The Apprentice – What’s too violent about a popcorn fight?

I’d been out of The Apprentice loop for a few weeks until a marathon catch-up this weekend. While I’m not completely surprised by what’s transpired since the premiere, I am a bit disappointed.

In week two the teams were tasked with selling ice cream. My longtime favorite Georgie was back as Trump’s “eyes and ears” alongside Don Don. With David the psycho leading the guys, I prayed for a men’s loss and some justice in the world.

While the men did lose, it was Alex who got cut, and only after Trump fake-fired Liza and she almost had a heart attack. Unlike Gene’s terrible prize of meeting with Trump himself in week one, winning project manager Poppy got to sit down with the CEO himself, Mr. Jack Welch.

Week three saw the two teams, helmed by James and Tyana, running canine hotel and spas — which were more like doggy day care centers. The big moment of the episode was an outburst by David during a meeting with the owner of the men’s doggy center. Whether James handled the matter correctly before and after benching David or not, David is an individual who simply does not belong in this competition.

I was sure that David would be seen as the [insert your adjective here] that he clearly is … unfortunately we’re not there quite yet. Instead we watched James get fired after the men lost the task, even as David deserved to go for oh so many reasons. So once again I’m forced to make one of my pointless statements, and christen David “Not-James,” because it’s James who deserves to still be playing the game.

This past week Clint and Mahsa squared off in a video guerrilla marketing competition. Each team attempted to create an event for Popcorn, Indiana. This time it was Tyana who was made out to be the disruptive villain … since she repeatedly attempted to warn her team that the commercial they’d created — and it would have been a good commercial — didn’t address the task they were given. The fact that she didn’t offer any other suggestions? Well, was she really given the chance to? I don’t think so.

The men, meanwhile, were spared the annoyance of Not-James when he broke his tooth on a bagel. I say good riddance, but Steuart’s reaction (see below for the quote) was ridiculous.

Obviously the men won this one. Even if the executives had hated their video, they at least did what they were asked to do. The fact that Mahsa couldn’t recognize that the women had failed to create a guerrilla video of an “event” should have been reason enough for her to go; her ownership of the entire task that failed should have just been icing on the cake.

Yet it was Tyana who we said goodbye to. I say bogus, and label Mahsa “Not-Tyana.” No way does she deserve a shot at the win, even if it is a completely fake job.

Clint’s prize was awesome — meeting Steve Forbes! Will he get a subscription to Forbes magazine in lieu of a $10,000 gift card to Calvin Klein?

“If I had broken my tooth off, I would have still stuck around. He could have gone to the dentist the next day. If you’re only missing half a tooth, so be it. Respect the team and get the job done.” – Steuart on Not-James, after the latter left the team following a dental emergency

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Oct 10, 2010 @ 16:00 EST5EDT