More televisual conceit

Watching an interview with the first candidate ditched from the new series of The Apprentice this morning was a faintly depressing experience. The slot comprised a few moments of the bizarre way in which Lord Sugar is supposed to judge somebody's potential as an employee (selling sausages they'd made only the previous night) and then the 'fired' candidate himself having to defend his performance.

The whole thing is, of course, a farce, and I don't and won't watch it because it's a completely fabricated for television experience that can bear no resemblance whatsoever to the realities of corporate exigency. If this was even vaguely real, similar techniques would be employed in real recruitment. But oh no, they will persist with this bizarre interview, experience, possibly trial period form of finding their new bodies. It's proven and trusted, so why should telly take any notice? Coz it's dull and functional, that's why. Don't make good telly, m'lud.

But what can Sugar possibly, possibly learn about somebody from such a set-up? He'd as well have them conduct a Rorschache ink blot test, get a phrenologist in, run them through a Krypton Factor assault course for all he'd know about the candidates after this nonsense.

The sacked candidate himself said that what was seen on TV was an 'amplified' version of himself, thereby giving away the fundamental problem with the construction of the show. That which you study you change - a bonkers sausage-fest followed every moment by TV cameras, later edited to suit the director's view of dramatic structure and how he wants us to perceive the candidates, and served to Lord Sugar as some sort of litmus test of a candidate's business nous can't be anything but entirely artificial.
So it's no wonder the candidates come across a bit funny sometimes. Or a bit bitchy. Or a bit ultra-competitive. Depends on the role they're wedged into by the director dunnit? God help the poor bastard's real future employment prospects who happens to be the one chosen to be 'Dopey' by the director.

I realise that people watch this show for entertainment. Plenty of people derive an odd satisfaction from seeing the conflicts, the bombast, the squirming in the boardroom and Sugar delivering the coup-de-grace. But on the odd occasions I've seen bits of this show, I keep expecting Steve Carell to turn up as one of the 'characters' and give away the fact that it's all utterly false. Enjoy it, if it's your sort of thing. I think I'll pass on it.