Friday, April 02, 2004

It was nice to finally see the rampant croneyism in deciding who the Project Manager was going to take to tribal council. Unsurprisingly (in more ways than one), the person to have taken a buddy in was Troy. Unsurprising because 1) like Trump said, he's a live wire, the hit-or-miss sort of guy (indicative of raw, yet-to-be refined potential); and 2) his relationship with Kwame was of the macho, butt-slapping type, and so head-to-head competition would be well within the parameters of their friendship.

I have to wonder how Amy & Nick managed to win. Granted, they had a good "let the product speak for itself" strategy, but towards the end they had all but conceded defeat. Then out of the blue, a customer shows up with two minutes to spare and signs what'll end up being the winning deal. Not the first time a last second save happened, either (see: the first apartment-lease challenge).

Time to handicap.

Amy is still my choice. She'll sometimes sink into the background or come off as controlling and bossy (if she were a man, would those be criticisms against her?), but the number of times that she's hit a home run makes her the frontrunner, which is actually a bad thing if Apprentice is going to stick to reality tv convention (wherein people in the pole position often end up peaking too early, leaving a darkhorse to slip in to the winner's circle (spot how many times I mixed metaphors there)). While I think that Trump won't base his decision on "what have you done lately," the pressure for her to perform to higher expectations could set her up for a fall. Still, Amy is the One.

Nick is the Rob Deer of Apprentice. He can hit 35 homers (and without juicing up! (Probably!)), but he'll also strike out 180 times. Then again, he's also a fairly effective leader; when the game's on the line, he comes through in the clutch. He knows when to assert himself and pull rank. Nick is too full of contradictions to be a safe bet.

Bill is, to maintain my sports metaphors, like Bill Mueller. He's consistent: puts the ball in play, knows when and how to hit behind the runner, with less than two outs and a man on third, he'll bring that run home. But not a lot of power (it was a fluke, and I'm the biggest Bill Mueller apologist ever). Practically speaking, he's workman like and methodical, he gets his hands dirty leading employees around (cos, you know, how laborers are all sweaty and grimey). Sometimes, though, a basehit, not a homer, is all you need (see: getting an exclusive deal with the VIPs in the casino challenge -- whether that was a single or a homer, well... a single works better in my arguments, so there). In that way, he may in the end get to go head to head with Amy rather than Nick (Amy said so much in the episode).

Kwame has a lot of brains, but his deskjob has left him at a severe disadvantage to the others. Simply looking at his trackrecord on the show, his hands-off approach is not only normally leads his team into disarray, but is counterproductive in presenting his managerial skills. And don't forget the number of losing teams that he's been on. That he's lasted this long is amazing.

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