Harmless fun or bro culture gone bad? Why we’re still talking about Entourage

It’s been just over 20 years since Entourage premiered on HBO, yeah-yeah-ing its way into the TV landscape.

Back in 2004, HBO was still basking in the glow that came from the “golden age of television”, producing shows like The Sopranos, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, The Wire and Curb Your Enthusiasm. But Entourage was different to all of these. Created by Doug Ellin and executive produced by Mark Wahlberg (on whose career and social circle it was very loosely based), it was brash, flashy and hedonistic.

Jeremy Pevin, Mark Wahlberg, Adrian Grenier, Jerry Ferrara, Doug Ellin, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon attend the New York premiere of the third season of Entourage.

“We defied expectations from the get-go,” recalls creator Doug Ellin, who is back on the promo circuit following the show’s 20th anniversary. “HBO didn’t have high hopes for us, and suddenly we’re the hottest show in the world.”

The series centres on a hot young movie star, Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), his three oldest friends – Turtle, Drama and Eric – and high-powered agent Ari Gold as they navigate superstardom.

Depending on who you ask, it was either a satire on the business of show business, complete with maniacal agents and eye-watering movie deals, or it was something simpler: wish fulfilment for teenage boys whose fantasy in life was to be famous and hang out with their friends. Oh, and a bunch of girls in bikinis.

The 20th anniversary of Entourage has triggered a re-evaluation of the show’s legacy.

The show wrapped in 2011, followed by a largely forgettable film in 2015, and the series has since become a lightning rod for debate. Countless think pieces have argued that Entourage was misogynistic and problematic; the onscreen embodiment of “boys will be boys”.

But when the show started, the only thing it seemed to attract was buzz. Ahead of the premiere, The New York Times declared that “nothing on network television is as smart, original and amusing as Entourage”, while Entertainment Weekly described it as “excellent, dirty fun”.

The love-in continued in 2006 when Carolyn Strauss, then-president of HBO Entertainment, called Entourage the “future of the network”. And a few years later, President Obama name-checked it as his favourite show.

“Ari Gold was based on Ari Emanuel, who is the most powerful agent in Hollywood, and Emanuel’s brother is Rahm, who was Obama’s chief of staff,” says Ellin. “So yeah, Obama loved the show.”

Ellin is joining me on a Zoom call from his home office in Los Angeles. These days, he is predominantly a podcaster, having hosted the successful Entourage companion podcast Victory and Is That Something You Might Be Interested In?, which sees him discuss his experiences in the industry.

But Entourage’s 20th anniversary has triggered a natural reflection for Ellin and a desire to defend the show’s legacy against what he sees as “idiotic revisionism”: “It annoys me that people think we were just tits and ass; that’s not a fair summation.”

“Writers today are far more educated, entitled and elite than I was, and that’s good for them, but Entourage was about four working-class guys who grew up similar to how I grew up and what happens to them when they make it to Hollywood: they party, they hang out, they have sex with beautiful women.”

Ellin on the set of Entourage. The writer and creator won a Peabody Award in 2009 for his work on the show.

Ellin concedes not everything has aged well: “Watching a character like Ari Gold back can be tough, but that’s only because you can’t get away with speaking like that to people anymore,” he says.

“But did agents at places like CAA [Creative Artists Agency] or WMA [William Morris Agency] talk like that? Absolutely.”

One part of the show’s legacy that is not up for debate is how acutely Entourage foreshadowed where Hollywood was headed. Long before studios became obsessed with big-budget superhero films, the series had a season-long arc about Vince landing the lead in a James Cameron version of Aquaman.

“When I wrote it, Aquaman sounded like the stupidest movie of all time and then all of a sudden, we’re living in this era of superhero films,” says Ellin. “I hated superhero films then, and I still hate them now.”

As prescient as it may have been about the future of the industry, it’s difficult to imagine Entourage receiving a reboot given the show’s complicated position in the landscape. Not that Ellin is prepared to close the door.

“There’s not even 1 per cent of me that doesn’t think these guys can exist in the world today, and if anything, it’s more interesting now,” says Ellin.

“I have a lot of celebrity friends, and there are differences in how they have to conduct themselves nowadays. You can’t get away with anything, you never know when a camera is on you, or who you can trust – but don’t hold your breath, I think that idea is finished.”

If Entourage taught us anything, it’s that a deal is never really dead. Just don’t expect Ellin to give his show the And Just Like That treatment.

“I don’t even like to use the word woke, but that show is pandering and it’s garbage. It has no authenticity to it,” says Ellin. “I’d rather not go back than go forward with something like that.”

Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at [e-mail] or follow him on Instagram at @thomasalexandermitchell and on Twitter @_thmitchell.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.