God or the Girl?

Then something happens that often happens in reality and frequently happens in scripted dramas, but almost never happens on reality TV. The characters change. Not their make-up, their nose, or their tribe: Them. It isn't quite a lightening bolt from heaven, but Joe, Dan, Mike and Steve, each in their own way, close in on their decisions as discernibly different people than they were when the camera first landed on them. Some more confident in their direction, others less.

God or the Girl doesn't quite have what it takes to save the soul of reality television. But by grabbing hold of few simple things, it's a vision that studio executives should pay attention to before greenlighting The Apprentice's next season.

Louis Wittig is a media writer in New York.