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Entourage

 (Series -- HBO; Sun. April 8, 10 p.m.)

By BRIAN LOWRY

Kevin Connolly, left, and Adrian Grenier face the machinations of Jeremy Piven's agent in HBO's 'Entourage,' which returns for a new season on Sunday.

Filmed in Los Angeles by Leverage and Closest to the Hole Prods. Executive producers, Mark Wahlberg, Doug Ellin, Stephen Levinson; co-executive producers, Marc Abrams, Mike Benson, Rob Weiss, Julian Farino; supervising producer, Denis Biggs; producers, Wayne Carmona, Brian Burns, Lori Jo Nemhauser; director, Farino; writer, Ellen.
 
Vince - Adrian Grenier
Eric - Kevin Connolly
Drama - Kevin Dillon
Turtle - Jerry Ferrara
Ari - Jeremy Piven
Shauna - Debi Mazar
Mrs. Ari - Perrey Reeves
Lloyd - Rex Lee
Sloan - Emmanuelle Chriqui
Amanda - Carla Gugino
 

Our little "Entourage" has grown up. Oh sure, it's still a glossy, lighter-than-air vision of Hollywood -- the program most likely to win an Emmy for "best extras casting" if there was one. But the show has added welcome depth in capturing the industry's machinations -- expanding beyond the central quartet of rising star Vincent Chase and his trio of hangers-on and actually developing some intriguing women, once hardly more than props to be photographed from knees to neck. Already HBO's "buzz" show within the biz, the continuing third season appears the creative charm for this zero-calories half-hour.

With Vince (Adrian Grenier) having fired his agent, Ari (the frenetic Jeremy Piven), when we last left, the new batch of episodes opens with the fallout from that decision. For starters, Vince has a savvy new rep in Amanda (guest Carla Gugino), while Ari is so distraught over having lost one of his favorite clients that he actually begins to exhibit signs of a (gasp) conscience.

Once again, the conflict hinges on what project Vince will do next, with the actor and his buddy-manager Eric (Kevin Connolly) still harboring hope of landing the gritty drug drama they've been chasing for two years, "Medellin," while Amanda pushes them toward an Edith Wharton adaptation.

Vince's brother Johnny (Kevin Dillon), a k a Drama, also continues his stumble toward primetime in a new Ed Burns series, and there's an increasingly poignant aspect to his struggle to stay in the game, even if his antics and those of sidekick Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) are invariably played for chuckles.

More than the plot, "Entourage" relies on getting the details right -- from the awkwardness of an encounter in dueling courtside Lakers seats to the casual Hollywood name-dropping to the hot restaurants, clubs and bimbo-garnished events frequented by the group.

Still, the series has grown richer by expanding from the "Vince gets his buddies laid" motif to mine more intriguing relationships, including the professional tug of war between Amanda and Ari for Vince's loyalty as well as Ari's banter with his patient-but-firm wife (Perrey Reeves). The latter is showcased in hilarious fashion -- a rarity for a show that's seldom laugh-out-loud funny -- in the fifth episode, guest starring Adam Goldberg, when she seeks to confiscate Ari's phone as Yom Kippur observances risk interfering with a deal that's perilously close to going south.

"Entourage" still has its own "oy vey" moments (an upcoming Pauly Shore cameo comes to mind), but it's increasingly deserving of the inordinate attention it's already received thanks to its cachet in all the right ZIP codes. And while the show's producers have chafed at Variety reviews in the past -- prompting a sequence filmed for later this season where the Dillon character chews out the paper's fictional critic -- as Ari would say, let's hug it out, bitch.

Camera, Rob Sweeney; editor, Gregg Featherman; production designer, Naomi Slodki; casting, Sheila Jaffe, Georgianne Walken. Running time: 30 MIN.