<p>First, apologies for the low-brow appetite :). It’s a bit of Americana. We catch every third show on average but we’re a season behind. </p>
<p>[ul]Women can’t win a popularity contest. If they are nice but tough, they lose. If they are smart and tough, they lose. If they are gorgeous, smart and tough, they still lose! That glass ceiling is made of lead, girls.</p>
<p>[li]White men; ie directors, cameramen, Australian producers and Trumps; find smart, gorgeous black women very very threatening. There is no other explanation for the way black women are framed on the show.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]The values on CC, (ie HYP, please! HYP, please!), represent a teeny tiny minority. On The Apprentice, the over-educated, those with fancy law and business degrees, are accused of ‘self-correcting’. Meanwhile, a career jump from army ranger to entreprenuer makes perfect sense? [/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>What have you learned?</p>
<p>Yes, somehow the bright young men seem to win all the time. The women chosen, even if they are brilliant, beautiful and well-educated, don’t win.</p>
<p>In the first few episodes of the ones I watched, this season at least, the women did not get along. That could have contributed to the negative image when they were competing on their own instead of as a group.</p>
<p>Being a HYP graduate in fact is a negative when being selected as the winner, that’s my conclusion for this season. Cheers, I don’t mean to spoil your suspense if you haven’t seen the last season, so I won’t give it away. But on the other hand, you know about the Army Ranger, so maybe you do know what I’m talking about.</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s what the camera put up about Omaroosa (sp?) but I’m sure they could have shown any number of whinging, shirking moments from most of the candidates. They put them in highly stressed sleepless situations to GET those reactions. </p>
<p>Don’t you find it interesting that both black women were labelled “certifiable”, as you say? In my experience, ‘certifiable’ is a label that is often applied to threatening women. It was used on women, repeatedly and unfairly, throughout my years in architecture school.</p>
<p>And I know from ‘certifiable’. I’ve seen schizophrenia and bi-polar psychosis up close and personal. Omaroosa and Stacy weren’t the least bit ‘certifiable’.</p>
<p>**What have I learned from The Apprentice? ** hmmmm… my initial answer was going to be, ***NOTHING!! *** but actually I did learn that Donald Trump likes being a TV star so much that we will probably keep seeing new iterations of the show until his ratings drop to zero and they drag him off the screen!! :D</p>
<p>My early impressions of Omarosa were very positive. I thought she would win the whole thing! But later I saw her as the scheming lazy devious incompetent back stabber just as I was supposed to. Stacy, on the other hand, I was horrified that Trump fired her based on her “peer recommendations.” All those amateur shrinks declaring she was “unstable” and “scary” really made me squirm. If it had been a real corporate situation she could have sued all of them!!</p>
<p>…hey, I just noticed - bullet points and indent format? Wow!!</p>
<p>I find Donald Trump repulsive and have not and will not watch the Apprentice. If you really want to watch “reality” television, watch the show on Bravo featuring the around the world motorcycle trip made by Ewan McGregor and his buddie. When they have to wait 2+ days to cross the river in Russia, I was totally riveted to the screen. I realize it is carefully edited, but this was much closer to watching real people deal with real situations.</p>
<p>I love the show. Never miss an episode. Trump’s execs who help him are also such classics…really remind me of the people I knew in NY’s corporate world.</p>
<p>Okay okay already! Stop with the condemnations! I’m not saying three Hail Marys or anything like that. Jeez. :p</p>
<p>Yes, it’s mindless lowbrow entertainment. On the other hand, four top American executives interviewed a couple of highly successful American twenty-somethings. Besides being pointless, the show also presents the underside of American “success” culture; ie it ain’t all merit-based… </p>
<p>Pat yourself on the back if you’ve never watched it, but then give it a rest, will ya? Crikey.</p>
<p>cheers - you are not alone. Missed tonight’s episode, but I find it entertaining. Will pat myself on the back for not watching any of the “other” realities - survivor, race,brother, idol, etc. Fan of Supernanny, though. And, you know what? I’m going to watch the Martha Stewart one (arms up, guarding forehead, fending off rotten tomatoes).</p>
<p>I don’t have the consistency to keep track of a weekly series & our tv doesn’t get good reception so my relationship to Tv is more like what I did today- Rent the 2nd 4 episodes of CSI and watch them back to back.
Last week it was Second Sight.</p>
<p>But more to the point, where does everyone find the time to watch these things? I’d have to give up reading, which would be very bad for my mental health.</p>
<p>Can’t help it - I love The Apprentice! It’s great entertainment and interesting to see how people react to high pressure, high stress…some seem to thrive on it…others can’t handle it at all…agree with cheers, as in real life - the best candidate for the job doesn’t always get it…also wondering iabout the “framing” of black women, as one of the black women this season QUIT! I did not understand what happened there…why go thru the selection process just to quit? Made no sense to me…
Mindless entertainment, sure…and why not?</p>