Entourage: Let's Blog It Out

By Mark La Monica

Encased by the snide facial expressions, the self-esteem-destroying comments and the cursing mini-monologues is the softer side of talent agent Ari Gold.

The man talks hard and fast in the office, at the club and on the cell, but at home, his wife rules. Known simply as Mrs. Ari (played by Perrey Reeves), she seems to be the only one that can put a dent in Ari's armored facade.

In the first two seasons of HBO's "Entourage," we saw very few glimpses into the private life of Mr. and Mrs. Ari Gold. We knew he had a few daughters and a very impressive house.

As with all successful television shows, each season brings new story lines. Otherwise, it's the same old, same old and the viewing public will eventually change the channel. Yes, it's true even for a show this good. If there's no character development, there's no show development and no show development means no audience development which means no ratings development which means no marketing development.

Humanizing Ari Gold this season has been a terrific development for the show's growth. He's still that crass, obnoxious jerk at work, but then he comes home and deals with real life. And when he does bring work home with him, the family dynamic is still there. It's not unlike what made "The Sopranos" such appealing television in its first few seasons.

Episode 5 this season (officially, it's Episode 27: Guys and Doll) beautifully illustrated this dichotomy. He didn't want his 14-year-old daughter to date tween actor and next door neighbor Max Ballard. So, he sacrificed his own client (Jimmy Whitaker) and made sure Ballard got a movie role that sent him to Kazakhstan for 24 weeks.

Sure, his daughter wasn't happy about it, but she doesn't know how the deal went down. Ari was just trying to protect his first-born child from a world she doesn't yet understand. Fatherly instinct.

We got a chance to see how fatherhood affects Ari in this episode. When his daughter asked to go on a boat trip with "the math club," he knew she was lying (he has a spy in the house). She asked how he knew it was Max, not the math club.

"A father always knows when his daughter is lying to him," he said. "It's heartbreaking."

From there, you could see he was emotionally affected by the thought of his little girl growing up. How else can we explain his being so nice to Turtle and Drama and agreeing to be their agent. This might have been the most underrated startling moment of the show's three-year history.

Human Ari Gold is pretty cool. Now, let's hug it out, get drunk with Russell Crowe and head-butt some kangaroos.