The Apprentice 2012 Thread

Just caught up with this week's helping of everyone's favourite pseudo business programme.

I thought Stephen deserved to go, for giving an English product a French name, for looking for a wine expert amongst the staff at Tesco, for being a twat in the boardroom with his little interjections when others were speaking (such as repeating the phrase, "be specific" when others were talking) and because alongside Jenna he put together that awful video.

Having said that, I could have told you 8 weeks ago that Sugar won't be going into business with someone who sounds like one of the machinists in Mike Baldwin's factory every time she opens her cake hole.

A boring episode. The task was dull, the scenes showing the teams presenting and and answering questions on their campaigns (surely the outcome of the task) were cut very short in length, and there were no real comedy moments, even though they tried dismally to make Adam and Tom look drunk at the vineyard.

The episode could have been improved by the experts ranking the two teams on different criteria as part of giving an overall vote over which campaign was better. It strikes me as very odd that a team can win a marketing task with a boring campaign that failed to raise awareness but focussed on sales, and even then the sales aspect of the site was fundamentally flawed, can come up smelling of roses and not be taken to task on their own dismal performance.

Again I applaud the producers for a different type of task being tried but this series is a lemon.

largehat wrote:
Again I applaud the producers for a different type of task being tried but this series is a lemon.

I agree. I think they are running out of ideas because the current series is by far the worst one I can remember.

Reebok Trotter wrote:

I agree. I think they are running out of ideas because the current series is by far the worst one I can remember.

I've enjoyed the series, but you're right, it's not been as good as previous years. I put it down to the contestants, they are just too nice. Usually there are a couple of nasty ones, and at least half are backstabbing wankers.

Another lame duck task.

Thankfully, there were a few comedy moments this week to lighten the tedium.

Ricky being escorted round that posh restaurant and given the hard sell by that restaurateur and eating the scallops and then the guy not being remotely interested in negotiating a bulk discount was painfully funny.

Then of course in the boardroom, Stephen being a complete twat once again and then looking relieved when Gabrielle got fired, only for Sugar to fire Stephen also.

Apparantly Sugar has gone mental at some journalist on Twitter who has written an article slating this series for being boring. But the journalist is right. Dull tasks and dull candidates. I miss Jim from the last series, he was hilarious.

It's so predictable now. If Ricky had gone to Tring and got no viable contracts Stephen's "biggest mistake" would have been sending him there and wasting all morning on one meeting. As it was his biggest mistake was not going there himself.

Meanwhile on the other team the two guys failed to sell anything but got off as Jade was successful.

It took me a while to understand what the task was. Why haven't they done one of those tasks where they have to go out and buy shit they've never heard of for as little as possible?

They're a really dull bunch. Previous series have been full of people that I loved seeing get made a fool of and ultimately, fired. This series has just had one absolute bellend (Ricky) and the rest have been just irritating, boring or quite likeable.

largehat wrote: I miss Jim from the last series, he was hilarious.

Me too. This series needs a character like Irish Jim. Ricky is the closest but he doesn't have the bullshit blarney factor.

doffcocker wrote:It took me a while to understand what the task was. Why haven't they done one of those tasks where they have to go out and buy shit they've never heard of for as little as possible?

I think they're trying to make the tasks 'closer' to the experience of starting a business these days, because of course, it's called The Apprentice, but it's no longer about finding one of those.

But that was my favourite task too.

Last night summed up the series as a whole perfectly, the contestants are just too nice. They were even apologising for suggesting someone needed to be fired. For the next series the producers need to ensure they get some nasty people on board.

I have pretty much lost interest in it. Bland, banal contestants who I wouldn't pay in washers.

At least they got rid of Adam.

I agree with Natasha's comment above about the contestants being too nice.

I thought this was a very interesting task and more in line with what we would expect to see in The Apprentice. I believe the equivalent task last year was the setting up and running of a quality fast food outlet. The retail tasks are usually worth watching.

Personally I find cosmetics very boring and associate the retail of them with being ripped off.

I understand why the Sweet Thing team lost because although they created a vibrant and fun retail environment it is criminal to consider retail without pricing.

When it came down to the final three you just knew Jade was safe because there's no way you will get an all-male final four on any series of The Apprentice. There is no way Jade will win though.

I liked Adam but agree he had to go.

Adam was my favourite because he wasn't full of himself but he had to go last night. I don't think he would ever be cut out to work for Lord Foulbreath.

It was almost like Adam thought the fact that he never showed any imagination whatsoever was a strength of his. How often would he complain about other team members taking time to come up with ideas, when all he wanted was to do everything as simply, cheaply and time-efficiently as possible?
His most annoying catchphrase was "You don't have to babysit me!" What does that even mean?
The pitch he did last night was cringeworthy and showed just how out of his depth he is.
He's a good salesperson and a grafter but you can guarantee his business plan will have been bobbins.

Well, evaluating the final, after a series of firing people for questionable reasons, I think Sugar got the final four in exactly the right order for the right reasons.

Jade's was a horrible business. Telemarketing is a horrible business and it is in decline. People have no time for telemarketing any more. It's also only cost effective if you outsource to India or South Africa.

Nick's business has a lot of potential to be a niche business but it's one for Dragons' Den, not The Apprentice. It will make a bit of money but recipes aren't going to go global.

The issue with Tom's business is that it requires so much third party investment, which Sugar wasn't comfortable with. I think it could have legs, but he went with a safe choice.

It was a very interesting final in contrast to last year. Helen was clearly the best candidate last year but her business plan, a crappy concierge service, was awful, so Sugar was forced to go with the geek and his magic chair. This year he had three seriously interesting business plans and strong candidates to choose from. So definitely a really good final compared to last year's.

I agree with largehat's summary. The interviews are always the best bit. They really do their research. Jade looked woeful: her business plan was a joke; she hadn't bought the websites she said she had; and she failed business studies.

I also agree with Largehat's summary. Enjoyed the final and the right person won. I wish they'd show more of Claude Littner though, he should get his own show taking the piss out of peoples CVs.

I enjoyed it but i thought it was one of the most boring, if not the most boring, season yet.

The candidates were fairly dull in the main, no "Chrchetsrs" to have a laugh at.

the winner was a complete meat head, i preferred the young lad with the website idea personally. You've got the chance of a lifetime with Lord Sugar and this guy thinks of a fcking recruitment company.

guess thats what sells!

Hipster_Nebula wrote:

The candidates were fairly dull in the main, no "Chrchetsrs" to have a laugh at.
!

But you don't like characters.