Oh I agree with you there, but I have to admit I was noticing that he really does stick out like a sore thumb in that group. They’re all trim and fit and chic. When they were in wet suits the guys strutted and he had a sort of waddle.
I really hope he proves himself but the truth is that he just looks like a train wreck waiting to happen.
ronincyberpunk- he does stick out, and I’m sure it’s one of the reasons he was cast. The kid’s going down, and soon, but he’ll do it to himself. I think the best strategy for all of his teammates is to be nice to him, be as inclusive as possible, and let his incompetence do himself in. Right now they all have the integrity of bratty children, and I wouldn’t hire a single one of them for that reason.
That chick who broke into tears when he walked through the door is the biggest weasel of them all.
Well, ignoring his size and as they showed him last night, his eating. He isn’t easy to work with. Even if he was slim and trim, I’d have trouble working with him. It’s 2 weeks in a row he’s suggested they get personal massages for the event.
You’re exactly right they need to include him and work with him and let him hang himself. What they need to do is make a calculated gamble. They need to put him as PM and let him run the show. Do everything right, don’t sabotage him, and see if the plan fails. If it fails, he’s gone. If it succeeds he might just improve himself with Trump, but let’s face it - he’s got a really crappy chance of succeeding.
I really got tired of all the cheap shots they took at Brent with his eating. And eating. And eating. That was just the editors. Then there was Trump and his teammates with all the nastiness to him about his weight. The guy is a walking disaster totally ignoring his weight; they would have ample material without ever having to bring size into it, or show him and ONLY him eating all the time.
And I’m not even a member of the Fat Police. I just think they’re taking the cheap and easy tack of his size and not concentrating on his truly astonishing level of ineptitude. Frankly, I find that far more entertaining. Laughing at people because they act like idiots? Fun! Laughing at people because they’re still fat even though they’ve already lost over 100 pounds? Not funny.
Lenny keeps reading my mind and saying out loud what I’m thinking. Just as I was sitting there looking at what’s-her-name’s impressive collection of silicone, out comes Lenny with, “If only her brain were as big as her boobs.” THAT is why Trump loves him. He doesn’t hesitate to call it like it is, even when it’s less than tactful. And he can get away with it because he’s a workhorse. He keeps getting dragged into the boardroom on spurious reasons, and then ends up bonding more with Trump with all the wink-wink nudge-nudge over the, “Can you believe they keep dragging me in here for these stupid reasons?” The more they bring him in, the more his chances of staying till the end. Apparently none of the rest of them are bright enough to see that.
I forgot all about Brent having lost 100 lbs. face smack The editors are being extremely rough on him and with the preview for next week, it should be interesting.
It’s time we see Lenny lead the team, then we’ll see how well he does. He’s a work horse but can he delegate? That’s the question to me. He alienated a lot of his team this week with his anger at Theresa. He’s a work horse, but it may end up shooting himself in the foot when it comes to being the PM.
We shall see.
Do you really think so? I don’t think anyone was particularly impressed by Theresa, so she’d have no one to take offense at his getting pissed at her.
Well I should have carried that thought more. I think he alienated them by outbursting at Bryce as well as Lee & Dan. So it isn’t all of his team, but it is a chunk.
I almost think I agree with Dio on the religious days off thing. George taking off for the holiday? Of course that’s OK, he’s an established employee. People on a game show/job interview? That’s not exactly the same. They should have either given everyone the day off or not allowed the two guys to be absent. That was unfair to the rest of their team.
Then they shouldn’t have allowed Randal to take a day off to go to his grandmother’s funeral last season.
Ultimately, as Trump pointed out, people take religious holidays, convenient to others or not. And for most people who have a genuine religious faith, taking a holiday takes precedence over game shows. I remember Joe & Avi, contestants on The Amazing Race 6; Joe keeps kosher, and if he had had to do anything that crossed his boundaries regarding his religious beliefs, he’s stated they would have just had to accept being eliminated.
As Trump said, “That’s life. Deal with it.” I knew as soon as he pointed out that George was taking the holiday as well that he’d just shot down Lenny’s argument, which was kind of fun, seeing the sour face Lenny made. I’d love to play poker with Lenny; his every thought is writ large upon his countenance.
Lenny’s persona seems very much like Alla, our Russian from last season. They are both very assertive, no-nonsense people who point out incompetence when they see it, and are both focused on just getting the job done. Lenny has great potential, but his abrasiveness may eventually be his downfall.
But just once, I’d love to hear Lenny say “I’m going to kill that moose and squirrel!”
I agree that it was cheap and gratuitous to keep showing Brent eating, but didn’t he claim to have “invented his own diet” which allowed him to lose over 100 pounds? I guess that must be the “stack of bagels” diet.
Re: Lenny. I agree that he’s abrasive and not exactly warm but he’s also nobody’s Markus or Brent. He’s not stupid, he’s not lazy and he doesn’t sabotage tasks. He’s also completely guiless, I think. He doesn’t get involved in the ususal scheming and gamesmanship. He isn’t dishonest. He straight up with how he feels about people and isn’t looking to form alliances or throw undeserving people under the bus.
I think that part of his tension with the others is that he has a much more fundamentally basic work ethic than what is typical for this show. He doesn’t like sitting around talking or brainstorming. That feels like malingering to him (I’m not saying it necessarily IS malingering, just that I think Lenny perceives it that way). He strikes me as someone who doesn’t feel comfortable unless he’s actually out doing something hands on. He wants to get to it. and he doesn’t like wasting time on what he feels to be trivial details. For example, he was very impatient during the text messaging task about what particular word they should choose for their text message. He didn’t think it mattered what the word was because the task really wasn’t going to rise or fall on it. He was like, “just pick a word already, who cares what it is.” I think he was actually right about that. The specific word didn’t matter. He just wanted to get out on the street and get to it instead of spending a lot of time trying to be “creative” and clever with what was really an insignificant detail. I think Lenny would have been happy to chosse a random word from a dictionary.
Since a lot of these people love nothing more than the sound of their own voices and their imagined creativity, it rubs them the wrong way to hear a somewhat intimidating Russian guy telling them they should get off their asses and get to work. I don’t think Trump is going to see that as a negative, though. He’s looking to hire a manager after all.
Think of it this way, say you were to contract a construction crew to say…build a patio onto your house but you were going to be out of town during the construction. Who would you trust more to supervise the crew, Lenny or someone like Theresa. I think Lenny would be a hard ass about it, get it done early and get it done right. His crew might not love him but he would do what he was paid to do.
My wife said the same thing.
Lenny- yep. If he can lead his team to a victory in the coming weeks, he’s in the final 4.
At first I was a little put off by DtG’s repeated posts about the high holiday, but I’ve come around quite a bit. I would think that being on this show requires some sacrifice - you can’t go to Mass Sunday if you have a task, and I would expect that if an event took place on Christmas Day, Trump would look for those who worked on that day. Not that those who took the day off would be penalized, but those who stayed would get props.
The Randal thing is a little different. Your grandma passing away - once in a lifetime. Plus, Trump offered him the time off. I don’t know if that’s what happened with Lee and the other guy. As employees of course they would have those days off, but they’re not employees yet. They’re aspiring contestants on a game show. Lenny’s choice really screwed them up a bit. The personal sacrifice could come up later and give ol’ Len a boost.
I do think Lenny could have been a little more calculating - “I want to observe the holiday, and I’ve struggled with this, but I’ve decided I need to help my team.” But Lenny isn’t a nuance guy, is he? I loved how he was so nonchalant about the generator. He just wouldn’t hear the fact that it was his responsibility, and it seemed to work - he got Bryce (what a fuckin’ lunatic) to lose it while he just sat there all cool.
(Man)drea is a FUCKING loser. Crying jag after Brent returns? Bitch, please. Slightly redeemed for managing Brent and a pretty kick-ass task. Roxanne is her antithesis - I hope she goes all the way. She’s just so… NORMAL. Practical. Intelligent. We see glimpses of her here and there but she is playing this well - low-key and competitent.
Theresa was a waste of space as well. I hated Tarek from Day 1, and she actually had me flip-flop. Boobs aside, she was an idiot and a spineless leader. The horse-drawn carriage? WTF was that all about?
Actually, Lenny all but said in the boardroom, I should’ve taken the day off too. Like Brad, the first bootee of last season did, he put himself in a vulnerable position when it wasn’t expected. Trump almost jumped on him about it too. He agreed when Lenny admitted his idiocy of working when he had a valid excuse.
Funny guy that Trump.
I completely agree, this is probably why his restaurants do well. But the issue here is that this is big business. If he’s put in charge of construction for Trump then he’ll be excellent, but he can’t negotiate deals with partners etc.
We’ll see if his lack of polish hurts him or not, so far his intelligence and drive are keeping him ahead of the pack.
According to a report this morning from a friend whose mother works out at the same gym as one of the Apprenti’s mother, the show worked carefully with the guys to make sure no tasks fall on the Sabbath, have kosher food available for them, etc. So letting them off for the High Holy Days should not have come as a surprise to anyone, especially Lenny. I think he was just practicing the most common Appentice task of locating a scapegoat in advance to be able to pin failure on should they lose.
BTW, I thought that Lenny’s remark regarding Theresa’s ample upper body was classless and way out of line. It’s not the sort of thing that someone should utter when the cameras are on.
Unfortunately, The Donald has also demonstrated a similar lack of class, as evidenced by his remarks regarding Brent’s poundage.
I missed Lenny’s comments–what did he say? I just remember thinking “Wow. She’s got stripper boobs.” Then I lost what little respect I had for her when she started flirting with The Donald after doing a completely shitty job on the project. She should have been canned for hiring models to discuss the car with the dealers–very stupid move.
Lenny said something along the lines of: “If only her brains were as big as her boobs.”
Does the fact that she put 'em out there for the world to see mitigate your feelings about Lenny’s remarks? C’mon, he only sad what 99% of the people watching at home were thinking.