Entourage – The Complete Sixth Season (HBO Blu-ray + DVD) + Curb Your Enthusiasm – The Complete Seventh Season (HBO DVD)

 

Picture: B/B-/B-     Sound: B/B-/B-     Extras: B-     Episodes: B+

 

 

I have said it before and I will say it again, HBO makes great series.  Now respectively in their Sixth and Seventh Seasons Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm have wowed audiences time and time again with their great brand of humor and sophisticated writing style.  Whereas Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage have very different approaches to comedy and entertainment they still manage to engage audiences each week in their own way.

 

Entourage – The Complete Sixth Season introduces us to a new Vince as he is back at the top of his game.  Vince has just gotten done starring in the big hit Gatsby and is now preparing to be in a biopic about race car driver and car manufacturer Enzo Ferrari.  Preparatio for Vince, however, seems to be relaxing pool side while his friends are left to run amuck.  Turtle is still dating Jamie-Lynn Sigler, but with dreams of owning his own business starts college and finds himself in a love struggle.  Eric this season ventures out on his own and goes to work for veteran manager Murray Berenson (played by George Segal), but like Turtle finds himself pulled between two women when he gets involved with neighbor Ashley, but finds he still has feelings for ex Sloan.  Trouble arises on Drama’s TV series Five Towns after some sexually explicit words are exchanged about Turtles’ girl Jamie-Lynn, which in the end (with a little help from Ari) prompts a life change for Drama.  Ari has a productive season himself as he tests the strength of his staff and has a lucrative business opportunity that just may make him the most powerful manager in Hollywood.  The season caps off with Vince and Drama traveling around Rome awaiting the start of Vince’s Ferrari film.

 

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Seventh Season is extraordinary.  Just when you think the series can’t get any better Larry David pulls more tricks out of his magically narcotic bag.  The entire season was advertised as the return of Seinfeld (or as close as you were going to get), but this season is so much more.  It continues to emphasize the awkward happenings of Larry David’s life that persistently plague him. Seinfeld may have been one element to the season, but it is Larry David who makes it amazing.  The hilariously paranoid David is constantly analyzing situations to the point of self destruction, fueling the events of the series.  This time around Larry is persuaded to take part in the Seinfeld reunion by his ex-wife Cheryl (Sheryl Hines) who has become an actress, but sadly it doesn’t seem to be making the two any closer.  The season goes in Larry’s normal downward spiral of social awkwardness, nearly destroying everything he has worked for and ostracizing himself completely.  The season is amazing and only proves that Larry David is a comic genius that keeps you laughing from beginning to end.

 

The DVD of both Curb and Entourage are in line with previous releases of the series, but the Blu-ray of Entourage is a big upgrade.  The picture is a 1080p AVC encoded image that has a few issues, but overall looks nice with clean, crisp image and vivid colors.  The bright Hollywood backdrop is rendered perfectly, but the darker scenes don’t fair so well and a bit of grain remains throughout.  I understand that a degree of intended in originally filming the episodes, but it can get to the point of hindering the High Def image.  The sound is well done in its DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1 track that heavily comes from the front as it is a dialogue driven series, but surrounds are also utilized for music, ambient noise and solid directionality.

 

The extras on Entourage include 3 very interesting audio commentaries (No More Drama, Scared Straight, Give a Little Bit) as the series’ stars arrive to give input on the filming and tid bits of trivia straight from the set.  Other extras include Life on Top (essentially a Season Six ‘making of’), A Day at the Speedway featurette that is 3 quick minutes of the cast racing Ferraris, ONEXONE PSA which is an awesome 3 minute scene of Matt Damon (playing himself) directing Vince in a charity PSA that goes slightly of course as Ari steps in.

 

The DVDs of both Curb and Entourage is comparable to the Blu-ray release of Entourage but merely a step down.  The picture on both series is a 16 X 9 image that does not have the same pop or color of the Blu-ray and is a bit heavier on the grain.  The sound on the series is a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound that comes heavily from the front, but retains the liveliness of the series.  Overall, both the picture and sound are consistent with older seasons and fair quite well.  Whereas the HBO Blu-ray series are tops the DVDs aren’t far off and remain very dynamic.

 

Curb’s extras include “Seinfeld Reunion: It Could Only Happen on Curb” is a short promo for the Seventh Season, “A Seinfeld Moment on Curb” is a short featurette that shows how it all came together and the inspiration behind it all, “Rebuilding All the Sets” shows exactly what it says as the original Seinfeld sets are pulled from the warehouses and finally “Larry David as George Constanza.”

 

Both series are absolutely amazing.  Entourage is like one giant story that we keep getting an additional chapter on, whereas Curb Your Enthusiasm is a trip into Larry David’s insanity.  Each has its own merits and own style that make for great and future classic series.

 

 

-   Michael P. Dougherty II