March 27, 2006

"The Apprentice."

Was it a little dull tonight without Brent to kick around?

Another make-a-commercial task. I'm tired of that. And for a cruise ship! Ugh! Don't you detest cruise ships? Trying to make them appealing? I'm against it.

And that diamonds reward? We can't tell you how much this stash is worth, but it's more than $100 million. Now, hold these diamonds in tweezers so they can slip out and fall on the floor. That's entertaining. The Apprenti are told to pick a diamond to keep, and we get to see one woman decide that bigger is better, but we never hear whether she really did pick the most valuable one. So what was that all about? Just: diamonds are expensive! And this is a show about expensive stuff, so why not diamonds?

20 comments:

Unknown said...

I think cruises are acceptable if the number of people on the boat is less than 30.

esk said...

It is dull without the Brent's of the world... at least on American Idol we still have Bucky to kick around.

I'd just like to know how Lenny all of a sudden got on Trump's bad side. Sure he may have come up with the concept for the commercial, but, everyone else agreed to it.

MadisonMan said...

Cruises have bad press, what with killer fires lately, sickness outbreaks last year, sinkings. The idea of a cruise is appealing. The execution is certainly lacking. Maybe that's why it was chosen -- it's difficult to sell.

Even with all the bad cruise press, though, I'd love to cross the pond on the QEII.

Was there a diamond commercial tonight too? A nice little tie-in to diamonds on the show?

Laura Reynolds said...

Some good conflicts get lesser attention so they can keep the "sponsors" happy. Diamonds in a vault, whoopee! Give me the cash.

Lenny was right about the voice over issue, I'm not sure why Trump was so obsessed about the idea even Dan agreed it was a team decision to go with it. I suspect its a drama build up device.

Guesst said...

I did love how Tarek kept fretting about Lee's chatting with Bill and Carolyn. Why?

Note: Andrea Lake, the sticker, tshirt and Internet multimillionairess, has a site that is rather annoying because it's all about her without any substance (maybe she is without any, as she seems a little dull and self-absorbed). Her site may have clues about who the finalists will be.

Why was it wrong for StacyJ's team to fabricate lies about her craziness (they cattily convinced Trump to dump her)--but where is our outrage in Brent's defense? He wasn't pretty or thin like StacyJ, but he had freaky hair like she did, and he was very right to point out his team discriminated against him because of size and appearance, and hers discriminated against her because of appearance and nonconformity. Trump condones such behavior time and again-he's weak like that, and we watch the show as much to see his flaws as the contestants.

Ann Althouse said...

Madisonman: "The idea of a cruise is appealing."

No, it isn't. They'd like to plant a positive idea in your head. Don't fall for it.

I could only see the value of a cruise if it was passing along a scenic coast -- fjords, for example. To just be out on the open sea, trapped in -- essentially -- a hotel? Would you go to a city, hole up in a hotel and never go outside? No! No hotel is that good. A cruise is worse, because you don't even have the option to get out. It's like going to a city to stay in a hotel and agreeing in advance that you aren't allowed to leave it. Self-imprisonment!

I wouldn't go on a cruise if it was free. I would go if you paid me, but I would require $200 a day.

Ann Althouse said...

I'm assuming there would be internet access, and the experience would provide material for blogging. (And let me add that I adore David Foster Wallace's essay "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." I note that Wallace aligns with MadisonMan, accepting the premise that a cruise seems as though it should be good. With that, I disagree. I should note that I am utterly uninterested in sunbathing and I don't merely loathe exposing myself to the sun, I loathe exposing myself to people who are exposing themselves to the sun. Why not just stay in bed all day -- and drink a mild poison?)

Jim Gust said...

I was skeptical about cruises also, but then my folks decided to take all of their descendants on one--let's spend the kids inheritance!

It was far better than I expected. There are plenty of opportunities to leave the boat, for a reasonably wide range of activities, from passive guided sightseeing to something active, in our case sport fishing and hiking. For those who would like to travel, but who don't have the wherewithal to be their own tour director, a cruise can be very worthwhile.

And for those who enjoy eating, especially mass quantities of food, the cruise has additional attractions.

The big negative on our cruise was that the advertised internet connections were actually only available 40% of the time.

Susan said...

I think the tasks have become repetative and boring, too. Here's my idea for one:

Assign the teams a task and then have the show's staff go behind the teams back and mess everything up. Like cause things not to be delivered or outside suppliers to do things wrong. The real test would then be not how well the teams accomplish the task, but how well the players react under pressure when everything was going wrong.

Of course, the show could only pull this off once. But I think it would be fun.

Douglas Hoffer said...

I couldn't get over Andrea's pettiness. Roxanne mentions that she thought Tammy was a better project manager than Andrea in the boardroom. Andrea then spends the whole episode trying to undermine and sabotage Roxanne.

Beau said...

One thing for sure. No Apprenti should ever mention being a member of mensa. Seems to be a red flag for Trump. He beat that to death last night only to skip over firing Tarek so that he'll have someone to rag on next week.

Ricardo said...

The benefit of a cruise is that you can unpack, and at that point they bring all the sightseeing to you. You don't have to keep packing and unpacking, going to airports, dealing with security issues, and tiring yourself out with the transfers. Instead, you can dress casually, enjoy terrific food, catch up on that pile of to-be-read books that have been sitting in your living room, and still see five or ten new places by just doing the day-excursions. The ones in the Mediterranean are fabulous, and will show you the interplay of some of the great "cultures" in history.

And isn't it time for a post about whether Mensa really means anything in the world of decision-making?

Freeman Hunt said...

It was dull. They should show Lenny more. If Trump fires him, the show will be dead boring.

I agree with the anti-cruise-ists. It's like the picnic thing a while back. Why does everyone want to go on these?

I would go on one to see pretty scenery along a coast, but to just cruise around the ocean? It stirs instinctual discomforts with both too open (ocean) and too confining (boat) spaces. Not good.

Ann Althouse said...

Ricardo: "The benefit of a cruise is that you can unpack, and at that point they bring all the sightseeing to you. You don't have to keep packing and unpacking, going to airports, dealing with security issues, and tiring yourself out with the transfers."

I say: pick a place, go there, and stay there. Next vacation, go somewhere else. And get there by plane, train, or car. Do not get on a boat of any kind. Hopping around Caribbean islands? What's the point? Just pick one.

LoafingOaf said...

Yeah, this week's show was weak. Lenny's still the best. I would've fired Tarek since the cruise line people cited his mistake, he's done poorly on past tasks, and he generally seems like a phony.

TOTALLY agree with Ann on cruises. Yeah, sure, I wanna sit by a hellishly over-crowded pool burning my Swedish skin all day, trapped in a floating hotel prison where they charge you for every move you make, only getting to leave the ship with a herd of tourists at locations you have just a couple hours to explore, and trying to sleep in a closet-sized cabin with paper-thin walls with the noises of moaning honeymooners all around me...or, if I were the one getting lucky, having to think of all the pervs listening in from neighboring cabins.....

Never been on a cruise, but that's how I imagine it.

I don't really like going to resorts, either.

Ricardo said...

"Do not get on a boat of any kind. Hopping around Caribbean islands? What's the point? Just pick one."

Hmmm. We're going to have to explore this dislike of boats a little further. Is this a childhood thing (boats bumping into you in the bathtub and scarring you emotionally for life), or does it come down to a fear of water, which can take us in a whole number of Freudian directions?

Ann Althouse said...

"We're going to have to explore this dislike of boats a little further."

I hate being trapped in a confined space. I'm not claustrophobic, but I hate being deprived of the ability to leave, especially if I'm: 1. bored, or 2. exposed to excessive sunlight.

I don't like being enclosed in a plane either, but at least that is over quickly and you're not bullied to believe it's enjoyable.

Verification word: fufmwa. A reluctant blown kiss.

Ricardo said...

Well, I'm probably going to have to take you on a cruise, sometime. Something short, with a lot of shore-time excursions to keep you interested. But if what you've got is a "fear of entrapment", you need to nip that in the bud so it doesn't spill over to other areas of your life (e.g. fear of commitments, etc). Of course the real question is whether the connectivity is there, to allow blogging from sea.

Ann Althouse said...

Ricardo: "But if what you've got is a "fear of entrapment", you need to nip that in the bud so it doesn't spill over to other areas of your life..."

How do you know it's not my central organizing principle? I'm too old to be nipping anything in the bud.

Mike Barer said...

My first cruise is this summer and we are excited. To me it seems like a good way to kick back and enjoy the trip. We won't be first class,l but we enjoy traveling.