The only reality contest show that I think has a comparable reveal of character is American Idol, and I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it this season. I've lived through three seasons and it's enough for now. I had high hopes for Bo, but after that roller coaster I'm thinking no one will ever be a cooler Idol than Fantasia. She still has yet to make that awesomely legit post-Idol album, but she's got the uniqueness and raw talent to make good on the promise. "Get out there and get ugly," she advised when asked by the Idol finalists last year, right after getting out on the floor and getting uglier than Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, and Janis Joplin combined. Right on, Fantasia, Idol's 1st single mom champion.
What keeps me coming back to The Apprentice is that there's a legitimate business lesson a week, acted out as morality play. Other folks I know in business, I mean any kind of business, often find it appealing the same way.
What's given the show legs is that supposedly The Donald took a more active hand in the selection process after the third season (almost all losers) and starting last season the 18-person candidate pool has overall been much better. They still throw in the time-bomb characters, but there appear to be 4 or 5 hirable contestants this year, more and more likeable as well.
I believe Season 1 pioneer Apprentice Bill Rancic will always be the topdog. Of any candidate I've seen, even in retrospect Bill seems the most all-together, and he's being heavily featured this season subbing for George as advisor. Bill had one or two guest advisor shots last season, but he evidently passed his screen test and is increasingly vocal; very, very tough in the boardroom and even during the tasks. He and Caroline are now like advance dogs for Donald, an elegant, attractive, sadistic duo out of a really excellent Fassbinder film, maybe Chinese Roulette.
The truly astonishing thing about Bill, and you know the producers see it because they shoot him in profile all the time, is how much he resembles Montgomery Clift.
After the first commercial on every show there's a title card with the business lesson of the week, then Trump addressing the camera on the topic intercut with stagy bits of him supposedly acting out the theme in real-life business. Often the business lesson you really learn is either off of the stated theme (which will then act as a kind of "B" theme) or it's much more compelling than you'd think from that introductory sequence. In any case, it's for real, because there is always a losing team and someone on that team is always fired. Sometimes more than one -- we've seen up to four at once (last season -- very funny squished into the exit cab together at the ep's end).
There's a lot of ritual to the show's format, and it gets especially juicy once the boardroom begins, the dramatic clock-tick music, the meeting at night, the jeopardy. As the cast shrinks we're heavy with the survivors, the ones we've taken a kinder to, the ones we're looking to fall. The falls now, when they come, can be epic. Thanks to the improved casting, our rooting interest is much higher than in, say, the first season, where it ended up being so much about Omarossa, happily playing the villain.
To anyone following or ready to jump in for this season, I'm liking Allie (a lot), Sean (and those two are looking like an item), Roxanne (if she proves it with another win as Project Manager), and am okay with Andrea if she stops being a Harryhausen blue eye-beam stone creature come to marauding life.
As for The Donald, he's blow-dried and self-important, but he's also a Mogul of the People. He's not afraid to say what he thinks New York style, he looks comfortable and genuine when he kisses the little African-American girl dying of cancer, he emphasizes corporate citizen charity over many episodes, and he makes fun of his own hair.
Most of all, he's made a show that, especially as the season hones down, is probably more made-for-adults as any competitive reality series on the air. The Ohio Players sing "Money" over the opening title and we read, "It's just business."
Yep. That's why I dig it.
4 comments:
Every time I watch the apprentice, it seems like the contestants are getting more event planning and public relations experience than actual business training. I guess working in Excel doesn't make for good television.
Ha!
That's true, it's evolved into so much about marketing.
However, the mechanics of leading a team to victory remain pertinent.
What a great site, how do you build such a cool site, its excellent.
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Your are Nice. And so is your site! Maybe you need some more pictures. Will return in the near future.
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