Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Apprentices Ep 9 and 10
Didn't get a chance to write up on ep 9 of the Apprentice so a quick recap, it was selling baby products at a baby show, to which saw the end of the arrogant and cocky Ben, to be fair he did struggle in this episode and he did let go of some of his attitude somewhat. Seems a shame and in fact I'm surprised James who PM'd this task and failed it didn't GET fired for it, he really is the cat of this series, how many more lives can he have! Anyway....
Just been watching episode 10 of the Apprentice, and I really enjoyed it as its the usual QVC one, where the remaining candidates have to pitch products live on TV and yep its great fun to watch them make a tit of it!
To be fair I think both teams did very well in these tasks and it was a very close call on the decision. The ever efficient and excellent Yasmina managed Empire whilst the ever efficient and also excellent Howard lead Ignite. For Empire's team James and Yasmina pitched together and not surprisingly James made a bit of a tit of himself (forgive him for being nervous of course) as he stumbled to begin with. But Debra did a very good job presenting live and in the secured alot of sales. On the Ignite team Howard and Lorraine presented together and they also did a good job and chose more expensive products (as Empire chose cheaper products) while Kate did an OK presentation of some pretty poor products (an air guitar "head!" and some cat pin thing!).
In the boardroom though it was decided that Empire were the winners as they sold the most, with Debra selling the bulk of their sales with over £900 out of about £1500. This came as a real shock as I thought Ignite would definitely win with their choice of products being more expensive, such as the deep fat frier which would be a dead cert surely. However in the boardroom Sir Alan had to make a decision and regretfully he chose to fire Howard, which I felt was a mistake, as Howard is definitely one of the strongest candidates in the entire show, even Margaret felt Sir Alan was wrong. But Sir Alan felt he didn't take enough risks, a point which the clairvoyant Lorraine raised early on in the episode, and sadly Howard didn't listen to Lorraine on taking a risk on one of the choice of products, pity, another one underestimates Lorraine! So that means James has escaped the firing line once again and he is the only remaining man in the competition! (a real surprise considering!).
So I'm really looking to next week's episode which features the interviews, where the remaining contestants get shredded in the interview process by some of Sir Alan's toughest interviewer experts (so bring on the bulldogs Claude, possilby Paul, and the ever shrewd Borden if that's his name).
Just been watching episode 10 of the Apprentice, and I really enjoyed it as its the usual QVC one, where the remaining candidates have to pitch products live on TV and yep its great fun to watch them make a tit of it!
To be fair I think both teams did very well in these tasks and it was a very close call on the decision. The ever efficient and excellent Yasmina managed Empire whilst the ever efficient and also excellent Howard lead Ignite. For Empire's team James and Yasmina pitched together and not surprisingly James made a bit of a tit of himself (forgive him for being nervous of course) as he stumbled to begin with. But Debra did a very good job presenting live and in the secured alot of sales. On the Ignite team Howard and Lorraine presented together and they also did a good job and chose more expensive products (as Empire chose cheaper products) while Kate did an OK presentation of some pretty poor products (an air guitar "head!" and some cat pin thing!).
In the boardroom though it was decided that Empire were the winners as they sold the most, with Debra selling the bulk of their sales with over £900 out of about £1500. This came as a real shock as I thought Ignite would definitely win with their choice of products being more expensive, such as the deep fat frier which would be a dead cert surely. However in the boardroom Sir Alan had to make a decision and regretfully he chose to fire Howard, which I felt was a mistake, as Howard is definitely one of the strongest candidates in the entire show, even Margaret felt Sir Alan was wrong. But Sir Alan felt he didn't take enough risks, a point which the clairvoyant Lorraine raised early on in the episode, and sadly Howard didn't listen to Lorraine on taking a risk on one of the choice of products, pity, another one underestimates Lorraine! So that means James has escaped the firing line once again and he is the only remaining man in the competition! (a real surprise considering!).
So I'm really looking to next week's episode which features the interviews, where the remaining contestants get shredded in the interview process by some of Sir Alan's toughest interviewer experts (so bring on the bulldogs Claude, possilby Paul, and the ever shrewd Borden if that's his name).
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Other stuff and The Apprentice ep 8
Right this is going to be a big one:
OK, I'm feeling better now, this week actually has been good for me as I've got the place to myself while the folks are away on holiday, so its the usual fend for oneself and try to remember to all the household chores (ok not that many really!). Last night though I was pleased cos I managed to finally get to cook for myself as I've been out at nights quite a bit this week so last night was a night in, made some sausage pasta, yum yum! The week to myself however could have been better if didn't have that viral bug come back on me like it did last Friday night as I felt a bit crap for half the week, but thankfully its cleared up for now (for now! or for a good while I hope!).
Anyways as I said its been a busy week, on Monday managed to get a couple of DVD/Blu-ray discs, so I was chuffed to finally get Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin on DVD (OK nerdy mode on!) which was really good, hardly forgotten how good it was and it showed Tom Baker effortlessly holding his own without a companion to assist him (he basically needs someone to spout out the exposition to!). The story is a wonderful mix of suspense, thrills, high drama and there's some comedy too of course (I love the line where Cardinal Borusa says to the Doctor "You will never amount to anything in the galaxy as long as you retain your propensity for vulgar fascetiousness!"). The story is about the Doctor returning to his home planet Gallifrey to try and prevent the assassination of the President of the Time Lords only to find himself framed for the crime himself.
The cast are all great in the show with excellent performances from George Pravda as Castellan Spandrell, Angus MacKay as Cardinal Borusa and Bernard Horsfall as Chancellor Goth. The only thing that slightly let it down for me was that the Master albeit played excellently by the late Peter Pratt was perhaps a little too dramatic all the time with too much emphasis on high drama and hardly anything in the way of wit and humour. In short it didn't remind of the Master as he should be, but I guess as the character was dying he would be highly melodramatic. All the same The Deadly Assassin is a classic from a time when Doctor Who was at its absolute peak, and its a real reminder of just how good the show can be, as this show certainly stands miles above the current Russell T Davies ressurected campathon, much as I enjoy it, it'll never scale those heights again.
Now onto The Apprentice episode 8 which was once again very entertaining and had me shaking my head at the screen at certain points going "Why? Why? Why, Debra??!". But anyway this week's ep saw the two teams having to come up with an idea to rebrand Margate, Empire chose a theme of the gay community while Ignite's theme was family. From the get go Ignite's campaign showed much more promise mainly because the team worked as a team, apart from some resistance from ever gobby Lorraine always having her say. But Yasmina proved herself to be an excellent project manager again as she kept a level head and just got on with it. The Empire team however was a different story, with Debra bulldozing her way into being the project manager despite Howard initially stepping to do the job. Howard despite not getting to be project manager did manage to supervise the creative side of the task and he did an excellent job. However I think their task was let down by a lack of support from Mona, and James to be fair did his best to pitch in despite making the odd off colour comment (to the guy models pretending to be a gay couple he said "OK guys we're not making a porno!"). Their posters were frankly awful and their leaflet for their campaign left a lot of blank space in it, too, this was mainly Debra's fault as he spent so much time mucking about not making a decision. Another important point here was that Debra doesn't listen to anyone, or rather she is unable to as it goes in one ear and out the other! Howard while trying to make a good point about the poster having too many words just fell on deaf ears while Debra was supposedly listening, and their posters ended up with too many words. During the pitches by the teams, both pitches were well received but it was Empire who fell short of the mark as people thought their posters were dreadful and confusing.
In the boardroom Sir Alan told them that of the two teams Ignite were the winners as the Local residents and Industry experts gave them 7/10 while Empire only got 4/10. After that in the boardroom Debra who came back in with James and Mond, showed a bit more restraint this time probably because of her verbal warning from Sir Alan about her attitude towards Nick last time. But in the end Sir Alan had to chalk it up to how people had peformed in the past weeks and he decided to fire Mona because of her lack of creativity (although he did fire her "with regret"). To be honest though I thought Sir Alan was wrong to fire Mona too, as she herself said, if anyone should have been fired it should have been Debra, she mis-managed the task badly and didn't listen to anyone. James was also skating a bit on thin ice as his contribution wasn't major from what I'd seen Mona took more to the asking the questions, James seem to hang around the background. I'm also not so sure about James in the show now as I think he seems to be watching his own back and try and not get himself fired as well as being a bit of a grass by dobbing on other people (namely Mona). So out of the remaining contestants so far, the ones I'd like to see with a chance of winning and getting into the final would be Yasmina, who has really proved herself as a manager and has a good positive way of working with everyone, and Howard, who really stepped up in this episode and also is very level headed and Kate, who is very capable although she does appear to be a bit icy at times.
Phew! That was a long un. That's all for now.
OK, I'm feeling better now, this week actually has been good for me as I've got the place to myself while the folks are away on holiday, so its the usual fend for oneself and try to remember to all the household chores (ok not that many really!). Last night though I was pleased cos I managed to finally get to cook for myself as I've been out at nights quite a bit this week so last night was a night in, made some sausage pasta, yum yum! The week to myself however could have been better if didn't have that viral bug come back on me like it did last Friday night as I felt a bit crap for half the week, but thankfully its cleared up for now (for now! or for a good while I hope!).
Anyways as I said its been a busy week, on Monday managed to get a couple of DVD/Blu-ray discs, so I was chuffed to finally get Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin on DVD (OK nerdy mode on!) which was really good, hardly forgotten how good it was and it showed Tom Baker effortlessly holding his own without a companion to assist him (he basically needs someone to spout out the exposition to!). The story is a wonderful mix of suspense, thrills, high drama and there's some comedy too of course (I love the line where Cardinal Borusa says to the Doctor "You will never amount to anything in the galaxy as long as you retain your propensity for vulgar fascetiousness!"). The story is about the Doctor returning to his home planet Gallifrey to try and prevent the assassination of the President of the Time Lords only to find himself framed for the crime himself.
The cast are all great in the show with excellent performances from George Pravda as Castellan Spandrell, Angus MacKay as Cardinal Borusa and Bernard Horsfall as Chancellor Goth. The only thing that slightly let it down for me was that the Master albeit played excellently by the late Peter Pratt was perhaps a little too dramatic all the time with too much emphasis on high drama and hardly anything in the way of wit and humour. In short it didn't remind of the Master as he should be, but I guess as the character was dying he would be highly melodramatic. All the same The Deadly Assassin is a classic from a time when Doctor Who was at its absolute peak, and its a real reminder of just how good the show can be, as this show certainly stands miles above the current Russell T Davies ressurected campathon, much as I enjoy it, it'll never scale those heights again.
Now onto The Apprentice episode 8 which was once again very entertaining and had me shaking my head at the screen at certain points going "Why? Why? Why, Debra??!". But anyway this week's ep saw the two teams having to come up with an idea to rebrand Margate, Empire chose a theme of the gay community while Ignite's theme was family. From the get go Ignite's campaign showed much more promise mainly because the team worked as a team, apart from some resistance from ever gobby Lorraine always having her say. But Yasmina proved herself to be an excellent project manager again as she kept a level head and just got on with it. The Empire team however was a different story, with Debra bulldozing her way into being the project manager despite Howard initially stepping to do the job. Howard despite not getting to be project manager did manage to supervise the creative side of the task and he did an excellent job. However I think their task was let down by a lack of support from Mona, and James to be fair did his best to pitch in despite making the odd off colour comment (to the guy models pretending to be a gay couple he said "OK guys we're not making a porno!"). Their posters were frankly awful and their leaflet for their campaign left a lot of blank space in it, too, this was mainly Debra's fault as he spent so much time mucking about not making a decision. Another important point here was that Debra doesn't listen to anyone, or rather she is unable to as it goes in one ear and out the other! Howard while trying to make a good point about the poster having too many words just fell on deaf ears while Debra was supposedly listening, and their posters ended up with too many words. During the pitches by the teams, both pitches were well received but it was Empire who fell short of the mark as people thought their posters were dreadful and confusing.
In the boardroom Sir Alan told them that of the two teams Ignite were the winners as the Local residents and Industry experts gave them 7/10 while Empire only got 4/10. After that in the boardroom Debra who came back in with James and Mond, showed a bit more restraint this time probably because of her verbal warning from Sir Alan about her attitude towards Nick last time. But in the end Sir Alan had to chalk it up to how people had peformed in the past weeks and he decided to fire Mona because of her lack of creativity (although he did fire her "with regret"). To be honest though I thought Sir Alan was wrong to fire Mona too, as she herself said, if anyone should have been fired it should have been Debra, she mis-managed the task badly and didn't listen to anyone. James was also skating a bit on thin ice as his contribution wasn't major from what I'd seen Mona took more to the asking the questions, James seem to hang around the background. I'm also not so sure about James in the show now as I think he seems to be watching his own back and try and not get himself fired as well as being a bit of a grass by dobbing on other people (namely Mona). So out of the remaining contestants so far, the ones I'd like to see with a chance of winning and getting into the final would be Yasmina, who has really proved herself as a manager and has a good positive way of working with everyone, and Howard, who really stepped up in this episode and also is very level headed and Kate, who is very capable although she does appear to be a bit icy at times.
Phew! That was a long un. That's all for now.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Return of the bugs and Apprentice ep 7
Well well well (3 wells!) just when you thought it was safe to go out into the world again low and behold I've been feeling bugsy again over the weekend, its not the same viral symptoms as last time, weak arms and legs with rash on my tongue, no its morely upset tummy and muzzy head and slightly weak limbs. To be honest I think I've just been feeling run down after all my hectic activity of late with my acting classes/group work and going out etc. That's the only downside to my acting is that after all the rehearsing for a show and after you perform you usually feel pretty drained once its over, especially after doing the Tom Stoppard double bill in February I was totally done in! (as was Scott who did it the other show then too). So I've actually decided to stop being a couch potato so much and have ordered myself an exercise bike, so that way I can actually try and build up some energy after work nights so that way I'm not so zombied at nights, we'll see how that works out!
Anyway on another subject having watched Apprentice episode 7, thought I'd post up about it. It was another very enjoyable episode, this time the two teams had to travel North to Liverpool and sell two chosen products to stores. The task had mixed success as Empire lead by Mona did very well on their sales with over £4000, while Ignite lead by Lorraine did rather poorly with only sales of over £1400. In the boardroom Lorraine received a bashing not only from Sir Alan but also from Philip and Kate who were on her team who didn't sell a single thing (Lorraine was actually responsible for most of the sales in her team!). But after much slinging and slagging Sir Alan finally made up his mind and fired Philip because of his arrogant cocky attitude, which I think was the most deserved firing yet, Philip didn't know when to keep his mouth shut, he didn't listen to criticism and most of all he didn't listen to Lorraine. Lorraine was Philip's nemesis all along, but he really did bring it upon himself by purely being arrogant and thinking he was better than everyone else (which he wasn't!). Lorraine was skating on thin ice as well though as she clearly alienated the other people in her team apart from Ben and Yasmina (although they did have a run in over who would take control of the sales pitch). But she did sell well and she has the weird sixth sense of being right especially when other people are wrong. Kate on the other hand also showed no loyalties toward anyone, as she even went as far as going against her seemed ally Philip by criticising his performance in the task, as well as denying that they had a relationship (which is debatable based on the footage). So even though she's pretty effective lady (and pretty of course!) we'll need to watch out for her. Ah wellie well!
Anyways look forward to the next one.....
Anyway on another subject having watched Apprentice episode 7, thought I'd post up about it. It was another very enjoyable episode, this time the two teams had to travel North to Liverpool and sell two chosen products to stores. The task had mixed success as Empire lead by Mona did very well on their sales with over £4000, while Ignite lead by Lorraine did rather poorly with only sales of over £1400. In the boardroom Lorraine received a bashing not only from Sir Alan but also from Philip and Kate who were on her team who didn't sell a single thing (Lorraine was actually responsible for most of the sales in her team!). But after much slinging and slagging Sir Alan finally made up his mind and fired Philip because of his arrogant cocky attitude, which I think was the most deserved firing yet, Philip didn't know when to keep his mouth shut, he didn't listen to criticism and most of all he didn't listen to Lorraine. Lorraine was Philip's nemesis all along, but he really did bring it upon himself by purely being arrogant and thinking he was better than everyone else (which he wasn't!). Lorraine was skating on thin ice as well though as she clearly alienated the other people in her team apart from Ben and Yasmina (although they did have a run in over who would take control of the sales pitch). But she did sell well and she has the weird sixth sense of being right especially when other people are wrong. Kate on the other hand also showed no loyalties toward anyone, as she even went as far as going against her seemed ally Philip by criticising his performance in the task, as well as denying that they had a relationship (which is debatable based on the footage). So even though she's pretty effective lady (and pretty of course!) we'll need to watch out for her. Ah wellie well!
Anyways look forward to the next one.....
