You Gotta Watch...

Man Vs. Wild

With Bear Grylls

Certain individuals exist in today's society that are a special breed of insane. This breed does not include standard issue craziness such as frantically talking to yourself or putting peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in your pockets. The type of insanity I am referring to transcends these base-level, novice crazy-person habits and enters a realm in which people deliberately throw themselves through the ice of a sub-zero frozen lake in Antarctica, or drink the blood that's pouring from the freshly slit throat of a reindeer they've tied to a tree. It's the type of lunacy that encompasses feasting on the carcass of a dead zebra that has just been ravaged by a pack of lions, or drinking the water you manage to squeeze out of a fresh ball of elephant dung. These individuals exist, and luckily for us, one of them has his own TV show on the Discovery Channel.

Man vs Wild with Bear Grylls is one of the most sick, twisted and unbelievably addicting programs I have ever come across in my 23 years of television watching, and it just keeps getting better. Every week Grylls plunges himself into the depths of a different nightmare situation, whether it be stranded in the middle of the Sahara Dessert, wading through the putrid swamplands of Scotland, or sliding down gargantuan vines next to a waterfall in the Amazon, Bear is always knee deep in the shit.

Some controversy arose when the media got wind that Grylls had apparently stayed in a hotel on a night when he was supposed to be sleeping atop the jagged face of the Sierra Nevada mountains. People felt betrayed, duped and disappointed. But considering earlier that day Mr. Grylls pulled a three foot salmon from a stream with his bare hands, and then ripped its spine out with his teeth, I'm willing to overlook the fact that he grabbed a shower at a Motel 8.

Entourage

After the disaster that was Season 5, I tuned in to HBO this past Sunday at 10:30 in hopes of seeing Entourage, a potentially excellent television series, do something to redeem itself. I wasn't wholly let down.

The Season 6 premier was entertaining and succeeded at regenerating some sort of interest in the goings on of the characters. Vince appears to be back on top (with an ominous hint of 'maybe not for long'), Turtle is still participating in a strangely reciprocated romance with Jamie Lynn Sigler, E is still a son (which I suppose is to be expected and shouldn't detract from the enjoyment of viewing) and Drama now owns a bar, which he delightfully named after himself.

I noted several aesthetic changes to the show, mostly regarding wardrobe. Ari's tie-knots have slimmed down from the bulbous mass of fabric he sported in the first 5 seasons to a more stylish, subdued, but still commanding double-windsor. And as always, there are scant words to describe the amazingness of the suit he was wearing. E seems to be dressing like less of a herb (presumably due to the several pounds he seems to have lost) while Vince continues to look dressed by someone slightly smarter than him. Drama and Turtle are doing more of the same. (It should be noted that Turtle, too, has lost a significant amount of weight).

The problem with the show is not the plotline or the characters (well, maybe it's some of the characters). The problem is the writing. With the exception of Ari Gold and Johnny Drama, there is this ongoing, seemingly inescapable mundacity buried at the heart of everyone's lines. There is no fire. It is important to come to terms with the fact that, aside from the bad writing, Adrian Grenier is a pitiful actor. He is bland, unconvincing and overly rehearsed. E, still, is just a son.

The first episode was not as bad as I thought it might be, maybe it was even good, but we'll see what happens.