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Meta Ari

By Margaret Hicks in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 30, 2007 3:21PM

Chicagoist isn’t afraid of riding coattails. In fact, we have a lot of friends that we’re just waiting to get famous so we can ride their tails all the way to L.A. It’s not that we don’t think we can make it ourselves. Of course we can — Chicagoist is very resourceful — but wouldn’t it be so much easier for someone else to make it so we can hang out?

05_01_07_Entourage.jpgThe coattails question is answered with a new season of “Entourage.” We wait for Sunday nights on HBO, not for the “Sopranos,” but for our boys fighting the Hollywood machine. Yet we question whether "Entourage" is as good as it always was; it doesn't seem to have the same sharpness it once had. It’s no longer giving us insight into what really goes on in Hollywood, but instead has become a smarter sort of sitcom where the characters go off and find their own trouble. Pretty much every episode has Drama and Turtle getting into a fight with dudes or with beautiful women. E and Vince are arguing about one thing or another, and Ari — Chicago native Jeremey Piven — seems to be having some kind of kindness meltdown that is both touching and slightly boring. Each of the characters have lost some of what made them real; suddenly Vince is so snotty and entitled — he doesn’t know how to use his cell phone voicemail? Come on. Poor E doesn’t have any fun anymore, and Turtle has just become an accomplice to Drama’s nightmares.

We still love "Entourage" though, and Piven continues to be one of the best parts of the show. When he went to save his pimped-out assistant Lloyd, we cheered for Ari's change of heart. But the boys need to get back together already, the show is too fractured showing all their different stories. We know Ari is going to get back together with Vince (now that Vince is sleeping with his new agent, silly Vince), let’s just get to that already.

In addition to sweetening up Ari, Piven will be executive producer for a new MTV show called “24 Before.” It’s going to be about the 24 hours before a major event in someone’s life. The first one is going to be about a soldier the 24 hours before he leaves Iraq.

We’re rooting for Piven; we think he’s awesome (and OK, maybe he looked surprisingly good without his shirt on in last night’s ep), but we want him to get back with Vinny and the boys and do what he’s good at — smarm.