The new season starts tomorrow – and I, for one, am psyched. Yep, read the cover story in Entertainment Weekly; yep, been to the website; yep, watching the promos – but, let’s face it, it’s gonna take a couple of weeks for us to be able to start sorting these folks out. There are so many of them, and so many of them are, well, white. And whitebread.
Someone mentioned in another thread being concerned that all the product placement stuff could be a bad thing for the show – I’m not sure, I think the possibility of the teams doing actual business projects could be interesting. Let’s face it, the flea market task last time was a little cheesy, as was the “manage a bar for a single night” one. This show is all about capitalism – how could the “purity” of it be tainted?
The other main thing of interest to me is how the dynamics of the game will change because of the players having seen Season One. Richard Hatch in some ways “created” the game of Survivor by the way he played the first season – what will be the same, what will be different now that the players have a clue? For one thing, it seems clear that the women’s team won’t be playing the slut card quite so much – but in terms of individual strategy, how do you think that will go? Will it be about staying out of the board room? The current Survivor promo has one player saying “I’m not gonna be a leader, because leaders gets targeted.” That strategy won’t work for Apprentice – or will it?
Thoughts, anyone? Predictions? Giddy dances of joy?
In many ways, I see The Apprentice as the anti-Survivor. Strategies like forming voting alliances and staying off the radar simply doesn’t work.
Although staying off the radar keeps you from being eliminated early, eventually you have to demonstrate some level of competence or you’re “fired”. I enjoy this aspect of the show, because it bothers me when no-talents like Tina, Vecepia, Jenna, and Amber with by riding the coattails of others.
A good first episode, I thought – a couple of characters standing out (Raj, Maria, Stacy), a sense of team dynamics, an interesting task. I liked the switching of the team leaders.
Of course, with these mob scene tasks, it’s hard to tell what’s really going on – was Rob really such a slacker? What were the tasks being done that he was waiting to be assigned one of? It seems like there was team brainstorming at the beginning, and after that the Mattel people took over – what was everyone else “doing” that he wasn’t?
Felt sorry for Rob – gotta be hard, being the first one gone. I wonder if it would have mattered if he had just told Trump: “They were doing fine without me taking a larger role; I didn’t want to jump in just to be jumping in.” Which is sorta what Rob had said earlier. I could have told him the “I’m underutilized” ploy wouldn’t work; that’ll get you fired anywhere.
Pamela needs to learn some manners, but putdowns pass for wit these days. Carolyn jumped on her pretty good, hope she took it to heart.
Stacie J. – the dancing around and “Let’s go see if we won” stuff made me wonder about her mental state.
I like the woman with the short short dark hair, and the dark-haired woman who was watching Donald eat so she’d know which fork to use.
Too early to tell if there’ll be an Omarosa. [insert the ward off evil sign]
Sigh. I’m beginning to get tired of having to wade through the first few episodes of any reality series. They’re always the same - no one (including us) know who any of the contestants are or what they’re like…it’s just a big mess, with the occasional obligatory interview where people blow their first impressions all out of proportion (“Eh, he made a joke! Who would want to work for someone like THAT?!”)
If we could just jump straight into the middle, knowing everybody, that’d be great. These first few weeks are the price you have to pay to get into a good show later.
I hate Bradford. I cannot stand him, not one bit. I want to punch him right in the mouth.
And I didn’t watch last season, so I don’t know who Omarosa is.
Stacie J. - Anyone notice, right after Bradford (I hate his name, even) told her to “chill out”, they did this slow motion effect of her turning her head? She looked freaked out. Psychotic maybe. Perhaps on an amphetamine of some kind, I don’t know. But she scares me. And that magic 8 ball thing was weird. She just creeped me out all over.
“Professional” does not mean shooting your boss what could very easily be mistaken for “googly eyes” during dinner. I eat shrimp with my fingers anyway. WTH? Maybe it’s because I’m not rich. Speaking of not being rich, I saw Paris Hilton on The View today and she said the only people who eat cavier are “wannabes” – apparently she has a new book out with tips to look like you have a million bucks even if you don’t. Not eating cavier is one of them, so that part in the show cracked me up.
Also, I don’t know who it was, but the guy that was drinking the Dom Perignon straight from the bottle ought to have his lips severed. But maybe that’s just me. Ahhh… this is a fun show. At least Trump isn’t doing that weird “You’re FIRED!” thing with is hand anymore.
Omarosa was the consumate passive-aggressive uber-bitch. She was delusional, living in a made-up world consisting of herself and all these two-legged things that kept getting in her way. She was above any sort of manual or clerical labor, but rather than say so, she merely did so, accepting whatever task she was assigned with a gracious but forced smile — and then immediately forgetting about it, leaving it for the little people to worry over. A speck of dust fell on her head at a construction site, and she called it a “concussion”, milking the incident for every gram of its usefulness. She accused a team-member of calling her “the N word” during an incident that fortunately was taped, so there was proof that she was wrong. She contributed practically nothing, complained every step of the way, fancied herself to be the Queen of Sheba, and was oblivious to anything and anyone around her. She was temperamental, vain, petty, arrogant, abusive, and clueless. She was a pathological liar who made up stories, cried fake tears, and neglected her responsibilities. And she was beautiful.
Yeah, I was pretty weirded out by that. If I had been the Donald, I would have wanted to turn to her and say, “WHAT???”
Didn’t it look like his hand/arm was kind of twitching a little? Like it was just killing him not to use it. I know I noticed this when he was telling Team Mosiac that he’d really missed using those words, but maybe it was less noticeable during the actual firing.
I agree—too many whitebread lookalikes right now. I have to assume that that’s why Raj is trying to set himself apart with his wardrobe and walking stick, but I already want to smash him.
And thanks, lorene for reminding me about the names. Mosaic?! Did Trump laugh, or was that just me? And Apex? They make electronics, right? I had an Apex DVD player a few years ago. I hope no one gets sued.
I don’t like Pamela too much either. It was pretty clear that not everyone was excited about the name when “Mr. Trump” (I hate that, too. It sounds smarmy.) asked if they’d like to change it. Raj (?) even said so, didn’t he? But no, Pamela couldn’t keep her mouth shut and Mosaic it is. Poor guys. Plus she looks bitchy, even though it’s probably just some hard-ass, hotshot facade so people will feel intimidated by her.
I don’t feel bad for Rob (I thought it was Bob) at all. First of all, his eel idea sucked. Then in the board room, when everyone was “picking on him” (boo hoo, dude), his reactions were totally immature. And then, to top it all off, he gives the lamest, most 2nd grade excuse ever: “She didn’t tell me what to do!!” PSA for ya, buddy. You’re being interviewed to run a company. If people have to tell you what you’re supposed to be doing, clearly you aren’t cut out for the job.
Bradford (kill you!) still gets the bulk of my hate though. For now, anyway.
Stacey J. has definitely been cast as this season’s psycho, as her “they’ve stopped laughing politely at my stupid jokes and they’re eating their dinners…Oh, no, they’re plotting against me!” performance would indicate. I wish when she was doing that “we won, let’s go!” bit, someone would have said, “Go where? Do what? We sit here till we’re called, now eat something!”
I knew Rob was getting the axe the minute they started complaining that he hadn’t done anything. It seemed too contrived. Just because he hadn’t come up with a better idea? Once the idea was chosen, there wasn’t a whole lot for anyone to do, it seemed.
I thought Pamela would get more grief for her snarky comments about the kid’s hair, and for her general “chip on my shoulder” attitude when The Donald criticized the men for their lack of traditional manners in not pulling out her chair in the boardroom. If those things are important to The Donald, she had better be a bit more gracious, and the guys had better be more alert to those situations. I don’t think she’s very comfortable in her own skin.
He didn’t get fired for being a slacker. He was fired for presenting himself as “not having enough to do” and “not being delegated enough tasks”. Whether he actually did more or less than anyone else is irrelevant. Donald is looking for people who take charge, not people who sit back and wait to be handed stuff to do.
The instant he said that, he was dead meat. The other two - the chick and the dude, I can’t remember their names - had significant weaknesses (she’s a bitch and he’s inexperienced) but you can work around those; at least they tried. Someone who complains about not being given something to do is going to be right in The Donald’s crosshairs. If you’re not going to take initiative, why did you show up?
And Jesus, these people whine. Maybe it’s editing, but I wouldn’t say the things they say. “Waaahhhh, I wasn’t used enough. Wahhhhhh, it’s not my fault. Wahhhhhh, I stubbed my toe.” Here’s the only acceptable answer: “We lost. I believe I am the best candidate but this week my team got beaten. I will learn from this defeat and it will make me an even better candidate than I already am.”
Bow ties – what about Charles Osgood? Charles Kurault? ummmmm… Dave Garroway?
I dunno, I gotta love a guy who’s going to wear two-tone wingtips and red pants for his first appearance. I think he’s crazy like a fox – unlike Stacie J., who’s just crazy.
Last night’s boardroom featured one person who got fired and two others who aren’t long for the world. Pamela will be fired soon because she’s abrasive and is already suspected of not respecting her customers. Carolyn was quite pissed off at her both as a parent and as someone who understands that respecting your customers is essential to business success. If the kid survives to the later rounds, he will be fired for pretty much the same reason Troy was - because he doesn’t have the credibility to head up a company.
Still, who wants to work in the Mattel prototype-building department? That looks so cool!
Still, watching Stacie J was like watching a cheerleader at a game where the team is down by 30 points and isn’t coming back, so no one really gives a rats ass anymore, but the cheerleaders still have to cheer. Except it wasn’t high school. And they were all adults. And wearing business suits. And sitting in the Mattel offices, not in the bleachers at a football game. And she didn’t notice the difference between the two situations. It was just freakish.
I didn’t like the editing this time. I don’t think they showed us enough of the assignment…after a while, it was obvious that they were told to design not just a toy, but a toy for a small boy (which changes things) and while we saw the women throw out horrible ideas - we didn’t see any good ideas (though the end idea was obviously not Bradford’s). And they were obviously doing something after the prototype was built, (otherwise what else could Rob have been “assigned to do,” and what more could the project leaders have told them?) but we don’t really know what that was supposed to be. I would rather have seen more of that and less bonding.
smeghead, you’re right – we weren’t introduced to these people. I missed the first few episodes of the first season, but in reruns I saw that each of the candidates had given a short intro speech. It would have been nice to hear what they think of themselves.
Also, what happened with Bradford’s original idea? Wasn’t his idea a car that runs around sucking up little footballs? I remember that he stopped the team’s discussion, made his “executive decision” to go with his idea, but the toy they ended up with was a remote-control car with interchangeable parts.
Maybe there was some further discussion that was edited out. ??
