That someone is Stefani. "The Realist" is hired! Welcome to the Hollywood Bowl. Were we at a concert or watching a TV show? I guess Trump was finishing this disappointing season with all the glamour that L.A. provides. Maybe we should have had a campout instead to honor the windy tents, cold showers and little critters our interviewees had to endure along the way. Everyone was back, some with makeovers (I guess we can't call Surya "The Hair" anymore). It was great, though, to see a roundup of all the tasks and familiar faces that dragged me through this season with a lot of headshakes and eye rolls. Michelle resigning, Surya's big, puppy-dog eyes after Trump fired him, Heidi crumbling in the end. I even forgot about some of the early goners — Martin (although, I probably just mentally blocked him), Aaron, Marisa. "Those are two skyscrapers I would like to try to help you… erect." Oh, Frankie. I knew he and Nicole had to go first. Nicole, in my opinion, shouldn't have even ...
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I'm not crazy about what's going on here. We're calling in the former cast members already? I know, I'm an Apprentice purist, but I can't help but wonder where we can go from here for a final task. Fifty minutes later, I realized that this apparently is the final task. Say wha?!By the way, Megan's away this week, so this is Matt Mitovich. You might know me from Today's News: Our Take, the 30 Rock blog, or "Fuzzy Bunny's Guide to You-Know-What."Anyway, lo and behold, the L.A. edition is futzing with something else. And on behalf of such a lame task. A room spray? A 60-second "mini-movie" compromised by, among everything else, ba-a-a-ad actors? Ugh. And based on this, we're deciding the winner?I liked how the hour started, with Trump and Jr. in stealth mode, slipping into the manse, though there was no real payoff. The Donald, though, did get to utter the understatement of the year: "You're very tough to fire, Frankie." (Heidi and Kristine said exactly that in my Q&A last week.) I...
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Wow, I think I'm a little short of breath from watching that boardroom tonight. Intense. It was pretty interesting that Kristine chose Nicole over Heidi, but like she said, she needed to prove that she could beat the "super shining star," not just go along for the ride and let Heidi get credit from Trump once again. Unfortunately, neither of them were anywhere near shining this week. Surprising, after remaining such strong contenders this entire time, but once the teams were separated, it seemed that standing apart was a weakness for the two power women. I was actually shocked at their lack of materials and the poorly constructed presentations they produced in the end. And just like that, the original Arrow members became the final four.First, I have to say that I liked this task because it involved Trump's company and was more realistic for what his newest employee might actually be working on. Second, Trump's jet was pretty insane, and I was just as distracted as Frank by all the ...
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This might have been the longest boardroom we were able to witness. Stefani kept her cool, as usual, and the guys were at each other's throats. But I was getting so tired of this romance getting in the way and agreed with Trump that Tim had to go. He may be cute, but that won't get you far — it really felt like grade school for awhile there, not a job interview. "Yes, I'm a fool for getting involved with someone." Well, at least he recognized it in the end.As for the task, it was very clear that Kinetic's ad was far better than Arrow's. The unique shape of the insert was the visual trophy, but the information was clear and concise as well. Heidi is "back" and it's clear that Trump favors her to some extent. I think she has a very good chance of winning this whole thing, but I'm not completely sold yet. In fact, it's really difficult this season, because everything seems to change so drastically each week that it's hard to really stand behind one person (at least for me).I actua...
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OK, is anyone else having a hard time listening to James? Please. Stop. Talking. What's worse? When he has a megaphone in his hand. I'd rather listen to Ty Pennington scream through one of those things on Extreme Makeover. He never even comes up with the ideas when he's the PM. But we finally got a task that put both teams on the same turf, able to see each other selling the same product and able to battle it out side by side. The funny part is that the teams' ideas came from Tim and Nicole, which this episode were clearly centered around Nicole since she was traded to Kinetic.I loved when Kristine called Arrow slimy. And they were being really ruthless and unprofessional stealing customers and making unnecessary comments about the other team. I was really disappointed when they won, because I agreed with Angela on how poorly they represented Universal. Maybe I'm a business softie and should accept the fact that when competition gets tough, you do whatever you can to get on top, but...
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Why does it always look like a hurricane when we're watching the campers? It's hysterical. But as soon as they stopped screaming during their windy showers, the task got under way, and I thought it was an interesting assignment — fun to watch — because they pretty much only had themselves and some soap.Although I didn't prefer their story line, it was clear that Arrow's win was based on branding. They featured the product clearly and I found the cleaning montage pretty funny, too. Nicole was a giddy child about being on the Passions set — I almost wanted someone to hold her down. "Me and Tim are the boyfriend and girlfriend in our webisode. That's so cuuute." Uhh, no. I agreed with Tim, it was awkward. It's a good thing Nicole is a fan of the real Passions actors, because she's better off watching. On the other hand, at least her soap addiction lended a hand in camera angles and little details that improved Arrow's approach. I'm not sure exactly what James did as PM (...
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Well, I was glad to see Surya go tonight. If he announced his 5-2 record one more time, I was going to throw something at the TV. I thought it was hilarious how Frank was reacting to Surya's speech about coming over to Arrow — and I completely agreed with him. I was getting tired of Surya's constant talking. It's too much of a show. Or in James' words, "He's like an annoying old man."And it wasn't just Surya who couldn't stop babbling tonight. I don't know how much we can attribute to the editing of this show, but I felt as frustrated with Muna as Kristine did. From the footage we saw, Muna was really bothering the Plan B employees and getting in the way of work. Kinetic's props came out great, though, and I was impressed with the idea.... I definitely thought it was more health-focused than Arrow's boxing idea. It was also smart to incorporate Spanish — the one time I was glad Muna was speaking. Over on Arrow, the girls seemed silent tonight. I still feel like I know Stef...
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Whoa. How did fried appetizers become boardroom talk? Bye, bye Derek. "Do you think I want to hire someone who's 'white trash'?" Fired. And Jenn… oh, boy. "The sun moves across the sky." You can't explain your way out of it fast enough, so just stop. I can't believe she said to Angela that her poor marketing work made them "resort to go-karts and sh*t like that." What? You loved the go-karts! And then she tried to get Trump to avoid firing anyone else? Cute. I guess she had nothing to lose at that point and she was a good sport about leaving. Surya was of no help in the boardroom once again, but Randal (Apprentice 4 winner) spoke enough for both of them. Man, was he pouring out the blame! I was interested to see how the teams would do with a task like this, because it wasn't creating a product, it was using their presentation skills to sell an already impressive product. Kinetic was all cheers when they saw that Aimee and her "eyes of death" were gone, but Jenn heading up the ...
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Man, Surya has a lot of emotion built up inside! His googly eyes scare me a little bit. But congrats on the win, Arrow. Although, I'm not sure how much Surya's direction ensured them the victory. But I did like Frank's enthusiasm when he was walking the mall for raffle clients. He was so pumped up that he didn't even want to talk to the camera very long. But we hardly saw any of Nicole during the task. We saw more of her by the steamy pool. "Can I tell you something? You look really hot right now." (Insert eye roll here.) Let's all take a moment to let out an "Awww" for Tim accompanying Nicole to the doctor to ultimately hear that she got stung by a jellyfish. The reward did not seem like the greatest idea. It looked like a cold morning to be surfing, not to mention the rough waves.Meanwhile, Aimee was PM for Kinetic again and looked clueless and bored, just like she did last week. She didn't even seem to be interacting with the people buying the raffles. All she did was yell out, "...
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How many red ties does Trump own? A gazillion. Or just one, I'm not sure.What else is there to do when The Donald hands out a task? Nod. Nod like it's no problem at all… even if it involves harvesting honey. Uhh, did anyone else hear a buzzing even when there weren't bees on the screen? Stefani was just about hyperventilating at the thought of it.Once again, we were thrown into the middle of the competition without seeing much preparation. It went from Trump introducing the task to those scary white suits and the teams knowing how to handle thousands of bees. But, at least Surya was speaking this week. He was actually taking part in his team's discussion and tactics. Did he talk too much, though? Aaron looked like a bored 8-year-old barely listening to the teacher in school. Aimee took on the PM role for Kinetic, but there weren't any great marketing ideas after four hours of her and Jenn talking it over while the others were fighting the stinging honey-makers. According to oth...
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