A Cast of Misfits Makes For Good TV
After my favorite reality television character of all time was fired from the Apprentice, I thought I was pretty done with Trump and Co (note: Trump uses the intro from the show on his website). He seemed to just make arbitrary decisions on who to fire and then Burnett and his cronies were working to edit the show to prove him right. The last season, much like the winner, was boring. It was with little interest that I noticed that Season 3 was coming up soon. What piqued my interest was that rather than the boring Male vs. Female competition that Mark Burnett must find so fascinating, they went with college grads vs. high school grads.
The first thing I noticed was that the casting was much better. Rather than just one Raj in a room full of drab, they went for some real characters! Two bow-tie wearers. It being only episode one, we only get to see a few of them, and Danny is the big focus. Yikes! This guy is a kook. Plus we have Mr. Big Brass Balls (Brian, a Trump suck-up) and John, who reminds me of a Vince Vaughn character and just naturally takes charge. If he doesn't fuck it up, I could see him winning.
So in Episode 1 we see Danny just blow it. Big time. Of course, Todd was the worst manager I've ever seen. "You guys are doing great!" What a patronizing jerk. He gets booted, but Danny is on the short list and Alex (who only had two people train on the POS systems) isn't too far behind. Trump made the right call. Todd effed up more than Danny and Alex. He isn't leadership material. Kendra won a lot of points by saying the real culprit was Todd and it was nice to see Carolyn notice that.
Trump proved he's a real asshole again with that whole "Oh Erin, you like to sue men right? Right? Tell me I'm right or I'm not going to listen because I'm a jerk!" Erin reminds me of Norelle from ANTM.
Trump says his book-smarts crew have degrees from some of the finest institutions in the country. I recognized about two of the universities listed (though one of them was helpfully labeled "prestigious Business Program")
Predictions:
Obviously Danny is out. Brian screwed up with that "is it true" suck up story at dinner. I don't think Trump is going to choose another white male, so Alex, Bren, Michael, Chris, and John aren't going to win. No way is Tana going to win, she lacks poise and sounds like a squawking bird. Erin was crying in the first episode, she can't take it. That leaves Kendra, Stephanie and Verna on the Magna team and Craig Audrey, Kristen, or Tara on Net Worth. We've only seen positive things from Kendra so far, so she's my leading pick. On the other hand, I think Mark Burnett knows that America wants to see Street Smarts beat Book Smarts.
It seems pretty obvious that the Book Smarts crew is not the most book smart. They aren't even close to the previous two seasons in terms of education.
The cast seems pretty good.
I think everyone is coming down to hard on Danny. I felt bad for him with everyone turning on him so quickly.
also, it must be said.....Norelle sorta looks like one Krystal South.
eep.
I liked Norelle.
nice review mike! that dood totally looks like vince vaughn. we couldn't stop talking about it. i think he has potential to win.
i didn't think it was weird that brian asked the donald about that story. i think donald loved the american public hearing it without him having to say it himself.
i was so pulling for danny to be interesting and smart but he's a complete freak. i thought it was interesting that donald said his clothing put him at a disadvantage, i would have liked to see him prove him wrong on that point alone. i wonder what danny's great businesses are that he runs.
sarah and i looked up what jonathan and victoria do from the amazing race, he owns a spa and she's a former playboy model....yikes!