HBO presents

Entourage: The Complete Fourth Season (2007)

“The thing about negativity, E, is it breeds bad outcomes.”- Johnny “Drama” Chase (Kevin Dillon)

Stars: Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Jeremy Piven
Other Stars: Gary Busey, Snoop Dogg, Anna Faris, Anthony Michael Hall, John Heard, Dennis Hopper, Peter Jackson, Sydney Pollack, M. Night Shyamalan, Kanye West, Maury Chaykin, Sofia Vergara, Rhys Coiro, Constance Zimmer, Rex Lee
Director: various

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (adult language, nudity)
Run Time: 06h:00m:00s
Release Date: 2008-08-26
Genre: television

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
A	A	A-	A-	B-

 

DVD Review

The recent writers’ strike cost us missed episodes of many of our favorite shows, and in a few cases, even entire seasons. One of these casualties was the hit HBO series Entourage, which hasn’t had a new episode play on the network since September of 2007. Now, with new episodes finally set to air in a few weeks, HBO Home Video gives us a chance to either refresh our memory or get caught up on what we’ve missed in the 12 shows contained in Entourage: The Complete Fourth Season.

While it seems like an eternity ago, the third season left off with Medellin finally about to begin production and in the season four premiere, Welcome to the Jungle, we see Eric (Kevin Connolly) and its director, Billy Walsh (Rhys Coiro) constantly clashing on the set. Billy is infatuated with one of the actresses (Sofia Vergara), which is throwing the production off track, and Drama’s (Kevin Dillon) constant nagging for a part isn’t helping matters either. In The First Cut is the Deepest, the boys are back in the U.S., and Drama is planning a party for Vince (Adrian Grenier) at his new place. Meanwhile, Ari (Jeremy Piven) is struggling with a private school’s reluctance to admit his son, and Billy is causing more trouble by keeping Vince and Eric from seeing the first cut of their film.

During Malibooty, Eric gets upset when Billy submits the film to Cannes, since he thinks the movie isn’t ready. Also, Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) unwillingly agrees to accompany Drama in his attempts to win over an old girlfriend. Finishing up Disc 1, Sorry, Harvey involves Eric going back on his word to Harvey Weingard (Maury Chaykin) when Medellin is accepted into Cannes, and Ari is in jail following the theft of a top secret script. To start Disc 2, we get The Dream Team, during which Billy and Eric continue to go at it after the movie’s trailer is leaked on the Internet and the director lays the blame on E. Then, in The WeHo Ho, Billy and Eric make amends, while Lloyd (Rex Lee) takes an unexpected leave of absence from Miller Gold.

In The Day Fu*kers, Vince and Drama make a bet whether Turtle or Eric can have sex without strings attached before the end of the day, and in the last episode on Disc 2, Gary’s Desk, we get the return of Gary Busey. Musician Mary J. Blige also shows up for a meeting with Ari that is interrupted by a pair of his employees. The first episode on Disc 3 is The Young and the Stoned, where Eric meets guest star Anna Faris thanks to a car accident, which changes his career drastically, while Turtle gets caught with some illegal substances. Snow Job features Vince, Ari, and Dana Gordon (Constance Zimmer) talking about the star’s next movie project, but the script that Billy delivers is a drastic reinterpretation of what they originally intended.

The trip to Cannes gets off to a rocky start in No Cannes Do, when a security threat at the airport finds the boys looking for an alternate means of travel. It’s Kanye West to the rescue, as everybody soon boards his plane and it’s off to the world’s most prestigious film festival. They shop Medellin at Cannes during the season finale, The Cannes Kids. While Drama discovers that he’s extremely popular in France, the movie sells to a surprise bidder, but for much less than anyone ever intended. In all, this is another solid season of one of HBO’s flagship series, but after four seasons of basically the same formula, it would be refreshing to see things shaken up at least a little bit for the upcoming fifth season. Fortunately, we’re only about a month away from finally finding out if that is, indeed, the case.

Rating for Style: A
Rating for Substance: A

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.85:1 - Widescreen
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	yes

Image Transfer Review: The episodes appear in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, and each transfer is full of sharp, detailed images with rich, detailed colors. There’s virtually nothing in the way of dirt or grain, nor is there any color bleeding or blemishes.

Image Transfer Grade: A-
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
DS 2.0	French, Spanish	yes
Dolby Digital 5.1	English	yes

Audio Transfer Review: The audio is Dolby Digital 5.1, and offers dynamic, submersive sound that makes liberal use of the surrounds. Bass is tight and aggressive, while the dialogue is always easy to hear and understand, regardless of the surrounding music or sound effects.

Audio Transfer Grade: A- 

Disc Extras

Full Motion menu with music
Scene Access with 63 cues and remote access
Subtitles/Captions in English, French, Spanish with remote access
2 Featurette(s)
3 Feature/Episode commentaries by Creator/Executive Producer Doug Ellin, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, and Adrian Grenier
Packaging: Boxed Set
Picture Disc
3 Discs
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: dual

Extra Extras:

1. Medellin Trailer
2. Entourage Panel at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival

Extras Review: The extras are pretty well spread out among the three discs, with each episode getting a “previously on” and “preview” for the next installment clip. The season premiere also features a recap of the first three seasons of the show.

The only other extra on Disc 1 is an audio commentary for Welcome to the Jungle, with creator/executive producer Doug Ellin, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, and Adrian Grenier. The same participants deliver commentaries on the episodes, The Day Fu*kers (Disc 2), and The Cannes Kids (Disc 3), and all three tracks are very funny, with this group basically reminiscing about working on the show and with each other.

Disc 2 also contains Meet the Newest Member of Entourage!, a two-minute clip that profiles Lucas Ellin, the young actor who plays Ari’s son, Jonah.

Disc 3 has The Making of Medellin, a seven-minute look at the shooting of the movie-within-the-TV-show, blending footage from the set with cast and crew interviews. There’s also the trailer for Medellin, and a 48-minute look at the Entourage Panel at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Hosted by film critic Elvis Mitchell, this piece finds Ellin, Piven, Connolly, Grenier, and executive producer Stephen Levinson discussing a wide range of topics, from working with the maniacal Gary Busey, to the initial casting of the show’s major characters.

Extras Grade: B-
 

Final Comments

Fans of the HBO hit show Entourage can finally own the last batch of episodes to air, thanks to the debut of The Complete Fourth Season on DVD. Featuring the same great audio and video found in previous seasonal sets, HBO has also thrown in some nice extras to keep the show’s fans very happy.

Chuck Aliaga 2008-09-08