Sadly Over-hyped

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

We live in a world where Music Television doesn't play any music, Video Hits 1 doesn't play any videos, Arts & Entertainment has no art and is not entertaining and watching The Learning Channel will actually make you dumber.So why not make a channel called Tru TV and make it as fake as possible?The sheep will watch anything and this channel proves it.This show pushes the fake boundaries by actually using the same plot for every episode.The overused plot is that an employee is stealing from them, Jesse is always sneaking around angering the owner's wife(who is always threatening to not perform her lame burlesque act with her troll face) and the band isn't going to play.While all this is happening, the frantic owner is running around acting like they are going out of business.Every episode ends with everything working out for them.IMDb really needs to start allowing negative ratings.Being required to give 1 star makes for a distorted overall rating.I would have given this a minus 6.

Okay, that title isn't totally misleading but I'm not completely "inside". At one point in my life I lived in the full throttle area. I have worked the rally and have seen the kind of things presented on the show. Also, I have known one of the primary stars for many years. The comment earlier that trashed the "players" was disgustingly out of line, inappropriate and wrong. Allow me to shed some light. Operating a business of this magnitude that requires months of planning is tough. The logistics alone are mind boggling. A typical bar owner would have no idea how to pull it off. We are talking two truckloads of beer per night. Plus booking bands and staffing an event with quality personnel, souvenir shops and vendors. Pulling this all off requires more than most can handle. Throw in the need for some drama for a TV show, and you have a recipe for disaster for most bar owners. Michael Ballard has always been a character But one thing he will not do is display himself in any different light than how he normally is. When he is upset, it's real. When he is happy, it is genuine. He gives what he can when he can and only asks for hard work In return.Angie is much more than what is shown on the show. She is a savvy business woman, college educated woman, and has always worked hard to get to where she is now. She is giving and charitable, often donating time and money to animal shelters and causes she believes in. Most of her giving flies under the radar, but trust me, I see it and it's real. I've never met Jesse, but my kids have and know him well, and they love him. He treats people well and is a loving and devoted family man by all accounts. Understand this is a television show. It depicts what life is like running a successful business while balancing friendship, loyalty, and family time. The drama is real in that the situations depicted have actually happened. And some are ongoing struggles. Do they happen in exact linear timeliness like on the show? Not always, but they are situations they find themselves in. All in all I love it, as does my wife and friends. But before rushing to judgement, get to know the people involved or don't comment.

I have nothing wrong to write about the show, in and of itself. The productions values all are there. Without access to all recorded footage, it would be difficult to opine what is represented fairly. But within that, that's sort of the point. The people that run FTS probably OK'd the way this TV show represents them, sort of the same way the people who run the FTS, which is pretty lame. The owner, who acts like an ex heroin addict, has a very limited range of emotions, all of them being between comatose and brain dead. Every event they facilitate is a "make-it-or- break-it type of scenario they are ill-equipped to to actualize. I owned and ran venues, its not rocket science, but they would like you to believe that when they fail, as it is represented in every episode I have seen, that its mysteriously someone else's fault other than their own. Maybe its that they are understaffed, or that the staff they have is not properly motivated,who really knows. All I see, as the producers wish me to see, is gross incompetence on all levels of management. There is no discipline or structure, or for that matter, simple logic applied to solving very simple problems. As the production exemplifies, all I see is a bunch of burnt-out losers trying to run a business that would easily be a mega-profitable enterprise otherwise.

If you're looking for a salacious, shocking reality show, look elsewhere. If you're looking for hours and hours of outrageous biker behavior, look elsewhere. This isn't a PR piece for the Sturgis motorcycle rally either. What you get out of watching this series is that you see how a business should - and should not - be run. The bar exists for only 10 days, and the pressure to turn a profit is present in every show. Season 1 is the better of the two, as you see the realities of the country's economic situation hitting the bar hard, and coupled with some poor business choices, you're left wondering if there will be a 2011 season for both the show AND the bar. The tension and drama in Season 1 feels quite real. Season 2, on the other hand, feels a bit more forced in terms of creating drama for TV. I think Season 1 would be excellent to show in an MBA program - it would be excellent to discuss the realities of human resources management, accounting, logistics, marketing and customer service. It's not the greatest reality series ever, but if you are interested in how businesses do and don't succeed, have a watch.