Wow! Okay, first comes NeNe doing the ditcheroo. That was just mind-boggling.
Here’s how I see NeNe - she sees herself as a no-nonsense, no pretense, confident woman, not bowing to anyone. But she still managed to do exactly what Star wanted.
First she blows up at LaToya. Then she keeps blasting not only Star for being bossy, but the rest of her team for not having the balls to stand up to Star (she didn’t say it that way, but it’s funnier). Of course all that does is alienate her from her team. Every time she went on a rant about Star being bossy and nobody being willing to stand up to her, she wasn’t making herself look strong, she was making the rest of her team annoyed with her - especially Marlee.
So then they get in the boardroom after the Hotel ad disaster, and Star manipulates NeNe like a maestro. Poor NeNe, she’s given the perfect opportunity to axe Star, and she bungles it and does exactly what Star wanted and tells Trump to cut LaToya. I know LaToya was overall weak on things, and Star had more to offer, but from a gamesmanship standpoint the best call for NeNe would have been to blame the whole fiasco on Star and her leadership. After all, it was Star’s ideas, Star’s heavy management, Star’s assignment of tasks, Star’s graphics, and Star’s presentation method that all cummulatively spelled F-A-I-L. It was Star harping on NeNe and Hope for the photo shoot that led to oversights like the champaigne bottle being closed and the towel being visible - there was no time to scrutinize the set or the pictures. (Of course this is also where experience shows. A trained photo editor would have known to look at those kinds of details.)
But instead of standing up and telling Trump that it was Star’s management that caused the loss, she opted to kick off the weak player LaToya. Maybe she expected losing the weakest player would allow Star’s assets to assist the next PM, but it was not the best strategy.
But then she got mad because she did exactly like Star wanted, and she felt like she was forced into cutting LaToya just after she and LaToya had fixed their differences. So she was angry, but really I think she was angry with herself for going along with Star and letting Star manipulate her. And that’s what caused the tirade in front of Trump - misdirected anger at her own weakness pointed and vented at the one who was pulling her strings. And that explosion weakened her position with the rest of her team again, and lead to their failure on that task.
So once again NeNe and Star are in the boardroom, this time with Hope. And once again, NeNe misses the strategic opportunity to offer up Star. Sure, there was less grounds this time - Star didn’t actually fail at any task and contributed a lot to the product, but still it was a chance. But she didn’t. Maybe it was better in this instance because Star had a stronger position on this task that NeNe did, so best was to offer up Hope. And Hope really was the one to go, she couldn’t even defend herself.
But once again NeNe is all worked up at Star and still angry with Star’s manipulations and escapes and her own inability to be who she thinks she is. So when Star won’t meet to “talk through their differences”, she can’t resolve her own … what’s the term? Cognative dissonance. So they go to the board room, and Trump realizes they are still at odds, so he swaps NeNe and Meatloaf. Now that should have solved the problem if it was just NeNe and Star being unable to work together. But the real issue was NeNe being upset at herself for thinking she’s independent but being trapped by Star’s manipulations. So here is “Star being coddled” by Trump - nevermind that there’s two in that conflict and she’s being “coddled” just as much.
So instead of celebrating being against Star and doing her best to help Backbone win and thereby show up Star, she storms off, disappears, and walks out. LOSER!
The worst part is the effect that has on everyone else. Because of her drama, Trump busted up the Men’s collaboration, and thrust Meatloaf in with Marlee and Star. And that means the smooth men’s team got dealt a blow, which should have been offset by having NeNe and LaToya to overwhelm by numbers. But instead NeNe bailed, and the men had to adjust to not having Meatloaf. And Meatloaf meanwhile was ASAP’s PM, and brought his contributions and efforts to their team.
So one could argue the reason Backbone lost was because of Trump’s decision to split the team, and NeNe’s sabotage by leaving. So Backbone lost, despite Meatloaf’s near breakdown over the fear of losing the contributions for his charity.
Which was the problem - he was calling up Painted Turtle donors and getting them to throw in their Painted Turtle earmarked funds on the gamble that ASAP would win. When he realized what he was doing, it nearly crippled him. Fortunately Marlee and Star stepped up, and also when the actual stage time came, he pulled it together like a champ.
I thought the Tracy Morgan bit was weak, and thought Backbone had a better presentation, but it all came down to money, and ASAP did that better. So Meatloaf was off the hook, though he probably should have been fired for his emotional breakdown.
And that’s how we get the two “Jonz” against Mealoaf-Marlee-Star. Now it’s time for the OnStar commercial.
No doubt the men had a better concept of the message and a better execution overall. I tried to watch the execs’ faces during the commercials to see what they were thinking. I saw the guy grimace when the lady was in the car without the seatbelt, but missed the seatbelt myself so didn’t know what he was negative about. And I saw them blanche at the Meatloaf as a cop wanting donuts.
The two flaws in Backbone’s was the lack of a seat belt by the “driver” and Lil’ Jon’s overacting. Still it was much better as a concept. Lil’ Jon was interesting, he was so laid back while they were rushing to get the editing done. It ended up working pretty good.
But ASAP missed the whole point of the promo - the product is now avialable to be installed in any car. It wasn’t emphasized enough. So how did they screw up? Lack of communication, lack of management. Meatloaf was doing a concept for the commercial presentation, emphasizing OnStar as a product and tying it together with a joke and an amusing conclusion where they all meet up. It wasn’t a bad idea, but I can see why the OnStar execs felt the joke about cops and donuts was the wrong slant for their product. But Meatloaf thought he was providing a context, a framework, and that Star was supposed to provide all the content regarding the actual product and such. But Star apparently expected Meatloaf as the creative one to tell her what to say, so she kept asking for a script. And that’s Marlee’s fault. Meatloaf was trying to tell Star the framework, and Star kept asking for direction on what she was to say. Marlee should have stepped in and directed Star to come up with her own script, or helped her write one and reviewed it with her. Like she did with the cue cards.
So ASAP fell down because they didn’t have good interteam communcation, and Marlee as PM let the team not function together. I can accept that she let Meatloaf create the ideas, that’s appropriate delegation, but she should have managed the overall script, the transition between the two elements. They described the poor discussion of the product of OnStar in a box as a branding issue.
I thought Marlee was actually the weakest of the three there, but Star tried to point the finger at Meatloaf because of it being his creative idea, and he kept stressing his role was the framework, and it was Star’s role to provide her own content for the “branding”. Marlee stayed out of that argument, and thus kept her head off the block.
Then there was that argument while waiting for the boardroom. I can understand Star’s point about the remark, calling her “Sweetie” in the context of arguing their respective roles, and how that dismisses her as a woman. It’s exactly the same reaction John Rich had to being called “boy” - excuse me, “c’boy”. Just because we have a culture that places endearments on women doesn’t mean it is appropriate to use them in a professional setting (which CA pretends to be). I think her point was valid, but Trump is a stodgy old man who didn’t see it that way. And I really think that colored his decision to fire Star. I thought Marlee would end up on the block, but because of the fireworks, Star drew the attention on to her and they characterized the miss on selling the product (aftermarket OnStar) as “branding” instead of the PM’s job of overseeing the project and ensuring the final product was correct. So Star got fired. Which is okay by me.
You said it. I came in to this show not knowing him at all, and if you said “Country music star” I probably would have grimaced. But he continues to show me his character and impress me with his efforts. I’m rooting for him to win.
I think Lil’ Jon has done admirably in a lot of ways, but I think he doesn’t quite match John Rich. I’m not sure who is better between Marlee and Meatloaf, but I suspect the call is going to be Marlee stays and Meatloaf gets sent home. His emotionalism hampers him, and his creativity needs a leash.
[QUOTE=Munch]
And I forgot to add yesterday: Jim Cramer?!? Is being publicly seen being buddy-buddy with Jim Cramer the most hilarious thing a potential presidential candidate could do?
[/QUOTE]
Who is Jim Cramer, and why is that funny?
