Okay, I don’t think I’ll be able to get to a few thoughts about some of the candidates who were focused on in the first episode until later this evening, but I would at least like to knock Part Two out before heading home.

All of the reviews I’ve looked at elsewhere today have pretty much the same opinion: it is a weak clone of a tired show that ought not be watched. And, not so surprisingly, it wasn’t watched all that much – via Drudge: “6.8 rating/10 share, last place for night on big-3 net primetime, according to overnights... More... ABC 'Lost' tops at 15.2 rating/22 share”. [UPDATE: actually, from elsewhere: "5.5/9 ... CBS was third with the season premieres of "Still Standing," 4.8/8, and "Yes, Dear," 4.9/8. "So You Think You Can Dance" was fourth for FOX. The first half of "America's Next Top Model's" season premiere drew a 2.8/5 for UPN. The WB aired a "One Tree Hill" repeat."] Critics, of course, have a major hard-on for Lost, as do a lot of viewers, and the bits and pieces of it I saw last season did leave me with the impression that it’s probably an interesting, above average show. I might even watch it regularly if it didn’t have some kinda supernatural bullshit thrown in and was just a bunch of people stranded on an island and trying to survive and all. But the majority of Americans have a yen for the supernatural bullshit that I do not share, so it’s a big ol’ hit and while I understand that this is probably the NBC show with the biggest buzz and so they chose to challenge Lost with it, A:MS (that's not just the follow-up to Q:What does Annette Funicello have again?, but will be our preferred abbreviation for the show going forward) is just going to get slaughtered in this time slot.

Here is my contrarian opinion, however - The Apprentice: Martha Stewart finally makes the Apprentice concept a little enjoyable to watch for me, and I’m going to be embracing it much more than I ever did the original. Now I know that I’ve written about the last two seasons of the Trump Apprentice, but I think I also made it abundantly clear that I did not care for it all too very much. My fondness for the Martha persona is part of the reason why I’ve decided to claim I love this version even though it really is a weak clone of a tired show with a bunch of god-awful contestants, but there’s another factor too. Let me try to explain it thusly… No matter how bad a sitcom is, I can always get some pleasure out of watching one. This is due to my excessive familiarity with the sitcom as a genre; like if someone on According to Jim gets caught in a lie about a sandwich they weren’t supposed to eat that goes missing, say, I derive a little enjoyment in thinking about how they did that same plot on The Donna Reed Show except it was a pie, while on Just The Ten Of Us it turned out the accused really didn’t eat the casserole, but the Dad got hit in the face with the swinging door at approximately the same point in the proceedings as Belushi did on ATJ. Call this geeky, call it autism, however you label it the fact will remain that this sort of crap is one way in which I enjoy watching television. Therefore, stuff like “Hey look, it’s not the board room, it’s the conference room!” make me smile just a little. You might not share this predilection/syndrome with me, but that’s where I’m coming from. So to recap Part Deux: IAAFOTS Hearts A:MS!!!

Now I am going to prepare to dash out of this office before anyone else tries to schedule my time tomorrow, look forward to some thoughts on some contestants and a few other details I noted in my notes later tonight (or preferably tomorrow morning, it's not like this shit I'm writing is really worth checking back constantly in order to read as soon as it's posted). There's the original Apprentice for you to be watching tonight, too, not that I think I'm going to. Well, maybe I will. Then again, maybe I won't. That was then, this is now. The cat ate my gymsuit. Dinky Hocker shoots smack. Whoa, sorry, I zoned out and started playing the Pyramid for a second there. For the record, the answer we were looking for was Young Adult Novels, Young Adult Novels... OK, on with the leaving.