February 9, 2011
Yes everyone, Odie was fired. That was the big story this week but there were some little things that I found more interesting. I’ll get to them in due time, but let’s start with the annoying kid who doesn’t know his place.
Even the show’s announcer seems to hate him. At the top of the show, he said that after he gets fired from PJD, “Odie crawls back to OCC.” That’s giving him too much credit.
Odie’s problems began this week with him donning Paulie’s hat and sunglasses and walking around making fun of Paulie. Remember the last guy who did that? Jason Pohl. What a role model.
Later, Odie and Vinnie walked in with some parts for the Universal Insurance bike and Odie wasted no time ragging on the handlebars. I usually don’t criticize Vinnie, but I fully expected him to say something to Odie. He’s not a boss, he’s not an owner, but if PJD is a team and Paulie is the owner and manager, then Vinnie should be the captain of the team. He has the experience, he runs his own shop, he is the most professional, he is closest to Paulie. I’m not blaming him at all for Odie’s mouth, I’m not giving Odie a pass, but I still say Vinnie should have said something. It probably wouldn’t have done any good, but I think he should have stepped in. Just my opinion.
Odie’s screw-ups weren’t limited to his fresh mouth. He put parts on backwards (and blamed Paulie for making them wrong) pried pieces apart like a caveman and scratched them, and still had the nerve to tell Paulie (who had the patience of a saint with him) “I’ll go home right now. I couldn’t care less.” I hope he didn’t think that was a threat because he did Paulie a big favor. “Get out of my fucking shop right now,” Paulie said with surprising calm.
Odie had the balls/stupidity to call back a little later, hinting he was going to OCC. Like he’d actually be an asset there and Paulie would miss him.
Odie then went up the road to OCC where Senior welcomed him with open arms. He sat back and believed every word Odie said to him. I hope Senior watches his own show so he can see the real Odie, how Odie lied to his face and is just a terrible person in general. At any rate, if anyone has anything bad to say about Paulie he’s a friend of Senior and, not only did Senior hire him back but he (say it with me, I’ve typed it often enough over the weeks) badmouthed Paulie to him. Senior is such a classless louse.
So what did Odie say to Senior?
– He said that he quit. No he didn’t, Paulie threw him out.
– He said that Paulie “never appreciates anything I do for him.” Like what? Showing up late? Messing up the paint on the parts he works on? Mocking him? Glaring at Cody?
– He said that Paulie is always up against a deadline, which is true, but how is that any different than OCC?
– He said they work 20 hour days. Not him. Just last week he made a big deal of leaving at four in the afternoon.
So what did Senior say to Odie?
You’re hired.
Speaking of guys with less than sterling characters, remember Robb? He was the painter last week who designed a bike an then cried like a baby and threw a tantrum when some changes were made. In a small piece of poetic justice, he screwed up the paint on the Bic bike this week and had to redo it. Oh, so sorry.
And as for the bikes, all of them looked great, and that makes two weeks in a row I’ve said that. Even the bike Monkey Boy made for OCC looked good. It was simple and sleek with clean lines and a great color scheme.
PJD gave away a bike to one lucky insurance agent. The guy who won the raffle looked like he has never in his life been on a bike and probably never will be.
The less dramatic but more interesting part of the show cam when a group of kids from a technical school visited OCC. One of them asked Senior what he thinks of Paulie’s bikes. Senior didn’t answer but had this to say about Paulie: “His gift is designing. I don’t think his gift is building. The mechanics do all the work.” OK, he complimented his son’s design skill but he couldn’t leave it at that. He had to say that Paulie isn’t a builder. He’s talking to a group of kids and still he had to take a shot a Paulie.
The same student then asked “what would you say your specialty is?”
“Yelling at people.”
Paulie, to an extent, echoed what Senior said when he told the kids at his shop “You can’t manufacture creativity. That’s what makes us a little different.” The kids saw it too. One of them told the camera that it seems to be more technical at OCC and more creative at PJD. Frankly, that is what should make Jr. and Sr. a good team- they each bring different strengths to the table. Ironically that is what also drove them apart.
Then it got weird. As the kids were leaving OCC Senior asked one of them to give to Paulie a picture of them together. “That particular picture meant something to me so hopefully he’ll take it in the same way.” Interesting that he said it in the past tense. Not “it means something to me,” but “it meant something to me.” Small but meaningful difference.
Paulie had no idea how to take it and was just confused.
As for the rest of the show, Senior refused to shave his mustache for charity and OCC played hockey. Senior was in goal and that pleased Rick. He wanted an excuse to plow into him. Senior was not too mobile but actually not bad, making a lot of stops. Jason acted like a jerk on the ice and I waited to see someone slam him into the boards head first but sadly no one did.
PJD went to Florida to unveil the Universal Insurance bikes and Paulie took the crew to Discovery Cove to swim with the fish, er, dolphins. Seeing Mikey in a wetsuit was quit a sight.
This seems to be the last episode (Of the season? Series?) since Discovery doesn’t have a new one listed on their site. There was a lot of hype during the commercials for Nic Cage’s new film, Drive Angry. It looked awful.
Discovery left it hanging if it was the season finale or not. If it was you’d expect some hype. Some weeks back they were advertising the final episodes but their count didn’t match the number of shows aired. It seems like they added one or two. Will the show be back? Will OCC be foreclosed upon? Will Sr. and his sons reconcile? We’ll have to wait and see.
But my guess is no, they won’t reconcile.
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