So I have to admit, this episode was a letdown.  It was classic HBO programming of having a great episode followed but a mediocre unimportant one.  The biggest change in all of their lives was announced with a sold sign on their house in the first six seconds of the episode.  From there, the episode might as well have been about a trip to home depot, because absolutely nothing freaking happened!  It looks like Vince and E still don't have the money they need to make Medellin (I'll get to why later,)  Drama is going to be an extra in Rush Hour 3, and Turtle had a bizarre day date.  That's it?  That's all we get?  Why didn't they just make the episode about them getting burgers at the mall?  Someone needs to tell HBO that we don't watch the show to have the guys have a more boring day then I did.  And if you missed this episode, don't worry, you are now officially caught up.

So the episode starts with Drama hanging upside down in his bathroom like a vampire.  I wasn't sure Drama's heart would survive hearing good news upside down, but apparently it did and Lloyd told him that he was being offered a part in Rush Hour 3 based on Brett Ratner having seen the pilot for 5 Towns.  I don't know why Drama didn't know this must have been a mistake from the begining.  In the back of his mind, he must have known that no one would have seen his monologue from the pilot and thought that he could act.  But Drama still goes to the set and brags to his cast mates, played by the worst bunch of extras ever cast.  Seriously, did they have the d team director on this scene?  Did he tell all of the actors to laugh ridiculously at everything Drama says and then look directly into the camera with a confused looks. 

After the director of 5 Towns buys Drama an entire sheet cake as a unnecessary congratulations for having a meeting, we are finally mercifully taken away to see E, Vince, and Ari going to meet a ridiculous Eastern European couple who wants to fund Medellin.  The couple is like a more real life version of the SNL sketch The Nunis.  They're that crazy foreign type that's loaded and probably wears gas masks during sex.  And while both Ari and the husband claim that the wife used to be a foreign soap star, she looks more like she used to run an orphanage in some Eastern Block communist country.  So they sit and eat lobster, discuss Sylvester Stalone's career, and rip on Eric while the wife eye fucks Vince.  Producing is fun!  Then sometime after lunch, the wife calls Vince and tells him that the sixty million is no problem, but that she needs to meet him alone at a hotel immediately to discuss the puddle that is currently forming under her.  But Vince brings Eric along to the hotel as he's not in the mood for gas mask sex, and this makes her have a fit and she leaves pissed off.  

Look, I get it.  Vince gets crazy offers for sex that us normal people don't get, but this one was just weird.  Some billionaire offering sixty million dollars to bang his freaky, looks like a handbag wife.  This show is supposed to be a fantasy, not some bizarre dream that you have after eating too much cheese.  Anyway, if you watched the previews, you'll see that they are still looking for money, so Vince must have said no to being the Alex Rodrigez of whores and not taken the 60 mil to visit Southern Croatia if you know what I mean.  Which means that this entire plot line was a dead end and left a weird Eastern European taste in my mouth.

We are now forced to cut back to Drama's plot where we find out that Brett Ratner's assistant can't read and that Drama wasn't the person he wanted for the part.  After being informed of the mistake, Johnny refuse to leave what is the first great gratuitous hot girls everywhere scene since the dog park like 4 episodes ago.  i don't blame him.  I wouldn't have left either.  When Brett Ratner finally approaches Drama, he's ready with some of the best ass kissing this side of The Actor's Studio .  Ratner half falls for it and Drama ends up in some weird pyramid like scheme where he has to pay to be an extra in the movie.  Whatever.  My bet is we will never hear of this again and we will look back on it as total filler.

The best part of the episode was Turtle's date.  First, I must say that the girl (she's also been in ATL) is smoking hot.  And she is probably the coolest girl any of them have dated.  She drives fast, has cool interests, and seems down to earth.  And I reiterate, she's damn hot.  What else do you need?    In fact after Turtle let her drive she made a move and planted a kiss on him, although I'd probably kiss the guy to drive his Mazarati.  I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Kelly soon, making this the only worthwhile plot development of the whole episode. 

Some Random Thoughts...

- Do 5 million dollar houses usually sell in a week?

- Would you have slept with that cazy woman for 60 million?  Ok, better question... what would you do with the money you got for sleeping with her? 

- What parent makes their kids watch a movie with them during a day date?  Rufus doesn't look mormon...

- We almost got to hear Turtle's real name!  She told him knowing his name was a condition in sleeping with her and he still balked!  Makes me think his ral name is like Turd Burgler or something.

- Watch a new episode of my animated show "The Melvin Bros" this week on gopotato.tv!

Something about Entourage had been bothering me during this entire part 2 of season 3.  I hadn’t been able to quite put my finger on what it was.  The show just was still good, but it felt a little, I don’t know, disjointed.  It had been a lot like watching a hot girl do gymnastics, you can’t turn away, but you know it’s not what god intended. 

Watching this week, it hit me… they had screwed with the formula. This entire season was like new coke!  Entourage was always supposed to be about 4 loyal friends making it in Hollywood their own way and their loveable bastard of an agent.  But for this entire season, we hadn’t seen any of their friendship and with Ari running around on his own I felt like we were watching two completely different shows shoved together each week. 

But after this little detour, last night’s show brought back everything we love about the show.  (Well, minus some really hot girls.)  So many things were set straight last night, where do I start?  How about with Drama finally having a little success and good luck fall his way?  Drama has always been the failure of their crew.  Turtle has achieved less, but he’s Turtle and he ain’t trying. Drama has been trying to make it longer then any of them.  I was afraid they were going to have his show flop and put him right back to square one, but having it be a hit is a much better way to take it.  I am really curious to see Drama living it up with a little success.  It promises to be funny, because if nothing else, where Vince buys nice cars and houses, Drama will buy horses and hand jobs.  *note: The massage parlor hand job scene was hilarious, but that was one of the grossest sounds ever heard on television.  I feel sorry for anyone with surround sound.

Next, let’s talk about Turtle.  Turtle with a possible love interest?!  That he didn’t pay for or coerce by inviting to one of Vince’s premieres?!  I am shocked that they seem like they’re going to do it, but very happy for Turtle, because he’s underused and has never had any girl stick around after they’ve grabbed a bunch of Vince’s shit to sell of ebay.  As he put it, “she’s me with tits,” Which means he isn’t counting his A cups as tits and that Turtle might finally have a girlfriend.

And last, but not least, we finally had the reunion we’ve been waiting for, Ari and Vince.  How much more focused and on point does the show feel with them working together?  You mean we don’t have to watch 2 fifteen minute scripts jammed together week after week?  Here’s a novel idea… have the main characters work together so they can be in the same scenes!  Damn!  Write that shit down, it’s brilliant!  Not to mention that E grows a set when he’s around Ari.  He looked like a lost sad wet puppy around Amanda and now he’s back to telling Ari how it’s gonna be.  And as far as Vince and E rolling the dice by buying and producing Medellin?  Look, in real life, that would be an insanely stupid move.  It would make a lot more sense to just get an iron clad contract to do both Medellin and Matterhorn, make 10 million bucks for both, not risk your life savings, and call it a day.  But for the show… it’s a brilliant move.  Look, at the end of the day, if we just had to watch Vince collect pay check after paycheck on different movies every season, the show would end up as entertaining as Golden Girl reruns with hot chicks and cool celebrity cameos. 

But with Vince finally opening his mouth and explaining why he wants to do Medellin so badly (thank god they finally explained this) and taking an artistic stance on it, we are going to get to see Vince and E take on a whole new world in producing movies while risking it all to go big.  Not only will it be really fun to watch, but it actually gives real stakes to what they’re doing.  For once, failing won’t just mean that have to hold off on buying a private island, although something tells me that they’ll be just fine and we’re going to get to see what kind of parties you can throw when you really have money.