]

Here's what I don't get about Sloane... between seasons 7 and 8 she breaks up E. They never explain things fully but it seems like it was mostly caused by E refusing to sign a prenup. But in season 7 when the prenup is initially brought up, it's Sloane's father who demands it. When E then tells Sloane about it she is shocked and swears she knew nothing about it. So, if she had nothing to do with it, then why does it cause her to break up with E? That doesn't make any sense. Unless it's just that she refuses to go against her father's wishes. But that again is a bit of a contradiction, why an otherwise strong and independent woman would be so tied to her father's wishes.

My wife has a special pet peeve about the E-Sloane relationship. She says that just about every season (for the past 4 or 5) has featured E and Sloan falling in love, and then during the off-season (the part we never see) something happens that breaks them up. Think about it. They always break up in the off-season. As a result, we fans of the show are constantly torn -- we don't get to observe or understand the things that break them up we only get to constantly see them chasing and falling for each other. It creates an uneven relationship with the viewers.

I totally agree about the pre-nup. It was never clear if that is what broke them up. Sometimes the show would reference that, sometimes it would reference E and Scott killing "Uncle Murray's" management firm. Sometimes Sloan would merely say that her father hated E (for what he did to Murray, I guess) and that she could not destroy her family by being with E.

Make up your freaking mind!!! Give us some solid reason-- something we can see and accept!! It is very frustrating... grrr.

Oh, and isn't it typical of the laziness in the writing lately that the show had Sloan's Daddy McDowell threatening to kill E and getting in a car to come find him... but then never did anything with that. Really?!? You are just going to leave that threat hanging?!? I mean, at least show him pulling up in his car and shaking his fist at the sky as E and Sloan fly away in their plane or something!!

Sigh!

-Jason "and, again, E won Sloan back with a lie about sleeping with her mom-in-law... wow! Just wrong!" Evans

[Udaman]

So, thinking about series finales...

Great:

MASH, Newhart, Star Trek:Next Generation, The Cosby Show

Mixed:

Lost (not as bad as I thought it would be)
Battlestar Gallactica (hated the very, very end)
St. Elsewhere (was all make believe)
Moonlighting (gets points for creativity...but boy was that odd)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (could have been so much better)
The Sopranos (either you loved it, or hated it)
Six Feet Under (personally, I didn't like it at all, but I know lots of people who did)
Friends (sort of bleh, but nothing awful
Quantum Leap (loved every minute until the very end, when it said that Sam never lept home. WTF?)

Bad:

Cheers (hated this - bringing back Diane was a terrible idea)
Entourage (E lying to Sloan about an affair? Nice way to be married. Vince getting married after 24 hours? Nice way to be married)
Seinfeld (so, so, so disappointing...having them in jail at the end, was just a cop out)
Roseanne (it's all a dream...and this one didn't work at all)

So that's not a full list...but I would only put a few on the truly bad side.

[Lord Ash]

Hmmm... I hated the Lost ending... just seemed rambling and nonsensical to me.

HATED HATED HATED the ending to the Sopranos. Like... so much so that it has poisoned my love of the show. An ending should never make you think your cable went out. Ever. It was such a cop out of an ending.

And Six Feet Under... gotta put that on the Best list. My wife cried for two days after it. Such a pitch-perfect ending, especially given how every episode of the series began. Keith's part at the end? Ugh, heartbreaking.

You should have an "incomplete" part too, called "The Deadwood Category."

[Channing]

Friday Night Lights had a great ending - really tied things up nicely. However, that was to expected from such a superior show.

[UrinalCake]

They always break up in the off-season. As a result, we fans of the show are constantly torn -- we don't get to observe or understand the things that break them up we only get to constantly see them chasing and falling for each other. It creates an uneven relationship with the viewers.

I never really made that connection (mainly because I watched all the old DVD's straight through) but yeah your wife is right that we get a pretty unbalanced view of their relationship. The whole E and Sloane thing never made much sense to me. Then again this is TV land, where a brash New Yorker of limited stature can land a supermodel who lets him have a threesome with her best friend. As I said earlier, pure mindless entertainment.

I know I'm way in the minority here but I kind of liked the Seinfeld finale. It was a show about nothing, so the thought of them all sitting in jail for a year talking about nothing and driving each other crazy kind of made sense. And I liked how they brought back all those characters from past episodes.

Also, I'll turn in my Man card for a moment and admit that I watched a lot of Sex and the City with my wife. The finale was pretty good, it tied things up nicely and showed everyone moving on with their lives while also letting the viewer generally feel good about each of the characters. Oh, and it left the door open for their atrocious movies, which I think Entourage tried to do too.