Wednesday 6 May 2009

The Apprentice UK Season 5 Episode 8

I'm on time with this! (For once)
Anyway I felt this episode was actually quite a shock in terms of who left. Before watching this episode I wouldn't have expected Philip to leave, in my opinion, from watching this episode and the You're Fired episode I felt that if Philip hadn't met his arch nemesis, Lorraine, he probably would have been able to make the Top 4. Anyway let me start on the commentary for this episode.

It was quite hilarious that all of them expected somewhere hot! Well, unless they lived at the North Pole I doubt they'd find Liverpool and Merseyside hot!

I'd like to have seen all twelve products as I wasn't able to suggest whether those choices were good. Personally I thought the dog lead was a waste! I don't own a pet but I don't see why two people holding two leads would be any more romantic than two people holding a lead hand in hand! However out of the 4 products it was the easiest to market and actually the most viable product to sell in a short term basis in my opinion. The cat house was a nice idea as the pet market is definitely very lucrative, but two things were the problem! One, if humans can't afford luxuries now I doubt pet owners would buy luxuries for their pets and secondly, it was a cardboard box! The initial idea was good but the development was poor.
The sleeping bag was an interesting idea but that type of product needs a lot of marketing before it would click with the consumer. As The Apprentice doesn't take time into account they didn't have the luxury to develop that product. Whilst the shopping bag, well, personally I don't think there's a big enough market for the product and to be honest what is its selling point? To sell for £35 I'm confused what it actually does besides hold shopping bags together, can't you do that with a tough plastic bag?

If Sir Alan didn't remind me about Lorraine's catastrophic mistake about wanting that shop to sell 5000 to 6000 of their product I would have forgot about it! But honestly how did she expect them to sell 5000 to 6000 of that product! I'd doubt they could even shift 5-600!
What Lorraine's team did well on was that they locked onto the designer outlet by selling the "designer" shopping bag, however I doubt they were actually aware of that fact.

Quote - Yasmina "High Polyester". Yes Yasmina and there is Low Polyester too!

Personally I agree with Lorraine. Kate, Philip and Ben were just mucking about and having a city break to be honest - no sense of urgency at all. To think that three strong characters failed so dreadfully was disappointing.

Quote - Lorraine "Ignite Pet Accessories". Would you like them burnt or medium rare!

Lorraine in my view normally has great instinct but this week she lost it, she also needs to know how to handle people like Kate does or she'll continue to alienate people (and from the previews it looks like this time it would be Yasmina!)

Empire sold more than 4 fold the figure Ignite did! Half of which was due to Mona! She might be showing herself to be a darkhorse here! In fact my previous prediction of Kate winning was because of two reasons. The first reason is that Sir Alan likes her, there's a sense of Michelle Season 2 going on. Secondly Kate hadn't been in the boardroom, besides Tim none of the previous winners had been brought to the boardroom (as in if they were in the boardroom then they would have been the PM for the task) though a side note is that when Tim was brought back to the boardroom there were only 3 candidates in the team! Now however Mona is the only one who has achieved that feat! Only being in the boardroom in Week 1 due to her being the PM. It's all getting much more interesting!

Though I agree Philip was the weakest out of him, Kate and Lorraine I felt that Ben was the weakest in their team overall. Ben just grabs onto something all the time and emphasizes it to the "nth" degree! This week it was him booking with the largest pet store in Britain. Well here's my logic, you can get 10,000 applications or interviews but if you don't sell in any of them then you failed! Stop blaming on Lorraine for not selling enough! You should have made more bookings beforehand!

Next week I'm betting on Howard leaving. Lorraine reminds me too much of a Lucinda type character e.g. she get's picked on all the time even though she has some great attributes. Therefore I think Lorraine will stay for at least one more week. Therefore I believe Howard is up for the chopping block and as he's finally being shown next episode I think that's where he'll be fired.

So my predictions...
Last week my prediction of Kate and Debra in the final two hasn't yet been demolished but my pre show prediction of Philip winning has gone down the drain! Anyway I doubt this year a man will win, I think it is quite evident that this year will be an all female final, well at least I think non of the boys deserve to be in the Final!

So this time around I'm going to start predicting first.
Howard: Next To Go - He's being featured in the next episode and even though that's more of an ANTM thing to do (feature the contestant a load in the episode they're leaving) I think this doesn't bode well for Howard as I bet Sir Alan knows very little about him.
Lorraine: It's very difficult to predict from here on but I believe Lorraine will leave before the interviews. Unlike Lucinda she doesn't have the leadership capabilities instead she relies solely on her instinct - something I doubt Sir Alan likes. Unless Lorraine stays in the winning team from now on I'm sure she's going to be in the boardroom at least one more time.
James: He's a great guy but once the numbers start thinning Sir Alan will be more wary on each contestant, though I don't know James' capabilities I don't think he's the strongest of candidates and would inevitably go before the final 2. He either makes it into the interviews and fails or goes in the next two weeks.

So I believe the more solid Final 5 are Mona, Yasmina, Debra, Ben and Kate. One thing does irk me about the 5 is that there are 4 girls! It's very uncharacteristic of Sir Alan, as he favours the guys. Secondly out of those 5 none are over 30. Which leads me to doubt on my current 5. I wonder whether he'll opt for James and send one of the four girls home. Well here's my analysis on the 5 I've put for the interviews

Mona - Without this win she'd be a nobody, she'd be a filler who'd go in the next two weeks. But she won and that makes the difference. To show her strength at this stage is what Sir Alan will take notice of. However the fact is that Mona's £2000 worth of sales was not disclosed to us until You're Fired, that doesn't bode well in my opinion because the editors maybe trying to hide the praise for her so that when she is fired it would spark less controversy (as the episode really didn't seem to give her any praise at all).
Yasmina - I have a gut feeling with her, she's calm but fights her ground, she's fought her battles well and in the boardroom she speaks in a sophisticated manner, something I'd expect Sir Alan appreciates with the likes of Philip, Debra and Ben in the proceedings! She's a quiet fighter who I see going far, possibly even winning it. However one thing does question her chances, that is how she doesn't seem to have been shown in a great light. We were told to think that her PM win was due to the fault of the other team (which I kind of agree) and she hasn't shown much business acumen since that either; with her fiasco with Paula. All in all a dark horse to many.
Debra - In my opinion there is no other candidate who fills the runner up spot like she does! She's a mouthy sales orientated women and in Sir Alan's books that spells runner up. Just look at Claire, Kristina, Ruth and Saira. Out of the 4 Kristina was probably the quietest and that is saying something! Debra would fit in perfectly with these 4 and that's why she's the perfect finalist to me!
Kate - She just brings the Michelle vibe to me, but this £0 sales figure will hurt her chances. Besides Simon out of the other 3 winners we heard very few doubts from Sir Alan until the final 5, which sparks my thought of Mona or Yasmina winning. She just needs to do Ok/well from here on, if she catastrophically fails in another task her chances are cut in half but if she scrapes through in the next few tasks her winning podium may still be in sight.
Ben - What worried me was that Ben was exceptionally quiet in the boardroom, very uncharacteristic of him - are they trying to edit him like Claire last year? It's all very possible! I'd hate for him to go much further on but I have a bad feeling that he'll stick for another two episodes or more.

Basically...
Next To Leave: Howard
Soon: Lorraine
Possible Top 5: James, Yasmina
Top 5: Mona, Ben
Runner Up: Debra
Dark Horses: Mona, Yasmina
Winner: Kate

That's my predictions as of now.
But here are my favourites:
Yasmina: I still like her a lot but she's severely lacking in any memorable "good" moments. She's slipping from my favourite spot but hopefully next week she'll show her true colours (or totally flop and get fired! Crossing my fingers that won't happen!)
Debra: She's a strong candidate and she rarely fails compared to the other candidates.
Lorraine: In ways I think I like her because she was bullied so much by Philip, I kind of think now that Philip has gone (and Lorraine seems to be targetting Yasmina) I'd like her less.
James: He's a very likeable guy but as of now I've yet to see anything substantial from his part.
Mona: One good week isn't enough for me to love her as I've gone through that process with Philip and the body rocka! I need to see more of her but I think it's only going to be up from here.
Kate: Unlike a lot of people I never really saw her potential until a glimpse of it was shown in the cereal brand week, but this weeks catastrophic fail has put her back into her place - I don't like her! It's official!
Howard: Yet again, reminds me of everyone I've hated before! I hold such grudges!
Ben: Arrogant, Ignorant, Chauvinistic, Primal and speaks a load of bullocks! He's my resident hate figure and sadly from previous experiences these contestants normally stay until the Top 5 at least!

Can't wait until the next episode to see who goes! Hope it's Howard, or better BEN!

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