One New York Life

I mentioned at the beginning of the Entourage season that I was a little disappointed in the premiere and was hoping the rest of the season would get better. The entire Medellin arc of Season Four did a stunningly good job of killing off my interest in the series. The point at which Vince is dressed in a fat-suit with a fake moustache that wasn’t even on correctly is the amongst silliest thing I’ve ever seen — especially with the established idea that Billy Walsh is an insanely obsessive director. I understand the point was that too much had been going right for Vince and something had to knock him off the rails, but there was nothing about the Medillin arc that made it seem like a good idea. Eric was along with the rest of the audience saying “hey, you know, this seems bad.”

Unfortunately, the new season didn’t help. While I give them full credit for suddenly deciding to explore the idea that Vince is more a movie star than an actor (which was good), Entourage has an annoying habit of wrapping everything up far too quickly. The season finale was riiiiight on the border of being good. Adrian Grenier showed some emotion other than his standard “everything’s going to be cool, man.” He got frustrated, threw the phone, fired Eric for mis-managing his career (an excellent story point considering that Eric has generally made mostly the right calls managing Vince’s career and now self-important Vince was blaming Eric for his current mess), and seemed to have run out of options. It was a great way to end a season. A perfect last scene would have been Eric ignoring a phone call on his broken Blackberry from Vince, throwing it away, and getting in the car with his new client… symbolically leaving Vince behind. It would have been a great set-up for next season.

Instead, within the next ten minutes, all of that was resolved. All of the “Vince isn’t a good actor” stuff was thrown away by him getting the lead in a Martin Scorcese movie. He flew back to LA to re-hire Eric and we end the season with everything fine and everything still going magically right for Vince and company. Turtle is somehow banging Meadow Soprano, Eric’s management company is heading in the right direction, Vince is getting the lead in Scorcese movie, and Drama is still just being annoying. And, really, a Scorcese movie? Because of Scorcese’s history in hiring mediocre actors to be the leads in his movies? You spend the entire season basically telling us that Vince is a pretty-boy and not much of an actor. You have the director of Smoke Jumpers tell us he’s not a very good actor. Then you send a few dailies to Martin Scorcese and he likes what he sees? It all felt really contrived and that they just wanted to get back to high-living and boobs next season.

So, unfortunately, I think the Entourage thing has run its course. It fell off the rails in Season Four because of a bad wheel. Then they tried to put it up on the track, almost had it, but then forgot to fix the same wheel.

Thursday
Tennessee Titans -11 at Detroit Lions: It remains to be seen whether or not the loss to the Jets will start a division losing free-fall or if the Titans bounce right back. If you had to bounce right back, this is the right team to come out and abuse Titans cover.

Seattle Seahawks +13 at Dallas Cowboys: Imagine that… Dallas crushes a bad team and their spreads go off the deep end. Never saw that coming. Seahawks +13.

Arizona Cardinals +3 at Philadelphia Eagles: So, let’s get this straight. The two “traditional” Thanksgiving games both have double-digit spreads. The one good game for the entire day is exiled to the NFL Network so no one is going to see it. Excellent job. I wonder how many homes nationwide will be staring at 15-inch laptop sitting on top of a 50-inch television on Thursday night. All that said, EVERYTHING except the short-week jet lag combined with, you know, ACTUAL jet lag says to pick the Cardinals here. But, the Cards haven’t won a game east of the Mississippi all year. Eagles cover.

Sunday

Denver Broncos +8.5 at New York Jets: After knocking off the league’s last undefeated team on the road, they come home to face a bad team in a rowdy Meadowlands? Anything less than 14 is a must take in this game. Jets cover.

San Francisco 49ers +7 at Buffalo Bills: I’m pretty sure the Bills are good enough to crush another bad team at home… especially considering the trend of west coast teams traveling east getting crushed. And rumors persist that West Coasters are 3% more manly. Pshaw. Bills cover.

New Orleans Saints +4.5 at Tampa Bay Bucs: Eesh. Well. The Saints need to win this game to have any chance at all at making the playoffs. A loss pretty much ends their season. A win takes them to half a game back because they’d be 2-0 against the Bucs. I think a full-strength Saints team is going to surprise a slightly over-rated Bucs team. Saints outright.

Carolina Panthers +3 at Green Bay Packers: The Packers have a decent defense that embarrassed themselves on national television this past Monday. The Panthers gave up almost 50 against an semi-good Falcons team. The tiebreak — the Panthers are a mediocre team that doesn’t beat other mediocre teams. Nice cold Sunday in Lambeau. The Packers open up the door for the Saints. Packers cover.

New York Giants -3 at Washington Redskins: I was hoping this would be one of those cases where they dropped an absurd spread on this game so I could still pick the Redskins and make up a game. The Giants can knock the Redskins out of the divisional race this week and, if the game against the Steelers was any indication, do it in front of a home crowd. Giants cover.

Miami Dolphis -7.5 at St. Louis Rams: I’m not taking the Rams with any less than 14 points the rest of the season. Dolphins cover.

Baltimore Ravens -6.5 at Cincinnati Bengals: I think this spread is based too much off their Week 1 match up. The Ravens have shown no indication that they’re going to do anything other then crush bad teams for the rest of the season. Really, the Ravens are playing in nothing but must-win games for the rest of the season and, fortunately for them, they SHOULD have a cream-puff here. Ravens cover.

Indianapolis Colts -3.5 at Cleveland Browns: The spread on this game is indicative of the Colts’ season. The Colts just knocked off the Chargers (again) and the Browns, at home, got knocked off by the lowly Texans by 10. One week later and we’re expecting the Browns to keep it close against a Colts team that’s got a wildcard in sight? Doubtful… especially since the Colts have a semi-decent runningback who will become a superstar against this Browns’ run defense. Colts cover.

Atlanta Falcons +4.5 at San Diego Chargers: Yoof. This is an absolute, without a doubt, MUST win game for the Chargers. At 4-7, their only path to the playoffs is the division. The Broncos are playing a game in the Meadowlands that they will almost certainly lose. If the Chargers don’t pick up a game this week, their season is pretty much over. The problem with this: with the Bucs playing a tough game against the Saints and the Panthers playing a tough game against the Packers — A win here could move them in to a tie for the division. I think the Falcons go in to this stadium and make a statement. I think Michael Turner has a “how do you like me now” game. Falcons outright.

Pittsburgh Steelers +1 at New England Patriots: So, the Patriots play the Jets to a draw and crush Miami and suddenly they’re a favorite with arguably the best team in the conference? Steelers outright.

Kansas City Chiefs +3 at Oakland Raiders: 8-8. Playoffs. Book it. Done. Raiders (gasp) cover.

Chicago Bears +3.5 at Minnesota Vikings: Both teams are coming off big wins against bad teams. Both teams are in must-win situations to stay in the playoff hunt. Last time they played, neither team showed any indication that they could stop the other. So, really, we’re just deciding who wins the coin toss here. I’ll give the Vikings the home nod. Vikings cover.

Monday
Jacksonville Jaguars +3.5 at Houston Texans: Jeez guys. Seriously? At best, this would have been a late-season division squash. At worst, it’s this. One of the rare Monday night games that I probably won’t even turn on. We’ll give the nod to the Texans simply because they’re home and the Jaguars seem to be content to mail the rest of this season in. Texans cover.

Five Good Spreads

5 points – Saints +4.5 over Bucs
4 points – Eagles -3 over Cardinals
3 points – Falcons +4.5 over Chargers
2 points – Seahawks +13 over Cowboys
1 point – Giants -3 over Redskins