'Entourage' Return Crucial for HBO

摘要

Are we going to be OK? That's the big question established quickly in the upcoming fifth season of the Emmy-winning HBO comedy Entourage, as the central movie star character Vincent Chase and his dependents try to recover from their misfire film Medellin. But as the show returns Sept. 7, that question surrounds both it and its network, as well as the television industry in general. In the year since Entourage was in originals, a lot has happened at HBO. Despite several attempts, no new HBO series have drawn more than cult followings. This has left Entourage holding the mantle as HBO's highest-rated series on a network that once enjoyed the simultaneous brand-burnishing successes of The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Six Feet Under. In addition, the WGA strike delayed production on Entourage like so many other TV programs, and an entirely new regime was installed at HBO. Not to mention the economy slipped into a full-blown recession.