Out4Blood & El_Cap's Rise of Nations Strategy



Thursday, September 09, 2004

Some analysis of The Apprentice: Episode 1
Keep in mind that this is not a pure competition, but merely entertainment in the form of competition. Burnett is no dummy; he's cast people in certain roles through the editing process. The trick for the Apprentice meta-game is to try and understand what roles people are being cast as and then guess as to what the outcome might be based on that.

So far, I see several people filling some obvious roles:

  • Andy is the young whiz-kid with no experience. Can he learn fast enough to make it to the end?
  • Bradford is the cocky dictator with "nothing going on upstairs." He's alienated all the women already and missed bonding with the guys.
  • Jennifer C comes across as bitchy New Yorker (from her nbc.com videos) but ultimate loser (from her obsequious dinner performance)
  • Kelly is the Military Guy. His video is military this and military that. Pshaw! When did he get to be such a grey hog? As I recall, he couldn't get out of the military fast enough after graduation. Omarosa said this in her commentary:
    Kelly may find the organizational dynamics of the game to be restrictive and he may come across to his teammates as bossy and hard to work with. He may also intimidate his cast-mates, which could lead to them to try to remove him.
    Which is so insightful - it hurts that it comes from the evil that is her.
  • Maria comes across as an aggressive, but effective leader, taking charge despite Bradford's ineffectual leadership.
  • Pamela's got a "hard edge." Oops. But watch this video of her to see how she really thinks. She's a real threat as long as she doesn't antagonize her colleagues. (Ed. - Turns out I know Pamela from HBS. She was married to one of my sectionmates, Dave Vernon. Now, her bio says she's single. D'oh!)
  • Raj is a freak. Reminds me of Sam. Is Trump serious about this guy or is he there only for color?
  • Stacy J must be bi-polar. Not sure what occurred to instigate her tantrums but she's a goner first chance. Of course, we all said the same about Omarosa, didn't we? And while Stacy J might be the unofficial season 2 Omarosa, at least she has some awareness of her surroundings.
  • Stacy R looks to be an early exiteer as well. She's too small to be so annoying (from the trailers). Can you imagine her running a Fortune 500 company? (Ed. - No.)
  • Wes looks pretty cocky. Showing him drinking from the bottle is most likely an omen. "We don't like people who drink from the bottle, do we?"

I think the rest of the people have yet to appear in their "roles." Those that didn't stick out will likely whither away slowly while the "stars" play out the "script."

UPDATE: There are a few good recaps of the episode. This one at RealityShack and Sam's commentary over at Yahoo!





Comments: Post a Comment