The Apprentice [UK] - General Discussion

[Superpole2000]

On 12/19/2016 at 11:20 PM, Trick Question said:

Though if someone has a fresh, sound business plan, they probably also have the sensibility to find more practical traditional funding methods than a 12-week reality show.

I hope they find a way to fix this. Maybe they can condense the filming schedule or offer a stipend of some sort. Or maybe they can select two winners instead of making this such a longshot gamble and waste of time for many of the contestants.

On 12/15/2016 at 9:42 PM, chocolatine said:

I thought she was being confrontational and almost rude in her interview with the woman who's actually built a successful fashion business. If a candidate I was interviewing spoke to me like that, I wouldn't be impressed.

But you would never behave like an asshole like these interviewers do. It really is unprofessional to behave like Claude does in interviews. His meanness is such a contrivance that he won't even shake anyone's hand. I would like to see this show get over the temptation to use the interviews as an excuse to just tell the candidates all the ways in which they suck. Give us something positive we can appreciate. Give us a reason to think the candidates have talent. Let them shine once in a while. Without that, you get what we had this season, which was a group of people who seem to be remarkably void of talent. The best idea I saw all season was Courtney's Lord Sugar dispenser, and that was about the only positive part of the interview episode.

I would also like to see a few less sour attitudes on upcoming seasons. Paul and Trishna were amazing downers, and they often just sucked the life out of the room when on screen. On the other hand, I do like having a variety of personalities.

[chocolatine]

2 hours ago, Superpole2000 said:

But you would never behave like an asshole like these interviewers do. It really is unprofessional to behave like Claude does in interviews. His meanness is such a contrivance that he won't even shake anyone's hand.

Yup, being mean and intimidating in interviews is not a good way to attract the best and brightest talent.

[Occasional Hope]

Here we go again.

 

The fatal error on the burger task was to miss lunch.

Could they not have crossed out the organic on the label while in the car on their way to the sales point?

[legaleagle53]

So the usual bunch of donkeys?  I'm in!

[Occasional Hope]

Yes, pretty much the usual cast.

[TVbitch]

Love this show! So much better than US one ever was. 

[legaleagle53]

10 hours ago, TVbitch said:

Love this show! So much better than US one ever was. 

That's because Lord Sugar hates unnecessary drama and manufactured bullcrap. He has little patience for people who don't come right to the point, which is why he himself gets right to the point and speaks his mind.  He also doesn't make everything all about himself, unlike certain people in the US (who shall remain nameless), and he genuinely cares about the contestants who show by their words and conduct that they're really trying.  You should see the way he still supports and plugs the businesses started by past Apprentice winners on Twitter -- he's almost like a proud father bragging about his children!

[Occasional Hope]

Both teams did an awful job this week.  The girls' room looked cheap and drab; and are the boys all colour blind?

Why did noone think to but a picture or two for the walls?

[OutOfTheQuestion]

All caught up on the first two episodes.  The second one, moreso than usual for this show, seemed like an episode of the Office....the cut to Jeff actually breakdancing was just an actual laugh out loud.

Sarah Lynn is the rare first-task PM that actually seemed competent!  Then again, a laundry hamper would've seemed competent compared to the guys team.  It's rare that the show makes it so clear which team is losing, yet no editor in the world could've made a team that GAVE THEMSELVES LESS THAN TWO HOURS TO ACTUALLY SELL THEIR PRODUCT a hope in hell.

Both hotel rooms were lousy, though as Sugar put it, the ladies' room was less hateable.  Perhaps better to be sparse with bad decoration than to overload a room with bad decorations.  Thought Ross deserved to be fired over Jeff, and was surprised more wasn't made about his weaselly "I'm ideal to lead this task but only as subteam leader" pitch.

[legaleagle53]

I liked the bright colors in the boys' room, but I agreed with the guy who said that it looked as though they were doing homage to Romania rather than the UK.  And that mural of Tower Bridge looked as though a five-year-old had drawn it.  Some paintings would definitely have been a much better touch.

Going back to the burger episode (which made me hungry for burgers, incidentally), the men blew that one big time by not selling at lunchtime or moving to a different location when it was obvious that there was no traffic being generated.  And I was surprised that Charles wasn't fired for being a loose cannon -- Lord Sugar made it clear that he has no use for people who won't listen to feedback from others and just keep on doing as they please.

[Occasional Hope]

Chamging the robot's name would not have been a big deal if only they had communicated it to the other team in time.

The girls are lucky the boys are so rubbish, given their own infighting.

[OutOfTheQuestion]

I would've liked to have known how much booze the women had left over by the end of their task.  If they had a drastic amount left, then yeah, the argument could've been made that they made a poor decision in buying so much.  If they ran out or had maybe 10% left, it's not a big deal.

The football facts/entertainment portions of the task were just about totally irrelevant, apart from a "let's humiliate a contestant" moment, since they didn't even bother showing the equivalent on the other team.  Given the pretty slim margin of victory, however, I would've liked to have known how much the women spent (if anything) on their entertainer.

Sarah Lynn seems to be this season's Helen Milligan in terms of ultra-competence.  The "Clark Kent" guy can go anytime now, what a blowhard.  He wins one task to improve to a measly 1-3 and he's acting like Sugar just booked him the job.

[OutOfTheQuestion]

This was definitely a week where Sugar should've fired the entire final three.  If anything, Sarah was the least-incompetent of the lot.

For the winning team, wouldn't the easy solution have been to start the tour at the Segway shop and then ride everyone around town?

[Occasional Hope]

Doggies!  Adorable doggies!

I had a lot of Issues with this episode:

It was inappropriate to have the femal candidates have to meet Lord S in their nighties. 

Would you want to have untrained amateurs cutting your dog's nails?

 

On the better side, a gloriously mass firing.  And the doggies.

 

I thought Elizabeth did well this week.

[OutOfTheQuestion]

9 hours ago, Occasional Hope said:

Would you want to have untrained amateurs cutting your dog's nails?

I think this was sort of implied in the spa's decision for the Jade/Michaela/Charles team.  Joanna had no experience with dogs and thus would be starting from scratch in learning the actual operations, whereas Michaela and Jade have their own dogs and are well-versed in cutting nails.

[Occasional Hope]

All those packages looked way too complicated for what they were supposed to be.  Why would someone pick one of them rather than either something completely prepared, or coooking from scratch? 

[TVbitch]

This is one of the most incompetent batches of contestants in a long time. Either they are just not really taking these tasks very seriously, or, well, they just aren't the brightest of bulbs. I would find it hard to pick a "winner" on the majority of these tasks compared to other seasons. Like somebody said above, it almost seems like an Office type parody show of itself. ~Still entertaining though!  

[Occasional Hope]

I think that every year.

[Occasional Hope]

The women's fashion items were awful.  Would anyone ever actually wear them outside of a red carpet situation?

James selecting himself as a model - self regarding at its worst.

The girls leering at the male models - just as tacky and unprofessional as it would be if the genders were reversed.

 

And down to the last five already.  Any guesses as to the winner?

I like Elizabeth as a contestant, but I can't see Lord S picking her, unless her business plan is amazing.

I reckon James will fail at the interview stage.  I don't like Joanna very much, and Sarah seems quite bland, so my best guess is Michaela.

But I don't know what any of the business ideas are.

Edited December 7, 2017 by Occasional Hope

[TVbitch]

I am convinced that ever since they switched to it being a business partnership instead of a job, that the winner is pretty much determined beforehand. I have watched a lot of previous seasons since the switch knowing who the winner was and I could see Lord Sugar switching the eventual winner to stronger teams to protect them, and also you can see the "eyes and ears" coming up with reasons not to fire them, even though they were on losing teams and in the bottom time after time. Many times a person with one of the worst "records" as far as wins & losses, or selling, or leading a team ended up winning.  

I think for this season the winner will be whoever has the business plan Sugar is most interested in, no matter how they do on the tasks. 

Still, I love the show and it has gone quickly! 

[Occasional Hope]

Oh dear - almost all Alana's online range was not properly labelled re allergies etc: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/42324784

[Occasional Hope]

Well, I wasn't expecting that result ;)

I do think there are some problems with Sarah's brand/business.  Sweeteze sounds more like an artificial sweetener to me.  And the actual sweets themselves are nothing special - just bogstandard tuckshop/pick and mix type sweets you can buy cheap in bulk.  Her business is obviously all in the packaging and personalisation - but I wouldn't be impressed by being given them.

[TVbitch]

For me, that was two of the least impressive presentations from over the years, without any real business info. I'm know it goes on longer than what we see, but it was like, "Hi, I am going to be an industry leader cuz I said so! Here's my egregiously lame billboard, and terrible commerical. Any questions?" I was shocked they both got it.

I thought Sarah said she wanted to get into the corporate gifting market and was sourcing "unusual" and "unique" sweets but all her marketing was aimed at the consumer and looked like junk candy. No way is she gonna build a consumer brand for sweets gifting. The packaging will cost more than those basic sweets and they will have to charge way too much.  

As for, um, okay already forgot the guy's name, I already knew he was a pre-chosen winner and there was no doubt he was getting through. I loved how at the last hour previous winner Ricky had to remind him to come up with a market focus "cyber security" ....oh, yeah, thanks, that sounds good! 

I really wish they would go back to it being a job interview.   

Was there an after show for the finale? 

[Occasional Hope]

Yes, but not very interesting.

[chocolatine]

I started watching late and just caught up. Some of the tasks were entertaining - the car commercial in the Norman village was my favorite - but the finale and winners were meh. Interesting that Joseph was glaringly absent from the recent winners that were trotted out. Did the plumbing business not work out?

21 hours ago, TVbitch said:

I thought Sarah said she wanted to get into the corporate gifting market and was sourcing "unusual" and "unique" sweets but all her marketing was aimed at the consumer and looked like junk candy. No way is she gonna build a consumer brand for sweets gifting. The packaging will cost more than those basic sweets and they will have to charge way too much.  

 This 100%. Her product looks like dollar store candy stuffed into canning jars - no corporation is going to touch that with a ten-foot pole. 

I would have liked to know everyone's business plans, wish BBC had put those up on the show website with the contestant bios.

[TVbitch]

I wish we could know all business plans as well. It's ludicrous how they have Lord Sugar pretend like he doesn't really know much about what's in them until the presentation. 

I wish they did two seasons a year. It's a long wait and I have to make do with "The Profit" and "Shark Tank!" 

[Occasional Hope]

Joseph's business did well, but he bought out Lord S so he could expand with additional external funding.

[Occasional Hope]

another year, another season.

[Occasional Hope]

Initial thoughts

 

The task

Sarah was particularly irritating, thank goodness she’s gone.  But Jackie is an unlikeable games player, so hope she doesn’t last too long.

Kayode is all talk and no substance. As a public speaker he seems to use nothing but cliches.

The girls seem rather mathematically challenged.

 

the boardroom:

LOL at the exchange over the octopus “you brought me a real live octopus“ - “actually, it was dead”.

Nice to see one of the boys has some self awareness, noting they won only by default.  I haven’t registered all their names yet, so not sure which one.

[doesntworkonwood]

Wrong decision. Jackie should have 100% been fired. She was manipulative, and spent the entire task being useless. Yes, Sarah was annoying, but as least she was able to actually buy something. 

I don't know what I expected though. This is the Apprentice after all. 

[chocolatine]

I think Jasmine should have gone. She was weak as a project manager and didn't take responsibility for anything - usually, Sugar has even less tolerance for someone like her than someone brash like Sarah.

I love how one of the blondes said her goal was world domination and when asked what her business plan was she said nut milk, which is a very small/niche market.

[TVbitch]

Wow, the girls squabbled a lot. It's going to be a loud season! 

This is always my least favorite task, so I'm glad they got it out of the way.

Did they pick team names and I missed it?

Is Jackie an American? 

Edited October 6, 2018 by TVbitch

[Occasional Hope]

Jasmine wasn't a good leader, but think she deserves some leeway as she was pushed into being PM.  And Sarah was fairly ghastly on screen.  She prob came across worse in person, 24/7.  (Sarah was on the front page of one of the tackier tabs about a naked photoshoot yesterday.  What a surprise.)

I don't think they did team names.  I suppose they only really need one once they've mixed up the genders.

[SnideAsides]

I know this version is kind of in a grey area with regards to product placement because it's on the BBC, but I've never been so confident a task was paid product placement as I was with that task being held in Valletta. Malta has been pushing the "European Capital of Culture 2018" schtick HARD for about five years now, and it seriously wouldn't shock me if they exploited some kind of "well, we're not really a company" loophole to bankroll the premiere.

[Occasional Hope]

Another battle of two bad teams this week.

Somehow I just knew the girls' French magazine would be riddled with errors.

Jackie was less annoying this week.

[TVbitch]

So I guess they not allowed to use the internet to research these tasks? I mean, the girls were struggling over French words a two second google search could have settled.  

Jackie's accent continues to be a mystery. 

Lord Sugar is clearly spoon fed his jokes, but I still adore him. 

[Occasional Hope]

No, I think the internet is banned, it would Mel it too easy for things like the Malta task.

[Occasional Hope]

Why on EARTH would you stick a cheap everyday biscuit on top of a doughnut?  they looked awful.

doughnuts are not intended to be savoury.  They are all about the sugar.

And they were all ridiculously overpriced.  

[TVbitch]

Those donuts were all a hot mess, but I do always enjoy the cookery challenges. I noticed there was not one shot of a consumer saying they actually enjoyed them. 

Okay, color me bad, but I kind of want to see the footage where the guy actually fractured his arm tryng to arm wrestle in the house. WTF?! 

[chocolatine]

15 hours ago, Occasional Hope said:

doughnuts are not intended to be savoury.  They are all about the sugar.

I know of a donut shop in Portland, OR, that sells a bacon donut, which is a hit with both locals and tourists. While I wouldn’t eat that myself, I think combinations of sweet and salty can be quite tasty if well executed, e.g. salted caramel, chocolate-dipped pretzels, etc.

Does anyone else think Sabrina looks like the Olsen twins? The resemblance is so strong, it’s almost like they were triplets separated at birth.

[OutOfTheQuestion]

If you're enough of an enthusiast to actually attend a bodybuilding expo, I'd think you'd already have your own home gym equipment.  So Sabrina's team perhaps missed a trick there, even if it was technically the best of the three available products.

I do feel sorry for the vendors they bring onto this show as options, only to have both teams instantly dismiss their product.  The woman selling the bedazzled bikinis was probably looking forward to her big break.

[PepperMonkey]

I always enjoy watching this Apprentice because it reminds me that there are jerks in the UK as well. From watching the UK Masterchefs, GBBO, etc., they're always so much startlingly nicer than American contestants on our shows, that it's embarrassing.

But here, on Apprentice UK, you can see that there are a-holes everywhere. As an American, it's reaffirming to see that.

Meanwhile, I want to now see a project manager go home, please. I can think of a couple of times the PM should have gone when Lord Shugah sent home just a regular player; in fact - and please keep in mind I can't remember hardly anyone's name yet, except Keodie, and I'm not sure I'm spelling that correctly - but the PM for the winning team, with the piercing? I was surprised Sugar and the gang didn't give her a harder time about obviously trying to marginalize Keodie. And then she effed up with the sports equipment guy by only caring about cost. She's lucky they won the challenge, but not many of these guys are impressing me so far...

[Occasional Hope]

That audience looked incredibly bored during both presentations.

I thought massage had to be done by people with qualifications in it?

[OutOfTheQuestion]

13 hours ago, PepperMonkey said:

I was surprised Sugar and the gang didn't give her a harder time about obviously trying to marginalize Keodie.

That team already had such a big edge in getting Kayode in the first place that using him in any role is a plus.  Having him on massages might've won them the task altogether, since the massage team had such a huge margin over the spray-tan team.  (Though that could've also been because massages are a much easier sell than spray tans.)

I'm sure there have been instances where this wasn't the case, but it seems like in any task based on pure volume of sales, the team with an extra member is going to have an inherent advantage.  When that extra member is the guy who seems to be the best salesman of the bunch, the advantage is magnified.

[chocolatine]

On 10/25/2018 at 2:25 AM, OutOfTheQuestion said:

If you're enough of an enthusiast to actually attend a bodybuilding expo, I'd think you'd already have your own home gym equipment.  So Sabrina's team perhaps missed a trick there, even if it was technically the best of the three available products.

I thought any of the three products would have been very hard to sell. Most people don't have enough room for a home infrared sauna - houses/backyards in the UK tend to be much smaller than in the US - and the bedazzled bikinis were extremely overpriced. I can see someone paying £50 for one, but not £295 or whatever price the owner named.

The service was the make-or-break part of the task, so the sub-team who picked the spray tan were at fault. Sabrina specifically told them to pick something that's easy to learn; spray tans are not easy. I guess her mistake was trusting them with the decision and not making them run it by her first.

[Occasional Hope]

the problem for the losing team was IMO that Jackie designed a shoe for herself rather than a wider market. I thought it looked ugly and uncomfortable.

 

The trainer was a bit cutesy with the bow.

 

I note than no one mentioned comfort.

[TVbitch]

Jackie sounds like she is trying to effect an American accent, but something else is peeking through.  

Who would buy a heel with a yellow bottom? That is gonna get trashed within one wearing outside and look awful. The lips prints could have been cool if they put them on a background where they could pop more. 

Why choose a multi-pink trainer with a bow when that basically eliminates most male buyers and most females over the age of 7. 

I'm sorry but neither of those shoes were "on fleek" ...and I don't even know what "on fleek" means. 

[Occasional Hope]

One of the funniest episodes ever.  I thought Manageair’s presentation was terrible ... until I saw the other one.

jet pop was misconceived in every possible way, but those were mostly laid bare in the show.

A lot of people accusing one another of being unprofessional in rather snide ways.

Kayode is not remotely as good a speaker as he thinks he is.

Kurran was completely useless as a leader.  Sabrina was not much better in her team, and was lucky they “won” (more accurately failed less spectacularly).

[Lazlo]

I have to admit I'm really starting to like Jackie, even with her less than brilliant performance this task. She always brings energy and a weird sort of charisma.

[OutOfTheQuestion]

2 hours ago, Occasional Hope said:

Sabrina was not much better in her team, and was lucky they “won” (more accurately failed less spectacularly).

I thought for sure this was going to be one of those marketing campaign tasks where the experts panned both teams, leading to everyone back in the boardroom.  When the best thing you can say about "Manage-Air" is that it can be identified as an airline ad, that's not a good sign.

Speaking of poor branding, can we address how "Typhoon" is a godawful team name?  It's a natural disaster!