Oh wow did I think that was a stupid firiing!
[spoiler]How could Martha NOT fire Jim? He was awful – obnoxious, belligerent, tasteless, loud. The customers were literally complaining about him.
This was the first time I haven’t agreed with Martha’s choice. Jennifer was ineffectual but she didn’t deserve to go. I hope Mr. I-Left-My-Pregnant-Wife-and-Newborn daughter to-go-on-a-Realty-Show is gone ASAP. [/spoiler]
I guess Martha wants to make sure we’ll watch the show at least one more time.
I have no words. I’m amazed that anyone on his team defended him. Had to be Survivor tactics – get rid of Jennifer, who might be real competition, because they know Jim can’t last much longer.
I think she sort of tacitly admitted that she was keeping Jim around for enteratinment value. It’s not like he’s on track to win. They know he’s a psycho. The previews for next week seemed to telegraph that he’s going to get fired next week but that could be misdirection, of course.
Probably because they fear there are a lot of viewers like me.
Because the only reason I’m still watching is to see Jim get booted. As soon as he’s gone, so am I.
Forgot to add:
Much as I hate Jim, I agree with the decision to boot Jen. Jim apparently did a fine job with designing the label (as least no one said boo) and according to others on the team he made at least a fifth of the sales, regardless of how many he turned off.
Jen, otoh…outside of assigning the task of creating the dressing to the only chef on the team (duh) and the label creation to an ad manager (duh), what did she do? Clearly she wasn’t in control of her team during the sales part, or she would have reined Jim in. Even after she was TOLD about him being a problem that would ruin the entire task, she didn’t take action. If you can’t manage people, well, you can’t be a manager. The blame for their loss lies in her lap, IMHO.
Jim’s a wild man. Taking him off the sales task, when that’s what he does for a living, would have set him off. I don’t think he would have taken kindly to chopping crudites.
Jennifer didn’t defend herself very well though. She couldn’t make Martha see what a liability he was, and how much more product they might have sold if he hadn’t been so obnoxious.
I wouldn’t have bought anything from him, or any salesman using those tactics, not with that attitude. I want someone to feel grateful that I bought something from them. Jim would have us think we were lucky he deigned to sell to us. “No one can resist me! I’ll rule the world!!”
What could he have possibly done in response to being taken off selling that would be any worse than offending customers?
Jennifer was profoundly ineffectual, and deserved to go – as does Jim. Since neither can possibly win in the long run, I don’t think it makes a lot of difference what order she fires them in.
Plus, by leaving Jim in the mix, she gets to observe other people’s managerial skills – i.e., how the hell do they use him and yet control him?
The other odd thing – did anyone else notice how far down the table Martha’s daughter was sitting in the board – er, conference – room? Cigar boy was right next to her, and Alexis was about ten feet away. What’s that about?
I don’t think any of them can control Jim. He backed down when Howie responded to his challenge, but I can’t see anyone controlling him.
You’d think being picked last would have given him a clue.
I was pretty amazed how mouthy Jim was in the conference room. Just talking jibberish over everyone.
He clearly is crazy and he does not belong in big business. He’s like a little kid.
Unfortunatley he’s good for ratings…and I agree with the others who said Jennifer dropped the ball on “controlling” him and Martha will be using Jim to test others and get ratings at the same time.
I don’t know how much longer I can stand him, tho.
How obnoxious was that woman from the winning team who was literally putting the dressing in people’s shopping carts?
Question: Do you think Jim is actually that clueless and nuts, or is this some kind of reality-show-performance-art-shtick?
I seriously doubt Jim could have gotten as far as he claims to be in the business world pulling the stuff he has so far in the show. I would have to guess that he knows these antics are getting him airtime. He sure is doing a great job of selling himself as most likely to get the most airtiime each week.
I doubt that the producers do not encourage his craziness. I’m with everyone else, the only thing worse than Jim, is the thought of how boring this show will be without Jim.
I gotta wonder if it’s for camera angles. So they can get her reaction and the others without seeing cameras on either side. If you watch Trump’s Apprentice, you’ll notice that the returning members never sit directly across from Trump but more of at an angle further up the table but the illusion is that they’re directly across.
As for the show, I still don’t understand why David is there. Looking at his bio, it would seem he would be more apt for Trump’s show.
Yeah – but Carolyn and George are shown sitting directly next to Trump. It looked like there was room for three or four other people to be sitting between Alexis and Martha – really odd.
He probably applied to be on Trump’s show, and got fobbed off to the other because they needed men.
That was Leslie, wasn’t it? I didn’t like her last week, when she moved over to Matchstick. I think it’s the phony smile. She’s canny though. I can see her in the Final Four.
I’m pretty sure that she saw nothing of the footage from the store when she made that decision. That old coot on the panel was asking, “So what was your sales pitch?” Obviously they were in the dark about it at that point.
Remember this show has to have some feel of a real business situation.
Would those guys actually squabble like that if they thought Martha was watching them in real-time?
I bet when she saw the final editors cut she was as shocked by Jim as we were.
I agree with Pocelene. From what was said in the boardroom, it seemed like Jim did nothing more than sell too loudly. Why didn’t Jen tell Martha that he was talking about men’s sexual organs and saying the f-word? She’s a weenie, that’s why. It’s like Cigar said, there are no Jens in the organization.
It’s possible that Jen did share that information. Remember that the boardroom scenes are edited for brevity.
It would have been nice to see this issue raised in the boardroom, but it might have simply been cut out.
Howie and Jen (was that her name? this show needs more skinny brunettes like it needs asshole characters I care nothing about) really seemed like the only people who could stand up to Jim, and she did it without vague physical threats. If only she’d kept at it, I feel he would’ve broken down and cried. It would be nice to see Howie kick his ass though.
Maybe they edited out the part where Jim almost got fired but then took out a pic of his newborn (who, it seems, he has not actually seen in person since his wife gave birth. All that crap about needing to win for his family? Good plan, there. “Daddy’s gotta go on a reality show to keep the family afloat.” If he were less of a jerk, I’m sure he’d be sleeping with one of the female contestants. Or male. Whichever. Speaking of male-female relationships, the original Matchstick was like an abused girlfriend submitting to Jim’s putdowns. Then Primarius came in like a sassy best friend and opened their eyes-- Jim is clearly crazy. He’s a snake)
I was pretty shocked when I read David’s bio. Not that he worked in computers, but a Mensa member earning six figures? If I were him I’d print that on a shirt and wear it as pyjama. No, if I were him I’d be at home. Working. Why are half of these already-successful people even on the show? Is it just the whole fame bit (yawn)? 'cause with the ratings it’s getting, they won’t even be getting that.