MAYBE THE HYPE WAS INEVITABLE. When HBO aired the final episode of Sex and the City two years ago, the network lost its chief serial attraction to the coveted 18-34 demographic. Sex and the City was a Beautiful People show, glamorizing a Cosmo-drenched lifestyle of chic clubs and eateries and designer clothes. It was easy to dismiss as vacuous and decadent. But it also blended humor with heart. No doubt many viewers tuned in as much for the touching friendships as for Carrie’s latest pair of $400 stilettos.

Is Entourage just Sex and the City for guys? It premiered on HBO a few months after Sarah Jessica Parker and company bid their farewell. Like Sex and the City, it is built around four friends who dine at expensive restaurants, down plenty of booze, and hobnob with the rich, famous, and gorgeous. (These four reside in L.A., not New York.) The similarities don’t end there. The female leads on Sex and the City often spoke of men in the most vulgar terms imaginable. The male leads on Entourage won’t soon win a Feminist Majority Foundation grant for their sexual commentary. But if Sex and the City had been just a vapid celebration of sybarites, it would never have attracted such widespread popularity. Likewise, if Entourage had been simply a weekly carnival of Hollywood hedonism, it would have been fun but wholly forgettable. And at times during the first season, it veered dangerously close to such self-indulgence.