Lloyd: "The cleaning staff's on strike, you know that."
Ari: "They strike, you work. You're Asian, you're supposed to be a neat freak. Go get a rag."
Thank god Ari is back. Oh how we've missed you. And with a summer television season completely devoid of originality or entertainment, it certainly helps a blogger who writes a lot about TV to have something to talk about. And you really can't do any better at this point of the year than Ari and Drama and Turtle and E. And of course, Aquaman.
Turtle: "These two will fuck us if we take them, guaranteed."
Vincent: "How do you know?"
Turtle: "Because they said 'we will fuck you if you take us'."
So we pick up almost a year after the last season ended, with Aquaman about to make its world premiere, and Ari struggling to make it in the business alone after getting fired by Malcolm McDowell last time around. The episode deals with the premiere, particularly who Vincent is going to take. He's been banging every hot chick in town over the past six months but Ari tells him he's got to bring a more presentable woman, someone whom the press will fawn over, to help ensure a huge opening for the movie. Vincent decides to throw a curveball and ask his mother, who has never been out to visit him in L.A.
Drama: "I begged Ma to come to my Viking Quest DVD premiere party, she said no. What would make her come to this?"
Oh Drama how we've missed you too. But their mother relents after an on-air request at a rap station, before struggling to get on the plane due to a fear of flying that forces Eric to go with Plan B. In the meantime, Ari is having financial difficulties, which is weighing heavily on his marriage, especially since his wife has to dip into her personal savings to help pay for his expensive meals with potential clients. Everything has become dependent on Vincent, and on Aquaman's premiere in particular. Which puts Ari in the position of acting more crazed than ever, a storyline I can definitely get behind. Especially the constant fun that's being poked at Ari's new, less-than-stellar digs.
Lloyd: "You haven't been up here yet?"
James Woods: "No, he's hiding this place like Anne Frank."
James Woods is featured in a sideplot revolving around tickets to the premiere and he has some amusing scenes which probably looked funnier on paper than they were actually executed. And actually, most of the episode had the look and feel of a great Entourage episode, but there weren't that many laughs and ultimately it was just a middling opening to the season. Eventually Mercedes Ruehl as the Chases' mother, and Eric and Turtle's mothers fly out on a private jet and make the premiere. And the episode ends before we see how the movie plays out. But we do get to see Johnny and Turtle at their best, as usual.
Turtle: "The one on the left's from the 50 Cent video."
Drama: "Oooh, video whores. I love it."
Video whore: "What the fuck are you looking at?"
Oh, and I watched the premiere episode of the show that HBO followed Entourage with, called "Lucky Louie", featuring the comedic stylings of Louis C.K. in a jarringly traditional sitcom. There was a live studio audience and bad '70s-style sets and lame jokes and oh god, there's a reason the sitcom is dead. I have no idea why they decided to put on a show in that format, and why HBO picked it up, but besides a few curse words and some overtly sexual overtones, this pap could have been ABC's "According to the King of Queens", which is not something I would ever watch. Maybe I've been spoiled by Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development and South Park, but even though a few jokes worked and Louis C.K. was rather funny, it just seemed too forced and controlled to even be watchable. Please HBO, pull this crapfest away from a studio audience or just take it off the air. It really sullies your network.
And Pamela Segall Adlon is the name of the actress who played Louis C.K.'s wife in case anyone was wondering. I had to look her up because she looked strikingly familiar - but as someone who I hadn't seen in 20 years. I'm not sure exactly what I remember her from, but she was definitely a teenage girl and her imdb pages show her in a number of roles in classic '80s sitcoms like The Facts of Life, Growing Pains, The Jeffersons, Night Court (as Bull's daughter) and Alf. She also had a role on "E/R" - the sitcom from 1985 that George Clooney also appeared in. Just think, if she'd waited 5 years, she could eventually have fucked Chris Moltesanti while high on coke. Instead, she's made a career out of voice work on children's shows. Probably for the best.
Comments