Entourage: Nowhere to Go

I know that HBO has renewed Entourage for another season, but honestly where can the show go from here? The characters aren’t that interesting anymore. [Spoiler Alert! If you haven't seen the season finale, shield thine eyes!] Let's recap:

- Eric is a successful agent and getting married (and the whole subplot with Ashley was pretty weak anyway; she wasn’t even close to competing with Sloan).

- Vince has been successful, unsuccessful and back to successful (and we’ve hardly even seen him this season, as the writers realized that he’s not interesting anymore).

- Drama is loses his regular acting gig only to get the lead in another inevitably terrible show where he plays the same terrible role.

- Ari owns the biggest agency in the city and has already turned down the only position that would make him more powerful.

The only two characters that are interesting anymore are Lloyd and Turtle, which the writers clearly noticed, because they got more airtime than any other characters in this past season. But now their stories are finished: Turtle’s done with Jamie Lynn Sigler and Lloyd is working with Ari as an agent.

So honestly, where can the show go from here, besides to re-hash material it’s already covered?

1. Drama becomes a syndicated chef.

2. Turtle uses his business degree to become the biggest drug dealer in Los Angeles, and the show turns into him vs. Mexican gangs in brutal wars for turf (Entourage: The Streets of LA)

3. Eric cheats on Sloan (which he did before, in Season 3, but there is no other way to make a married man interesting).

4. Better yet, Sloan cheats on Eric with one of the other guys on the show, becoming Entourage's Yoko Ono. (Sidenote: I can't remember the guys in this show have ever competing for women, getting jealous of each other, growing apart (besides from Eric moving out, and occasionally arguing with Vince), or trying to steal each other’s women. Perhaps this is why every guy likes Entourage so much; it presents a world where all the guys get along. Women enjoy watching women friends argue and eventually get back together; guys don't. Every guy competes with his friends for women).

5. Vince wants to start acting in plays, off-Broadway (? Im really struggling for ideas here)

6. Now that Ari owns everything he funds a vanity project featuring a star actor, a hot-shot agent and his entourage, in a meta-meta-Entourage.

Anyway, the show will have to go someplace radically different in season 7. I respect shows like Extras and The Wire for ending when they ran out of things to cover. A friend of mine wanted to see a sequel to District 9 but honestly where can that story go? The aliens have gone away and will come back, but the drama's gone. Matrix 2 and 3, anyone? Sometimes it’s best just to end things when they reach a natural stopping point.

Reposted with permission from kburke.org.