Sarah Pye
Editor in Chief
As editor in chief, I continually strive to make sure the Graphic brings you the most up-to-date information on the serious issues that face our society. In this vein, I thought it was my duty to write an editorial about one of our most pressing social matters. That’s right, I’m talking about “The Apprentice.”
Specifically, I think it is high time for someone to lead a serious discussion about why this season of “The Apprentice” is so inferior to last season. In the words of mediocre comedians everywhere, what’s up with that?
Let’s think back to season one for a moment, shall we? It was a time of great joy; a time when the bulk of the episodes were dedicated to showing the competitors using their brains and business know-how to complete sophisticated business tasks, like selling lemonade.
It was a time when Donald Trump would, in disgusted tones usually reserved for bad dogs or particularly heinous foreign dictators, tell the losing team that they were basically incompetent morons. But it was also a time when viewers knew, deep in their hearts, that he was really kind of fond of them all — even Sam.
And above all, it was a time without excessive bickering.
Oh, sure, Heidi and the infamous Omarosa got into it once in a while. And Sam provided some lively entertainment, with his taking naps during important business meetings and whatnot. But never during season one did we see the level of excessive arguing that one might expect from an episode of “The Real World.”
But now, with season two, all of that has changed. Instead of getting to see people actually (gasp!) use their brains to achieve success on reality television, we get to listen to a bunch of catty women argue about whether opening a pasta restaurant is “so 2002.”
If we wanted another lesson in how people in our society have forgotten all basic standards of common courtesy and decorum, we could easily tune into any of the approximately 68,000 other reality TV shows that are on the air right now. The beauty of “The Apprentice” during season one was that we actually got to see people use their heads for a change.
This season, we can only hope that all the women will be fired immediately, and that the men will start showing some signs of life. Thank goodness for Raj — sure, the red pants and unnecessary cane might strike some as pretentious, but at least the guy has some personality – without having to bandy insults about just for the sport of it, as the women seem to delight in doing.
Raj is by far this season’s superior character. The greatest season two moment so far was when the guys were trying to figure out where they could buy a set of eight bowties for their ice cream vendor costumes, and Raj chipped in that he could outfit the whole crew, no problem. Any guy who brings eight bowties with him to his reality TV taping is all right in my book.
There have been a few other bright spots in season two — the first and foremost of which being that we get to see a lot more Trump.
Apparently, The Donald thought he wasn’t getting enough face time (or enough money) during season one. So during season two, viewers are on the delightfully ridiculous receiving end of Trump’s lessons in business, which he doles out generously during each episode. These lessons, such as “you have to be respected by your employees to be an effective leader” or “the value of a good comb-over cannot be underestimated” (OK, not really — but we had to have at least one Trump hair joke) are reason enough to keep tuning in each week.
And while we’re on the subject of tuning in, as a final thought — NBC, if you’re out there, do us all a favor: Pick a time slot and stick to it! I don’t care if it’s Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. I have a VCR, and I know how to use it. However, I shouldn’t need to obtain government-protected trade secrets in order to determine what time slot the show is going into this week.
But despite NBC’s efforts to confuse America, I’ll keep tuning in. I have to keep informed about this important social issue — it is my duty as editor, after all.
10-07-2004