‘Save Our Business,’ save your time

Most advice can be described in one of two ways: What would work is obvious, and what isn’t obvious probably wouldn’t work.

On TNT’s new reality show “Save Our Business,” in which an expert tries to rescue troubled small businesses, the advice tends to be of the first sort.

The more dubious advice tends to be aimed toward helping the business owners grow as individuals or repair their family relationships. It’s hard to believe that a few days of pep talk are going to change people or marriages significantly.

Although the emphasis on family is unusual, most of the show is a typical example of the reality subgenre in which opinionated people show up and try to turn around restaurants, bars, hotels, salons or businesses in general. The process is so familiar and tired that few viewers will care whether the companies survive or shut down.

Premiering this Friday, Feb. 28, at 10 p.m., “Save Our Business” stars Peter Jones, a tall Brit who is introduced as an international entrepreneur worth half a billion dollars. His current “mission” is to travel around America saving small businesses.

In the premiere episode, Jones takes on a kids’ play space called Under the Sea, located north of Los Angeles. It’s run by a woman named Yas Adeli, who is letting everything slide.

The staff is apathetic; the space is filthy and malodorous; and the birthday parties — the main source of income — are slapdash affairs. Yas confesses that she is deep in debt and that the pressures are affecting her marriage.

Jones attends one party and is dismayed by the chaos. An employee who is supposed to be a pirate can’t even be bothered to emit a few “arrrgh”s.

Jones’ first step is to have Yas and the staff give the place a thorough cleaning. He says that this will allow Yas to practice leadership.

He then has Yas and her husband, Nader, talk about their feelings. In a few minutes of air time, they make more progress than most couples do after months of therapy.

A woman who runs a leading children’s party company comes in and gives the staff lessons in enthusiasm. Once again, the transformation is instantaneous.

In an obvious move, Jones brings in what he calls “my team” and completely renovates the space. He also buys new equipment and toys and gives the business a new name, Kids Ahoy, so that Yas can overcome the negative reputation associated with Under the Sea.

In a show filled with reality clichés, the post-makeover “reveal” and before and after shots stand out.

The episode ends with a post-Jones-treatment party and a voice-over describing how Yas is doing now. We won’t spoil the results here.

In the second episode, Jones helps a family-run martial arts gym in Inglewood, Calif. The father, Robert Kingi, has handed over control to his son, Rick, who is running it into the ground. Rick says he’s taking only about $1,000 a month in profit out of the business.

The emphasis on personal growth and relationships is even stronger in this episode. Jones takes Rick and his teachers out into the woods and has him do a “leadership exercise”: He shouts instructions to the blindfolded instructors as they climb a tree and link hands on a pole.

Jones has a one-on-one with Rick’s wife, Falyn, who resents having to be the family’s chief breadwinner while Rick gets to pursue his low-paying dream job.

Both the leadership exercise and the talk with Falyn prove to be improbably transformative. A promotional carnival also brings in new customers, but the reason for that is probably, once again, the renovation of the space and the purchase of new equipment.

Judging by this show, the best advice for small-business owners would be to get on a reality show with a big renovation budget. If they can’t, the other lessons of the show are either, as stated above, obvious or dubious.

If future episodes don’t improve, the producers may have to hire Jones to do a spinoff series called “Save ‘Save Our Business.’ ”