Once again HBO proves itself to be amongst the forerunners high-quality, well-written episodic TV. It seems that every year, they hit us with another show or two, each time racking up Emmy nominations and wins. Shows like "The Sopranos", "Deadwood" and the too soon cancelled "Carnivale" deliver the goods in the drama department, and if you've ever seen any of their comedy series, you'd realize that they have that category all sewn up as well. One of the more recent additions to their line-up is "Entourage", which follows the life and times of an up-and-coming actor (and his hangers-on) caught up in the Hollywood scene.

The series stars Adrian Grenier as Vincent Chase, a young actor trying to make the right career moves in order to keep from crashing and burning. These decisions are made even harder by his circle of friends, most of whom have no reason hang with him other than to take advantage of a good thing. Amongst them are two friends from high school, Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly) and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara). Eric has taken on the role of Vincent's manager, but being new to the scene himself he often finds himself in over his head. Turtle, on the other hand, doesn't have such high aspirations. Well, rather he aspirations of getting high… and playing video games. Vincent's brother, Johhny 'Drama' (Kevin Dillon) also hangs with the group, having once been an actor himself. He was once on a series called "Viking Quest", which fortunately has a following of fans similar to Trekkies, so at least fame hasn't escaped him completely.

On the heavier business end, Vincent contends with his outrageously obnoxious agent, Ari Gold, played to perfection by Jeremy Piven. I've seen Piven play a lot of roles, some even similar to this one, but this has got to be the performance of his career. Finally, the light shines on Vince's publicist Shauna (Debi Mazar), who is equally as obnoxious and comes a close second to stealing the show.

Unfortunately, as much as I enjoy HBO's shows, I do not actually have HBO in my house. Most of the shows I've become familiar with, I've done so because of the great DVD sets HBO has been releasing. And in a second set of unfortunate circumstances, being new to HBO Home Entertainment's roster of reviewers, I ended up watching the new 2nd season DVD release… without familiarizing myself with the 1st season. On the bright side, knowing the basic premise of the series mixed with the excellent work of the writing staff, I was able to get right into it and enjoy it just the same. Any little bits of catching up plot-wise I was able to do with a little Internet reading.

What I didn’t see in the 1st season pretty much served to set up the characters and ready them for the roller coaster ride that the series was bound to turn into. Vincent dealt with the success of his first big budget success (which was a film in which he co-starred with Jessica Alba) and the aftermath. Suddenly, he was a media darling and everyone wanted a piece of him. 'Flavor of the month' is what I believe they call new actors at this point in their career. He found himself at a bit of a crossroads, faced with the decision of taking another role in a big budget film… that just happened to have a lousy script or a better low-budget project which had the possibilities of really stretching him as a actor. Hmmm… big money / bad script….little money / great script….. what a choice.

With the release of the 2nd season DVD, the answer to that question as been resolved and Vince has spent the better part of the time between seasons shooting on location. This season now focuses on Vince's bid to take on a coveted lead role in a new James Cameron movie. If he gets the part, he would soon be swimming superhero-style in Aquaman's green tights. In between his attempts to land the role, Vince buys a house (next door to Bob Saget, no less…) and he continues to hang out with the gang everywhere from a U2 concert to a comic book convention (the latter being especially funny when comparing it to the few I've been to). They even wind up hanging out at a Playboy Mansion party.

HBO's DVD offers up the full 14 episode run of the 2nd season, released just in time to bring in the premiere of season 3. The only disappointment is that there really isn’t much in the extra features department. Coming in at approximately 20 minutes is a series of interviews with the cast and crew done by Mark Wahlberg (who happens to be one of the show's producers). It's pretty entertaining, but I couldn’t help wishing for a little more.

The 2nd season DVD release of "Entourage", despite its shortage of features is still makes a worthwhile addition to any collection. The show is bitingly funny and takes some well deserved stabs at the Hollywood lifestyle. I plan on picking up a copy of the 1st season this weekend just to see for myself where the whole thing began. Bring on Season 3!

Episodes:
The Boys Are Back in Town
My Maserati Does 185
Aquamansion
An Offer Refused
Neighbors
Chinatown
The Sundance Kids
Oh, Mandy
I Love You, Too
The Bat Mitzvah
Blue Balls Lagoon
Good Morning Saigon
Exodus
The Abyss

Starring: Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Debi Mazar, Jeremy Piven
Extras: The Mark Wahlberg Sessions
Specifications: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound
Studio: HBO
Release Date: 6/6/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Entourage: Season 2 an A.