Entourage: The Complete Second Season: A

HBO's flagship shows have gone. They have either sailed (Sex and The City, Six Feet Under) or are sailing (The Sopranoes enters it's last season next year), so they need something fresh and wonderful to let them keep their edge. In walks "Entourage", a show about a rising star in Hollywood and his three hangers-on/best friends. The show, which is currently airing in the middle of it's third season on HBO, has just been released on the second season for DVD and boy is it sweet. Where as the first season was not only short (only 8 episodes?!) you now realize just how shallow it was. This season opens with the guys back from New York where Vince (Adrien Grenier) was shooting "Queen's Boulevard", an indie directed by the mother of all crazy directors: Billy Walsh. With Vince, of course, are Eric (Kevin Connolly), now Vince's real manager, Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), who now runs the house and is still everybody's driver, and Vince's older brother Johnny "Drama" (Kevin Dillon, who has a famous sibling of his own), who is still trying desperately to make it big as a thirty-something actor. Vince's agent, the manic Ari Gold (played to volatile, sympathetic, and hilarious perfection by Jeremy Piven) is pushing a big blockbuster of a movie unto him directed by....James Cameron (who guest stars in several episodes playing himself)! Basically the whole 14-episode season is about Vince getting this movie and the hardships, suspense, and drama the result. That's right: this season this show officially becomes a dramedy (in addition to bringing back it's trademark celebrity cameos/guest spots and sharp scripts). The whole of the cast is amazing, and Debi Mazar (as Vince's publicist) is the perfect counter-balance to Ari. The dialogue and characters may irritate occasionally and the last two episodes are slightly inconsistent but these quibbles pale in comparison to the fact that this show is still perposterously enjoyable: there is finally a show to capture guys-being-guys and real friendship (other than Sex and The City), and have a heck of a time skewing all of Hollywood in the process. Go figure it would be on HBO.