Rehab: Party at the Hard Rock Hotel is one of those shows I almost can’t admit I watch. It’s got drunk people, plastic people, bad attitudes, and lots of drama…the kind of stuff that if I were a part of it, I wouldn’t be able to stand it. Yet I’ve been sucked into TruTV’s reality show, which takes viewers behind the scenes of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, specifically the out-of-control Sunday pool party known as Rehab. The show returned for a third season Tuesday night and got right back to its old ways.
Hard-headed, hot-tempered Matt (whom I’m convinced hates pretty much everyone) is back even after being promoted to Director of Nightlife last season. I admit that I like Matt probably better than most people, but even I wonder how his blood pressure isn’t through the roof with as often as he seems to be angry about something. It’s 8:00 AM and he’s already saying he’s not in a good mood and throwing stuff into the pool.
Thankfully, Sharon the security supervisor is back to balance out Matt, or maybe eventually kill him. The two of them had their huge blowup at the end of last season and their relationship really hasn’t changed since then. She’s not happy because Matt has created the new “door host” position which infringes on some of the territory that security used to cover. Lo and behold, Matt walks right into her pre-shift meeting annoyed because she moved one of these guys to make room for security. He insults her age, she calls him names. Yep, same old Matt and Sharon.
At the waitress pre-shift meeting, we meet all the new waitresses (there’s not a one back from season two after Matt either rightfully fired the bad ones or ran the rest of them off). We also meet Bobby, the new pool general manager (the job Matt had last season), but he can’t be that important because he’s not even in the main credits and Matt cuts him off right after he says hi. I can’t even tell you what kind of a guy he is, because all we learn about him is that Matt didn’t want to hire him.
Chantel and Jessica the bartenders are back for their seventh Rehab. They’re busy fighting with plastic cups that don’t want to come apart. Chantel saves the day by getting non-Rehab cups that actually work instead. Hey, there has to be some comedy in the middle of Matt’s rampage somewhere. Of course, when Matt finds out these are not the official Rehab cups, he ges ticked off. I’m not sure he has another setting this entire episode.
Speaking of Matt, he’s trying to explain to Kenyon to suck up the fact that Bobby got hired instead of him getting promoted. Bobby makes the mistake of walking into this conversation and gets sworn at for it. He’s really having a bad first day, through no fault of his own. Sometimes I think Matt is absolutely right to put people in their place when they deserve it, or fire people who really can’t hack it. Other times, I think he’s eventually going to be smacked upside the head with a folding chair, probably by Sharon, who’s the only person who has the guts to stand up to him.
The waitresses are as catty as ever, piling on to the new girl Jonna (a Real World alumnus, who doesn’t even bring it up, unlike last season’s Danielle, who enjoyed bragging about her Playboy spread every five minutes) for being new. Uh, girls, you were all new at some point too, you know. You could actually try helping her out instead of ragging on her, especially if you guys are being forced to pool tips with her. You have enough people to deal with already. Look at the picture to the right, which is the definition of ‘big unruly mob.’ I would get lost in there and never be seen again. Yet they seem to be doing everything they can to undermine her. However, she gets a huge tip from her cabana and proves that she can survive.
Sharon and her security people (the ones Matt hasn’t moved) are busy trying to clear space for Wyclef Jean in the middle of this huge crowd. It turns out to be for naught when he decides to jump off the stage and go mingle in the mob.
Matt continues to pile on Bobby in a way nobody ever piled on him when he was pool general manager. It makes me miss the first-season general manager, Justin, who would have never talked like that to anyone. However, Bobby pulls a Matt of his own and fires somebody on the spot just because he used to work with him somewhere else where he had fired him before. That’s a first, being fired because you’ve been fired from somewhere else. He deserves the reaming Matt gives him for that one. His next target (complete with dramatic score swell) is Jonna, whom he catches off for a smoke after being told by her fellow waitresses that she can go smoke. At least he doesn’t fire her. If you’re keeping score, Matt’s yelled at five people (Bobby twice).
Sharon gets an urgent call for assistance to remove two women who are refusing to leave the premises after being kicked out of Rehab. One of them decides to be a bit punchy and leaves nail marks in Sharon’s arm. When Sharon points out that she’s just committed assault, she elects to leave quietly rather than go to jail.
At the end of the night, Bobby pulls Matt aside and tells him that he has a problem with the way he’s been treated through the day. Matt calls him incompetent. Expletives and accusations follow on both sides before Bobby quits. He didn’t even make it through his first day. Looks like Kenyon gets the job he wanted after all.
Cupgate concludes with Chantel being called into Matt’s office. He says she didn’t tell him about the cup issue, when we see from earlier in the episode that she did and he blew her off. The episode concludes with Matt taking credit for the success of the day. He may have made money, but one person got fired, another quit, and a whole bunch of people got screamed at. In other words, it’s pretty much the same as last season…which means I’ll still be shaking my head, and yet, I’ll still be watching.
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Why would the hard rock company keep a liability such as Matt around and then continue to promote him, as far as I can see he's a lawsuit waiting to happen, is money so important to this company that they are willing to sell their soul to the devil? It looks like they're already in bed with the spon of Satan. I suppose it makes for good TV, however, I would never give one red cent to this corporation after they televise the senseless cruelty they subject their staff to, why would anyone work for this company?!?
Everyone is in it for the money. The employees are all the same way too (with the exception of Sharon). If you hear the waitresses talk, they're more concerned with their tips and how much they make than actually helping each other even when they're supposed to be working together. I know from my personal experience, I had a high school teacher who was verbally abusive to his students and several of them, myself included, filed complaints with the school. He still works there. Why? Because he was also the coach of our state-winning tennis team. As long as Matt makes money for them, and everyone gets paid, people will put up with a lot, either because of greed or because of necessity.
Maybe I'm alone, but you can yell all you want in the law, but you cannot throw things physically at them, as Matt did with cups @ Chantel. That's a NO. If you throw something at an employee, it's assault, standard labor law here in our state and I'm sure elsewhere. One more issue I have with this: security in Vegas is done by a much different procedure then say, special events, etc. Moving around security personel isn't really his job, like it or not, he has to work around the security goals of any hotel. That's an insurance liability issue. if Security wants a spot, you give it up. I've said elsewhere but will say here: Club Rehab had a -down- year economically this year, a drug bust and on August 23, a death at the pool. I'm interested to see how this season progresses, because with the pressure the club has had from the more upscale beach parties at the Venetian and Wynn, it should make for a pressure cooker season.
I was curious to see what they'd do with Matt, since he wasn't the pool GM anymore. I'll admit I like him sometimes, but I was thinking they'd bring in a new pool GM and let whoever that was handle it, like Matt and Justin before them. Apparently not. Matt just is a control freak and he wants to run everything, just like Sharon pointed out.
I admit that I like him more than most people, because he's not afraid to get in the face of people who deserve it (like he was totally right to lay into Bobby for firing that one guy for no real reason), but he spends most of his time blowing up at people for stuff he has no right to. That whole situation with Chantel was way out of proportion. Especially when he told her that she didn't tell him about it, and we have it on tape that he did. If I were her, I would have told him to go look at the tape.
I wonder, though, if he gets away with things because no one stands up to him. Sharon seems to be the only one willing to take him on.
god i cannot stand Matt. he's just an asshat. i'll miss Bobby already!
Matt should be fired and brought up on charges the way he treats people. Chantel and many others should have filed harrassment, sexual harrassment and assualt charges against him. Atruly good manager would be able to control his staff and still treat them with respect. He treats Sharon like crap and she is the perfect example of a wonderful supervisor. Her guys respect her. No one respects Matt. He has short man syndrome, he tries to rule by intimidation. The new GM should have knocked him out when he quit.
He should, but he won't be because A) he makes money for the company, and B) you're exactly right, they should have pressed charges, but they don't. They complain and/or they quit, but they don't do anything. I don't doubt if everyone he's ever treated that way filed a complaint, he'd be in some pretty hot water, because then he'd be a liability for lawsuits, etc.
I love Sharon. I'd so work for her.
Do you guys not realize that this is a reality show and there is NOTHING real about it. The majority of the stuff on Rehab is scripted. If it were real, Matt would have been fired a long time ago due to labor laws. If you believe that it's real, I've got some swamp land in Florida I"d love to sell you.
The majority of TruTV's programs are by and large scripted. That's not a revelation to anyone. And I don't necessarily believe that he would be fired – you'd be surprised what supervisors in any facet of the business world can get away with as long as they are profitable.