I am – Hercules!!




Notes on tonight’s generally sluggish installment of HBO’s “Entourage,” the first since Thanksgiving:

* Never mind all that business last season about Vincent Chase struggling to land and hold a supporting part on a terrible Jason Patric firefighting film; Martin Scorsese’s remake of “The Great Gatsby” has put Chase back on top and his entourage back together in his sprawling Los Angeles mansion.

* Jerry Ferrera, who plays Turtle, has lost a load of weight since last season. This may owe to Jamie Lynn Sigler, now part of the cast and still girlfriend to both Turtle and Ferrera.

* Kevin Dillon’s character, Johnny Drama, spends most of the episode offscreen.

* Focus shifts instead to manager Eric Murphy as he contemplates getting his own place when ex Sloan finds him an extraordinary opportunity.

* Ari’s old colleague, Andrew Klein (Gary Cole), is now fully embedded and thriving as a TV agent at Miller Gold, but Ari’s gaysian assistant of three years (Rex Lee) is feeling left behind. This plot is the episode’s strongest, as Ari takes stock of Lloyd’s frustration and works out how to deal with it.

* Less compelling this week is New Yorker Chase, who finally has to trot down to the DMV to get a driver’s license for his new movie about Enzo Ferrari.

* Debi Mazar, long ago (and still) deleted from the opening titles in favor of Perrey Reeves and Rex Lee, is back tonight as Chase’s publicist, Shawna, walking him through a “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” appearance. This is one of two oddly anachronistic bits of business this episode, the other being this Ari Gold exclamation: “‘My Name Is Earl’ is now a member of the Miller Gold Family!”

Great news if the episode is set in 2007, but NBC cancelled “Earl” less than a month before Conan O’Brien took over “Tonight.”

10:30 p.m. Sunday. HBO.

Follow Herc on Twitter!

Season Eight: Volume Five!!

DVD!!

Blu-ray!!