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Vinnie and the boys are back for another season.

Since 2004 HBO has been the home of a very funny, and satirical, look at Hollywood.  Entourage has Mark Wahlberg on as an executive producer and much of the story revolving around the core cast has been loosely based on him and his friends.  If you have been living under a rock for the past few years the show follows mega star actor Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) during his ups and downs in the biz with his has been actor brother, Johnny “Drama” (Kevin Dillion), driver and friend Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and his best friend and manager, Eric (Kevin Connolly).  The crew goes everywhere together, whether it is to work or pick up “dates” for the night, and of course they have plenty of hilarious run-ins with Vince’s manager Ari (multiple Emmy winner Jeremy Piven). 

For this release of Entourage’s fifth season on DVD we find Vince in a bad place.  After the film he and Eric sank most of their money into financing, Medellín the story of Pablo Escobar, is a flop the crew is in need of money.  No one wants to hire Vince right after a bomb, though he tries and tries.  This season is full of disappointment for everyone’s favorite gang but that does not mean it is not entertaining as always.  Eric takes on a couple of new clients in his new emerging management firm, Drama’s TV show (Five Towns) has taken off and the boys head out to the desert and spend a whole episode tripping on mushrooms with Eric Roberts.

One of the great things about this show are all of the cameos made by actors, directors and sports figures.  Most of them play satirized versions of themselves or even other characters all together.  Guest spots this season include, among others, Giovanni Ribisi, Lukas Haas, golfer Phil Mickelson, Gus Van Sant, Bow Wow,T.I., Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Martin Scorsese.  It is always a fun treat when some celebrity comes on the show to have a good time with the politics of Hollywood.

So this show may be nothing more than a male version of Sex and the City, as some have said, but so what?  Even if it is, there is some really funny stuff here, and movie star/film junkies will find a lot of great inside jokes.  All of the show’s many awards and nominations are very easy to see and well deserved.  Quite a bit of the humor can be crude at times, but this is not network television, it’s HBO.  What do you expect?  Many of these premium cable shows are taking over what you can see for free and the lack of boundaries is surely one of the big reasons. 

Aside from all twelve episodes of the season there are commentary tracks on three of them, and a brief featurette about the guest stars.  I know most of these people are pretty busy, but only three commentaries?  The Simpsons have commentary tracks on every episode of every season, and they have almost double the episodes per season.  Oh well, even though the extras are a bit skimpy the show is wonderful and worth the time and money.  Catch up before the sixth season starts in July!

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