The Block 2 & The Apprentice

This article first appeared in the Age on May 1, 2004

The Block 2 (Sunday, 6.30pm, Channel 9) was always going to be a hard sell. How different can you make renovating seem regardless of the state of the building or the nature of the couples? This time around the contestants are Kirsten and Jason from Sydney's northern beaches, Matt and Jane from St Kilda, Dani and Monique from Parramatta and Richard and Steven from the Gold Coast. They have $70,000 and 14 weeks to renovate, decorate and furnish their apartments in the Sydney suburb of Manly.

Manly itself makes it harder for this Block to look different - as with the Bondi locale it's all Sydney sun, sea, and blue skies. And, despite all the talk of bringing one couple from Melbourne and another from the Gold Coast to make the show more national and less 'Sydney', the interstate couples become the butt of the show's joke as they struggle to find their way around and try to find local tradesman. For Melbourne viewers still smarting over the loss of Melbourne based sports reader Angela Pippos, its not so funny.

In general with Reality Shows there is a sense of fun when an idea is new that gets knocked out of successive series. There is no doubt that this is a series that has lost its innocence and The Block's extraordinary success has changed things. Second time around the couples are more aggressive, competitive and the F word is used a lot more. The tension is rising higher, quicker. In part this is because the media scrutinized this season, and the competitors, much more closely. This leads, tonight, to the revelation that Dani had been charged a couple of years ago for being an accessory before the fact in amphetamine production. Consequently, over the next few weeks, the show's the most engaging couple will be forced to quit the show.

You have to ask, didn't Dani do his time - 6 months in prison and a 12 month good behaviour bond? Is there a law that says once someone's been in prison they are allowed no public life? There are enough white-collar criminals happily making a living that attests otherwise. Anyway, it's the viewer's loss as those guys were gearing up to star in The Block 2. My other favourites? The Melbourne couple, of course.

Business Tycoon Donald Trump is certainly a man who was given a second chance after the collapse of his empire at the end of the Eighties. And he was born to be on Reality TV. Everything about him - his hair, his taste in decor, his style, his exorbitant wealth is repellent yet compelling. The Apprentice (Tuesday, 9.30pm, Channel 9) is a new reality series from Mark Burnett, the creator of Survivor and Trump is the show's host. The Apprentice sees 16 contestants - from Harvard graduates to managers of a small business - coming to New York City to compete for a job with the Trump Organization and a salary of US$250,000. Each week one of the contestants is called up to the boardroom and fired. The apprentices' first task? Selling lemonade on the streets of Manhattan. The sight of 16 men and women, in suits, with mobile phones, running around like headless chooks trying to prove their entrepreneurial skills is very funny. If the tasks continue to be so imaginative this reality show will be one worth watching.

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