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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The Apprentice series 3

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17:22 / 03.05.07

Nick is increasingly the real star of this show, though. I love how he seems to be getting more and more outspoken in his disbelieving horror at the candidates' incompetence.

It was fantastic wasn't it. He seemed to be genuinely angry at Paul's decision to buy all that cheap cheese.

That fucking canstove, what the fuck was that all about? Bloody imbecile.

Happy Dave Has Left

17:45 / 03.05.07

I've been suspicious of that Paul chap from the start - everyone's always banging on about his time in the Army, like that makes him some kind of born leader. Frankly, if he left as a Lieutenant (and given telly's usual accuracy, I feel it more likely he was a 2Lt) then he was in three years max. And he strikes me as the kind of blame-shifting, arrogant eejit that makes a bloody awful officer.

I mean, cash n' carry cheese? To France?

"We could have presented it better"

"The sausages were well browned."

Absolute twit.

Regrettable Juvenilia

22:23 / 03.05.07

God yeah, his increasingly desperate insistence that the sausages were "browned", as if offering them to the good people of France still not properly cooked wouldn't have caused a poisoning and thus an international incident...

It's that kind of thing that makes me tolerant of Sugar's hammy faux-indecision, because even the slightest possibility that he might not fire Paul at that point was so awful that I was on the edge of my seat.

Boboss, I think it's all about Nick's home away from home in Provence or wherever that made him take it personally. Same with the tea. I'd like to see the challenges move closer to home for Nick as the weeks go by, just to produce more spluttering.

Whisky Priestess

08:04 / 04.05.07

"Today's task is all about interpersonal relationships. Each team will be taking out one of Nick's lovely twin daughters and showing her a "good time" on the town. Will Eclipse or Stealth come out on top?"

Nick: *has coronary*

13:05 / 06.05.07

Nick is sublime. When Gerri in the boardroom said she had managed to sell eleven cups of coffee, Nick's "Oh, well done." was just so good. Until Siralan jumped in and barked "Do you want a medal!?" Clearly Siralan needs to learn to shut up and let Nick do more of the talking. For the good of the people.

I think they still managed to sell almost half of the 30kg of cheese they had, I thought that was quite good. Although it wouldn't surprise me if it was because they dumped it at cost-price.

I definitely think Adam will be brought into the boardroom every time he is on a losing team from now on. Perhaps not because anyone thinks he's useless, but because he's been in there the most so far (I think). And siralan will go "Oh, oh, are they sending me a message? I can't use people who don't get along with others." Whether it'll get him fired... I don't know.

I do wonder what Katie's plans are. She's gotten out of getting pulled into the board room twice, because the PMs liked her, but now they're both gone. Who will fall under Katie's spell next?

Whisky Priestess

12:05 / 07.05.07

I'm not sure she's PMed yet - in which case I think her and Adam to go head-to-head next episode would be rather good. Except that in the trailer it looks like Simon's about to burst into tears. Could just have been boardroomed by one of the PMs though.

12:46 / 07.05.07

I think they still managed to sell almost half of the 30kg of cheese they had, I thought that was quite good.

Yeah, that was overlooked in the post mortem, I think. The bricks of cheddar were probably a mistake, but all the same, they did seem to get rid of fourteen kg of Macro cheese in five hours, or whatever it was, in this supposedly ultra-discerning marketplace, where cost is irrelevant, and quality is everything. From the way Nick, that arriviste Franglo snob, framed it, shouldn't they have been dumping the full thirty in the bins in Calais?

If only they hadn't bought quite so much of it ... but that aside, this week's fuck-ups did seem to be largely down to Adam - he could have specified a price when he was talking to the printers, and, mainly, he could have gone off and bought a disposable barbecue with his own cash, if need be, rather than spending hours clowning about with the accursed bean can. He's got no initiative, that boy, and that, I fear, is what's going to finish him.

18:54 / 09.05.07

Trying to use that cooking thing was just stupid all together. Even if they thought it would work when they bought it, you'd know that it wasn't good enough after no more than ten minutes, wouldn't you? If it generates a very small amount of heat, adding a few holes won't bring it up to a proper cooking temperature, anyone couldn't have figured that one out.

And while I agree that Adam lacked quite a bit of initiative on that front, Paul must have known about the cooking thing not working (if not earlier, then at least when he came back after his selling round with Katie). And Paul did fuck all about it either.

21:01 / 09.05.07

Well. Katie does seem to have managed to turn herslf into a British national hate figure pretty much overnight, doesn't she? If there are boarding schools in Hell, it looks as if she might be a contender for head girl at one of them.

I worry about Paul.

21:42 / 09.05.07

Mmm. Good show.

When they started with the task, and there was general confusion about those nigella seeds, I just sat there wondering why they didn't just google it, but I watched that post-show, and I gathered that they only got a bunch of Yellow Pages to guide them. Still, they could have called someone else and asked them to google it. I know I would have.

And what a boardroom, eh? Whoa, Katie. I thought the post-show crowd was really hostile towards Katie, and I don't really understand why they were so extremely hostile all of a sudden. Has she really changed that much (or any) since previous episodes? Surely her dark side has been visible throughout the series, with her wishing the untimely demise of the other contestants at least once a week.

And then Adam. Siralan didn't have much of a choice there really. I guess he could have fired Ghazal, who still is lucky to be in the series after her poor PMing in the zoo task. But Siralan's summary of why Adam had to go was quite good: "Too many... too many... too many times... times... no... too many... he lost." (might not be an exact quote, but it's close).

Looking forward to next week with The Ugliest Logo Ever, and MC Simon (cringing goodness).

22:10 / 09.05.07

I figured the audience reacted to Katie's ill-conceived classist shit.

22:24 / 09.05.07

Katie is a pretty abhorrent person: Insinuating that another team-mate might have an alcohol problem as a tactic to avoid getting fired, the classist crap about sending Adam back up North, the sniping about other team-mates after in no uncertain terms declaring to Siralan that she engaged in no such behaviour.

I wonder if this footage is reviewed by Siralan and his companions prior to a firing. I mean, it might not necessarily make an impact upon a candidates performance in a task, but it certainly is indicative of how a candidate might behave of they were ultimately hired. Surely stuff like Katie's questionable behavior is more important to weigh than how she performs in some fairly arbitrary weekly tasks.

Liked this week's task though-treasure hunt yay!

22:38 / 09.05.07

To be fair to her though, Katie's comment on Adam's drinking was a personal attack in reply to a personal attack Adam launched upon her re:her 'closeness' to blokie boy who was fired last week. He made it personal and she returned in kind. Adam was sinking fast and in desperation used all he had in an attempt to stay in the game, but such desperate measures were never going to work.

Mysterious Transfer Student

22:49 / 09.05.07

What about juggler arsewipe Simon thinking it's okay to do an hilarious comedy Asian stereotype accent plus head-wobble if your Asian teammate hams up his accent to ingratiate himself with a wholesaler? I'd have booted the little schmuck into traffic. And that footage of him at the racetrack ... Christ's teeth! I have a new favourite hate figure.

02:28 / 10.05.07

To be fair to her though, Katie's comment on Adam's drinking was a personal attack in reply to a personal attack Adam launched upon her re:her 'closeness' to blokie boy who was fired last week.

Well, up to a point. Katie pretty much accused Adam of being an alcoholic, which I'd have thought, although I can't say for sure, is considered more of a bad scene business-wise than indulging in a mild flirtation with a co-worker. Which is all Adam seemed to be saying that Katie and Paul were up to.

On this showing, I think Katie should get the job, because she possibly deserves to work with (and not under!) a man like Siralan.

05:30 / 10.05.07

I can understand why people don't like Katie, and I'll just use the post-show crowd as a measuring tool. Basically up until this week there was just a little bit of hissing, but now its full on booing, by the whole crowd. What surprised me is the sudden change in reaction, while I thought Katie was hardly different this week from previous weeks. Accusing Adam of being an alcoholic did go a bit too far, but the smiley face with sniping in interview scenes, I think those things were there before.

The scale of saying that someone should be sent back up North, and belong there might be missed on me though, as I don't (and never have) lived in England.

08:26 / 10.05.07

Well, it's a class thing. Northern England = home of industry, traditonal Labour heartlands. She's a snob, simply put, one of those fucking hideous people who will always think she's better than someone else with a different accent.

Whisky Priestess

10:08 / 10.05.07

Or rather, she'll think she's better than everyone all the time anyway, and then find ways to deride them using personal characteristics (Kristina's orange, Adam's from Oop North etc.)

She's absolutely being classist and it's a fucking cheap shot to offer to send Adam back where he came from, as it were, but I still think the booing is a kneejerk crowd over-reaction and TBH, Katie is saying nothing worse than most of them will during an office bitching session over some Chardonnay.

Also, loving Adam in You're Fired! AT LAST a smile, a grin, willing to laugh at himself (unlike Paul who was fighting a humourless rearguard action throughout) - someone's even given him some Clearasil! Bless.

09:45 / 14.05.07

I'll miss adam.

As somoene who has cheated and started watching half way through, Simon seems to jump out as the winner . kate jumps out as the "Saira" figure. You just *know* she'll make it to at least the semis. I siralan likes her.

20:40 / 23.05.07

I agree that Adam came off better in the You're Fired show than he'd done during pretty much the whole series. Perhaps everyone hating him made him negative rather than the other way around. No matter what, it was nice seeing him with a smile on his face.

It seems that the further the show gets, the closer they are to dropping any pretense that this is not a game show at all. Last week with them making their own songs and logos, this week with selling to trade with no prep-time.

The rewards for winning are being kept at a low level as well. Pretenses are dropped here as well, no nice things with any thought, just give the winners 500 quid each and be done with it. Perhaps next week it'll be 600!

I quite liked last weeks show. The awful logos. The branding campaign for a brand which brands itself as anti-branding, a brand which is called "Street". MC and b-boy Simon. Oh, dear.

And I saw this weeks post-show show as well, and boy, does that crowd ever hate Katie. I still like her, she provides far more entertainment than for instance Naomi. Although I did miss her weekly deathwish upon one of her opponents.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:40 / 24.05.07

It's all about the slightly awkward Tre/Simon bond at the moment, isn't it?

08:42 / 24.05.07

In the fashion of Ross from Friends, Simon appears to be Tre's trained monkey...

10:29 / 24.05.07

So what do we think of Lohit then? Seems like the adult of the group to me: emotionally and intellectually mature, and capable of, you know, actually communicating effectively with other human beings.
I know Siralan puts a lot of stock in combatative nonsense, but in this instance I wish he'd shut up about "killer instincts".

Has Lohit actually been a team manager yet?

Whisky Priestess

13:42 / 24.05.07

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he PM'd and won somewhere early on. Or was he the leader of the France task? Can't remember but I think he did pretty well. He genuinely seems to be the best all-round candidate - as you say, calm, intelligent, sensible, mature, pleasant in manner but not a pushover, etc.

Taking this into account, I fully expect to see him fired next time he's in the boardroom on some sort of flimsy excuse which translates to "you're not as good telly as the crazy/evil people".

14:23 / 24.05.07

Yeah, I think it was the France task he did. I remember him being good there, getting people to not totally break down despite the tension between Tre+Simon and Jadine+Naomi. He definitely seems like the best candidate right now. And I agree, there's quite a big risk he'll be fired for some bad excuse, like "I don't feel your killer instinct". Sheesh.

I wish siralan would keep quiet more, and leave Nick and Margaret to talk.

11:33 / 25.05.07

My worry is that Siralan genuinely buys into all that "killer instinct" nonsense. That he does indeed fancy an all round pillock like Tre for his apprentice.

Whisky Priestess

11:38 / 25.05.07

Who would probably, either directly or indirectly, actually kill him.

13:37 / 25.05.07

Not sure if he relly believes it himself. It might just be a handy excuse to fire pretty much anyone. If they didn't screw up enough, he can always whip out the "I don't feel your killer instinct" or "I'm not sure I know where you would fit in my organisation".

19:16 / 30.05.07

I think Simon might well befor the chop this week...

19:37 / 30.05.07

A challenge for the editors again as the weight of mistakes are impossible to hide.

19:56 / 30.05.07

Naomi?

20:53 / 30.05.07

I think we're at a stage where siralan can't really rely on anything sensible anymore and crazy things start happening. I think Simon was rubbish, he was lucky the wheelchair kind of worked, but he was rubbish at producing and rubbish at presenting.

I really don't see how the trampoline was any worse than the wheelchair. Sure, the wheelchair sold, two of them. It might as well have been the other way around. Especially if Simon hadn't been so totally rubbish.

I missed the last ten or fifteen minutes of the show. So when I came back in time to quickly check who was on the Fired show, I was really, really surprised it was Naomi.

So, next week is interview week, does that mean three out of the five will get fired?

20:56 / 30.05.07

I wonder if family members were drafted in to by stuff...

21:12 / 30.05.07

I think it was family members who wrote the outraged emails. "Get those presenters off the air! Get back the good old presenters we used to have!"

I also thought siralans complaining about how little money they made was funny. Perhaps a lesson for siralan in all this is that if you don't give people time to prepare then they're going to do a much worse job than if you give them some time to prepare (which is what happens in all tasks). But perhaps that's just the way Amstrad does business.

Regrettable Juvenilia

23:13 / 30.05.07

First really unjust firing of this series? I like many people was sure Simon was a goner after cocking up all three stages of the task (it was his frozen gaping while he was supposed to be producer that made me pull the most Nick-esque faces of withering despair). But it seemed that the luck of selling a couple of those wheelchairs meant Sir Alan had an excuse to basically decide to spare him as soon as the result was announced, meaning it was always going to be between Naomi and Tre, and Tre's brand of bullshit seems to go down rather well with Sugar, all told. Or maybe Naomi just reminded him too much of last year's winner, and that was what all that "no-one's gonna make a fool outta me!" nonsense was about...

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