I started watching this expecting a mini-ANTM-type show with cattiness, and was so surprised to find none.
I think Angelika is awesome. While I'm sure she's not aware of how abrasively she comes across, she definitely has her own voice, and I always admire people that stand up for what they believe in. I do think she could've handled certain situations better, though...
If what they wanted was a mini-ANTM minus the drama and spectacle, they definitely succeeded.
Angelika didn't come across to me as abrasive, although that is exactly the word I would use to describe Jerry. And diva.
I agree she could have just sat there and not said anything when Jerry had his big scene, and if what she really wanted was to be represented by NEXT, then obviously, that is what she should have done.
However, I understand her reaction. While unlike the other girls, she has been both working as a model and living "as a grown-up" for a few years, she is still very young, and I got the impression that she was not expecting the situation to be as it was, or NEXT to be as it is.
I suspect that Jerry's attitude helped her, within a matter of seconds, understand that she and NEXT would not be a good fit, and so she might as well say what she felt like saying.
The way he was talking to the girls really was more appropriate for someone dressing down school-girls, which was pretty much what he was doing, and I think Angelika is just grown-up enough to feel indignant at being spoken to in that way, but not quite grown-up enough to recognize that among the girls, she was the only grown-up, and thus not take it so personally.
I also think that while she did understand, and in that moment, that she and NEXT would not be right for each other, I don't think that she, at least in that moment, understood why.
In a previous post I said I got the impression that they were looking for more of a tabula rasa situation, at least that appears to be what they wanted from this bunch of girls on the show, and I think it may have taken Angelika a while - and spending more time with the girls themselves - to comprehend that.
If I am not mistaken, that conversation where they are asking her, with breathless awe, what having one's own apartment is like, took place AFTER Jerry's performance, and I could easily see the whole picture falling into place for her at THAT moment, whereas when she was sitting there listening to Jerry, she could see that this was not a place she would want to be, even if she could not pinpoint why.
Anyway, I think they made good decisions sending Michelle to London and Beatriz to Miami, again within the context of what they wanted.
One thing confused me, though. The three girls that went to the Bahamas were supposedly given contracts, and I thought they were just going home to basically say good-bye and pack more clothes before returning to New York.
Yet when they were out there waiting for the cars, the way they said good-bye to each other, and the things they said, made it sound like they were expecting a long time to pass before they saw each other again, if they ever did.
So were the girls going to come back to New York and work, or just remain at home unable to work for anybody but NEXT, and wait for NEXT to call them if and when they have jobs for them to do?
Maybe we will find out if the network decides to buy more episodes of the show!
