I watched both and noticed that as well. Want another coincidence? They both weren't very good. I dare say that Entourage, while for some reason watchable, is one of the worst written shows. Hell, I imagine How I Met Your Mother is better written. That odd, contrived phone call when Drama finds out his show is a hit? Terrible. Every time I finish watching an episode I kind of shrug and forget about it. It's jsut not very good.

The Sopranos, since somewhere in season 3, has slowly declined, much like Uncle Junior. Now, while there are moments I love, mostly the show just makes me sad because it used to be so good. The opening of this episode was great. And Tony's reaction throughout was amazing. But they forgot how to juggle characters in this show. He just goes to Vegas for a while? Okay. At least it wasn't as bad as when he suddenly got a gambling problem two episodes ago.

maybe jennifer connelly will guest star on both shows and gaze wistfully out over the ocean.

"Worst written shows" -- on HBO? On TV? Have you seen a network sitcom before? And if you meant HBO, did you see Lucky Louie or Arli$$?

Entourage is popcorn fluff, but it's pretty much always enjoyable while viewing. I forget about them after I view them as well, but it's a light comedy, and I'm not expecting much more. Sort of the same way I approached Sex and the City.

"The Sopranos since somewhere in season 3, has slowly declined." Disagree here as well, since that would mean that the current season is worse than the last three, which is not the case. The current episodes are nearly as good as Sopranos has been since season 2 or 3. I agree with you about Chase's inability to juggle characters and plot lines, although it's unfair to compare everything to The Wire. The Sopranos has pretty much always been an episode-oriented show, with thematic elements running through seasons rather than elaborate stories. That's just how it is.

Lastly, in context, the gambling problem wasn't really "sudden." It was a direct offshoot of Tony losing his best earner at the end of the last mini-season, and him coping with his financial strains by gambling (which he has always been into).

i like to imagine a laugh track when i watch entourage. the timing in the performances, repeated punchlines, and reaction shots seem to indicate one should be there.

another connection between the sopranos and entourage episodes: both contained cast members from newsies.

Indeed. I wish it was the Newsies characters who were lifting their fists above the desert.

Both episodes had car accidents.

This is a fun game.

No, The Sopranos has slowly been declining. it is not on any sort of rise that I can see. Just because stuff is finally happening (and is it really?) doesn't mean it's good. I actually prefered the gay Vito story last year to this year. This show has been on life support for years and all of us are standing around, waiting for it to die, so we can all move on. It has its moments, but dear god does it go nowhere these days. Yeah, it was always bit episodic, but every episode used to be a fine, woven story, like a fancy suit. Now, all we get are bolts of cloth. Nice cloth sure, but it's still just a piece of cloth. And that gambling crap came out of nowhere and then went away. That whole episode just smelt of Chase wasting my time, trying to fill out the episode order for HBO. I am so tired of stories on how the Sopranos is the greatest TV drama in the history of the world. It's not. It was great, it got alzhiemers, it shat and pissed itself for years, every so often showing us blips of greatness which makes it all the more tragic, and now it's time to euthanize it.

As for Entourage, Sex and the City was so much better written than this show. This show is creaky as hell. What was with that old crappy trope when Ari's frat friend comes for a visit? Every line every character says is so stilted and dumb, especially when the friends "rib" or "needle" each other.

And yes, I do watch network sitcoms. Some of my favorite shows on TV are network sitcoms. What was Seinfeld, The Office, Arrested Development? Even the shows I don't like, My Name is Earl, for example, is a better written show than Entourage AND has more laughs. And the actors are terrible as well. if not for Ari or Drama it is nearly unwatchable.

it is time we stop giving HBO a free pass because they are HBO. Entourage is not very good, Sopranos is a shell of itself, Big Love is lackluster and it is so transparent that it was picked up as HBO's Desperate Housewives, Lucky Louie was one of the worst shows on TV period, as bad as Fox sitcom crap. Bring on Milch's new show and The Wire 5 and Curb and then we'll see what HBO has to offer.

Sex and the City was better than Entourage, but I think you are selectively forgetting Carrie's one-liners and awful puns. Here's how I see it: if Entourage is enjoyable to watch, then it's written well enough. Plus, there's the brilliant acting of Turtle. Can't wait to see him in the "Gardener of Eden." (jk)

I liked Vito's story as well, and that's exactly my point. This last season has been better overall than the show's mediocre middle seasons. The show is indeed going somewhere right now, even if it's not being played out in the stereotypical "mob war" style. I'm kind of intrigued by Tony's character in the past year, including his apparent god complex at the end of last night's episode.

Entourge is definitely declining. There used to be a sort of glee to the show that is missing now. Part of it may be that the show started off, season one, with Vincent just starting to become big and with his friends as hangers-on. Now, he's huge, Eric is savvy, Turtle is a music producer, and Drama is on a hit show. It's less of a struggle and I think the writers are having a hard time both in making us care about their problems and in keeping their interactions with each other fresh.

Sex and the City managed to stay on for so many seasons (and arguably keeping quality up) by giving its characters real problems to deal with, aside from fluffy dating woes: breast cancer, infertility, out-of-wedlock baby, etc. The writing was far better and you, you know, sort of cared about the characters.

Lucky Louie is the worst thing I have ever seen on television. By far. It was astonishngly, insultingly, miserably bad.