The Apprentice "The Last Supper"
Nothing to see here, please move on... Seriously though, this series is beginning to drag.
Note: This article includes information from the extended scenes on apprentice.yahoo.com.
After the previous episodes, this one was a bit of an anticlimax, but objectivelly, still a very difficult task. As usual, the men just seemed more "functional" all around than the women. They fell in line with their tasks, and stayed focused on the work.
The women have a greater fear of each other than of actually screwing up the tasks that they're being given. Elizabeth seemed to sum up the sentiment of all the women when she said "I really feel like I'm being set up to fail." Nobody cares whether or not they actually do well at their task, all they care about is how they appear to be doing at their task, and whether or not it will lead to a board room firing.
Actually, I feel bad for Elizabeth. Not only was she harshly rediculed by the team, but by The Donald as well, and now has to live with these same people. Then she was working on less than two hours of sleep. No wonder she had a bit of a breakdown. She was feeling like her situation was out of her control, and she wasn't even being given the tools (a proper night's sleep) to handle it.
Amongst the women, and I've felt this since day 1, the only one who impresses me is Jennifer M. Based entirely on her interview comments to the camera, she stays focused on the task, and criticizes others for straying. It will be interesting to see what happens when she's chosen as project manager.
So far, all the women project managers, including Bradford when he renounced his immunity, said that the women just can't keep it together, and that a lot of the problems they have aren't from a lack of leadership, but because they're just out of control as a group. Bradford said it, Ivana said it about Stacie J. and maybe one or two others, Elizabeth said it, and now Jennifer C. said it, not only about Stacy R. (it's disruptive people like you who ruin this team, or something like that), and about the team in general. In her cab ride, she said she'd never met a more lying, backstabbing, catty group of people in her life.
In light of this, each project manager's decisions seem to make a bit more sense. Ivana was trying to do the opposite of what Bradford did. Elizabeth expected a certain level of independance, perhaps trying to cut down on the group interactions, and Jennifer C. was trying to make fast decisions and move quickly. "I want to keep things simple." She also said something about needing to appear like a strong leader, because if she didn't "our team has a tendancy to spiral into chaos."
I think the restaurants were a perfect reflection of what's different between the women's team and the men's team. The women tried too hard trying to impress you. Sandy did a great job with decor (she owns a bridal shop), but it - as Carolyn pointed out - was too upscale for the neighborhood.
This is the same neighborhood that Rocco DiSpirito's restaurant (of
"The Restaurant') is in. In fact his restaurant's official name is Rocco's 22nd Street, and the women's restaurant was on 20th Street. In fact, the women were warned by Zagats that Asian Fusion would be hard to pull off, and that customers find it a bit confusing.
Simple things are easy to execute, and Asian Fusion cuisine is not all that easy to do well. If you were trying to create a very sophisticated Haute Cuisine restaurant, you probably should've started marinating things two days ago.
The men kept it more down to earth. Rather than dressing in suits, they had t-shirts made with their restaurant's logo on it. They made up for their lack of serving ability with good humor and a genuine caring about the customer. "We were just stoked that they were there." Andy readily admitted that he was a poor server, but that wasn't what was important. They understood and acknowledged this weakness, and even at times played it up. Raj pointed out that they shouldn't be nervous, because if you're nervous, then the customer will treat you a certain way, so you have to be comfortable, so the customer can be comfortable.
Amongst the men, it's kind of hard to tell right now because so little focus falls on them each episode. From the start John impressed me with what he said, which was directed at the task and not any internal problems they may have been having. Andy is very creative, but it's yet to be seen how he is as a leader, or if he, as Pamela said, still has to develop his "business gut." Kelly was very strong as a leader, and I'm sure his military training did very well for him. Raj seems pretty stable, but he seems to have the ability to make himself believe anything, if that makes any sense. Once he reaches a certain intellectual point of view, he tends to stick with it. Chris.. I don't see him being much of a contender at this point, not after tonight's open (expletive deleted) display of contempt for his customers.
Product placement wise, this was a slow episode. Rather than Mattel and the Q. E. II, it was Zagats and Rudy Guiliani (promoting his new book on leadership - what, you think he has all that great advice at his fingertips all the time?), but both displaced a little by what was actually going on - the restaurant launch, and Rudy's appearance on the show (and no mention of his book).
Sandy spent a lot of time with Jennifer C. trying to convince her to keep her out of the boardroom. Sandy, though a sophisticated use of logic, managed to make Jennifer C. believe that - despite the fact that the poorest score was in decor - it would be in Jennifer C.'s best interest not to bring her in to the boardroom, because Jennifer C. really did like the decor, no matter what the Zagats survey said, and to bring her in to the boardroom just to defend her, would make her look weak.
So Jennifer C. fell for it, and when it came time to name names, Sandy named Jennifer as who should be fired, and even then, Jennifer C. didn't bring her in to the boardroom.
Despite the evidence of the last two episodes (now a full 50% of the season) it should be obvious that if you can quantify something, more than anything else, that's where you should place the blame, unless you can get the rest of the team to back up your story that someone is "crazy."
All in all, while the task was pretty big, this episode was an anticlimax. The challenges they're being given seem to be all the same. Even next week's episode where they have to sell products on QVC seems like more of the same. Set things up, and then it's sales, sales, sales.
The formula for every episode so far has been "Decide on a ___, and sell it." It's really about time they switched gears and did some negotiating, or bought something. Even the lessons being "learned" are repetitive. Leadership is this, leadership is that.
Bill's cameo was also less than interesting. More than anything else, it seemed like he was trying to fit in and make a good impression with his new boss. It's too bad too, because I was really looking foward to seeing him in action again, but I guess that wouldn't have been fair to the contestants.
page first created on Thursday, September 30, 2004
© Mark Wieczorek