Thursday night on NBC has an amazing history of being home to some of the most popular comedies. From Cheers and The Cosby Show to Friends and Will and Grace. They had a few shaky years at the end of Friends, but they have slowly built back what was a respectable comedy lineup back on Thursday nights with Community, Parks and Recreation, the Office and 30 Rock. Unfortunately, all these shows haven’t hit their stride at the same time to build that viewership base and the ratings for these sometimes great shows has suffered.
So, episode 2 continued in the slow plodding manner that the first episode set the precedent for. I’m glad that the story for the show continues to be engaging, if it wasn’t I don’t think it would be able to hold my attention.
When I first heard about Ringer, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Sarah Michelle Gellar is, of course, TV’s Sweetheart after her epic portrayal of Buffy; but I had some reservations about her small screen comeback. First of which, the fact that this show is airing on the CW. Any network that will give Tyra Banks her own show should be burned to the ground, but I digress.
Well, as Walt and Jessie are having some relationship issues, Gus seems to be as unhinged as we’ve seen him…you know, aside from the flashback last week. And the whole box cutter incident. But at least the 3rd most unhinged we’ve seen the normally quiet chicken entrepreneur. Anyhow, onward and upward.
Tonight’s episode did something unusual – it produced a Skyler-centric side story that was not only good, but short enough to avoid being pushed too far and drawn out. It showed Skyler once again warming up to criminal enterprise, as she is forced to help Ted out of his tax issues, for fear that it could lead back to Walt. It was done nicely though. Most of the time getting a ‘Skyler Episode’ is like getting a ‘Lisa Episode’ on The Simpsons.
“Why yes. That dress does make you look incompetent.”
Well, folks, season 4 has finally drawn to a close. I say “finally” because this season was terrible. A complete and utter train wreck from start to finish. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s take a look at tonight’s episode.
This episode had some of the best one liners of the entire season. When Eric called Nan’s body guards “Gay Storm Troopers,” I peed my pants a little. Even Jesus got some laughs with his Pokemon reference. However, a few moments of funny dialogue does not a well-written episode make; and tears I shed during this episode were not born of laughter, but of misery and frustration.
Marnie’s story arc was like a diet drink, a vicious little pretender trying to hard to be good. Meanwhile, I’m left feeling unsatisfied and smacking my lips against a horrible aftertaste. Being True Blood, I was expecting there to be some sort of battle, or at least an epic finish to a story they spent so much time telling. Instead, it turns into an episode of the Real World for dead people.
SPOILERS AHEAD>>> Antonia talks Marnie down from making Bill and Eric into vampire potato chips, so Marnie has a scream cry and moves on with the other dead people? Talk about anti-climax.
This is it my friends. The end. The last time we will see the crew of Entourage together (until the inevitable movie). No more of my boy, Johnny Drama acting a complete fool with his permanent scowl. The show has had a good run and even though there were some low points, I’m really gonna miss it after tonight. Still a few things to deal with going into the finale: Vince and his quest to have a legitimate relationship with the beautiful and high morality Sophia. Ari and the never-ending saga of he and his wife staying together or getting divorced. And of course the Baby Mama drama between Eric and Sloan. So with that, let’s get right into it.
This episode starts with Vince making the announcement that he is getting married to Sophia in Paris… in the same day that the episode takes place. Everything is going great for our main character, but this episode was all about tying up the two major loose ends of Ari and his wife Melissa, not to mention Sloan and Eric.
Ari, looking good.
Ari is just about at wits end not giving two shits about work. He and Mrs. Gold have one last therapy session deciding to tell the kids about the divorce. After speaking to his daughter about whether or not he listens to her, Ari finally sees what he has to do and I can’t believe he didn’t do it before. He quits his company, sells his shares and goes to his house for one last ditch attempt with Melissa. Ari tells her what he did and wants to move to Florence, Italy with her and just be together and she agrees.
Ahhhhh, it’s so tough being rich… I was actually impressed by the emotion in the scene where Ari wins her back and even though it was a little cliche’ I still enjoyed seeing them have a happy ending.
With Eric and Sloan, we had a little back and forth tipping of the scales as Johnny and Turtle try to mend things to have Sloan at the wedding. Then Vince tries to do the same through Sloan’s father Terrence, but only serves to make things worse. In the end Vince convinces her to give Eric a last shot and be a father to their child. By the end the whole crew meets at the airport where a jet awaits the wedding party. Vince surprises Eric by unveiling a waiting Sloan and a jet that will take them anywhere they want and Eric goes his own way as Vince, Ari, Turtle and Johnny board the plane for Paris…. and credits roll.
I give the episode a 4 out of 5 bears because it felt a little rushed to tie everything up and give the boys a proper send off. I thought maybe an hour finale would have done it justice, but I suppose the ambiguous ending works too.
The only one we actually get to see a little more of is Ari as he and Melissa live the life in Italy. Ari actually gets a call from his old boss who is offering him the top spot at his studio. You can tell Ari is seriously considering it until he hangs up and Melissa is back with wine. But on the other hand he does lie about who it was to her and who knows maybe we’ll see an Ari Gold spin off show that I’d totally watch!
Grizzly Bomb 