Guilty pleasure...
My guiltiest TV pleasure lately has been The Apprentice. Even though Donald Trump is bizarre, creepy, and full of himself (never mind his hair!), I've still watched nearly every episode over the last two seasons. This season was definitely weaker than last season (fewer compelling contestants, too many episodes that were nothing more than hour-long advertisements for various major corporations), and The Donald becoming more capricious and less rational in picking the people he fires, all of which probably explains why its ratings are down from last season. Even so, I still managed to catch all but maybe two or three episodes. Of course, I was watching last night for the season two finale.
The whole season has supposedly been leading up to this finale. It's supposed to be exciting, but it was anticlimactic and rather dull. The "problems" put into Jennifer's and Kelly's path (like the NBA player canceling as MC for the charity basketball game at the last minute) were obviously manipulative gimmicks by the producers to spice things up and see how the contestants dealt with problems. Even Regis Philbin (no doubt brought in because they needed an MC who knows how to handle himself in front of a live TV audience) couldn't save this turkey. Last season had the same problem, but the novelty factor hid it. Word to Mark Burnett for next season: There just ain't enough interesting and entertaining material here to fill a three hour finale. By the second hour, my wife and I were hardly paying attention anymore. By the third hour, we were both falling asleep. The best person probably did win, but by the time it was announced, about 15 minutes into hour three, I didn't really care anymore.
Next season looks like more of the same, as far as the excessive corporate infomercial episodes go. Maybe I won't be watching as much, if at all.
Back to alternative medicine and science. Over the weekend, I will post a discussion of alternative medicine "testimonials" and why they should be viewed with the utmost skepticism.
The whole season has supposedly been leading up to this finale. It's supposed to be exciting, but it was anticlimactic and rather dull. The "problems" put into Jennifer's and Kelly's path (like the NBA player canceling as MC for the charity basketball game at the last minute) were obviously manipulative gimmicks by the producers to spice things up and see how the contestants dealt with problems. Even Regis Philbin (no doubt brought in because they needed an MC who knows how to handle himself in front of a live TV audience) couldn't save this turkey. Last season had the same problem, but the novelty factor hid it. Word to Mark Burnett for next season: There just ain't enough interesting and entertaining material here to fill a three hour finale. By the second hour, my wife and I were hardly paying attention anymore. By the third hour, we were both falling asleep. The best person probably did win, but by the time it was announced, about 15 minutes into hour three, I didn't really care anymore.
Next season looks like more of the same, as far as the excessive corporate infomercial episodes go. Maybe I won't be watching as much, if at all.
Back to alternative medicine and science. Over the weekend, I will post a discussion of alternative medicine "testimonials" and why they should be viewed with the utmost skepticism.
Jeez Doc, "The Apprentice"? And I was just starting to like you. Those people should all have been drowned at birth.
ReplyDeleteHey, no one's perfect. Just because I'm a doctor doesn't mean I don't have occasional lapses in taste that I can't explain. I make no apologies, though. Everyone needs the occasional entertainment during which he can just turn his brain off for a period. It could be that my taste is finally recognizing The Apprentice for what it is. It only took two seasons...
ReplyDeleteBesides, I need to post occasional fluff, because my substantive posts about alt-med are likely to piss at least some people off. Heck, I might post them in misc.health.alternative, just to bring the alt-med purveyors here to my blog.
Nahh. they'd just post really nasty comments that I'd end up having to delete.