Apprentice

This year Netflix released The Apprentice: One Championship Edition and it was amazing. Half of the contestants are from Asia, passionate about mixed martial arts or fitness in general and more importantly, the products and presentations were very high quality, at least compared with the UK counterpart. The Apprentice UK restarted this year with its season 16 and the contestants were failing on every task. There are no star contestants and they bicker and blame each other and any "win" is marginal. It is as if the contestants are trying not to lose rather than trying to win, unlike Asian counterparts. In the most recent episode 10, the final six contestants made obviously fatal errors and neither team got any orders. It is just so disappointing. The entrepreneurship or desire to win is just not there. 

On this reflection, I am wondering during this pandemic, have we been miserable because we have been focusing on trying not to die? For many people, living connotes trying new experiences, eating at new restaurants, travelling, building a business, making progress on life goals, etc., many of which have been non-existent or scaled back. I have watched previous seasons of The Apprentice UK and there have been star contestants who were charming with leadership qualities. I wonder, if the miserable bickering dynamic of the latest season is reflective of our mental health from the last 2 years of COVID. If I can see this obvious deterioration in these contestants, I wonder if we have generally become more pessimistic and low energy compared to the version of us two years ago?