[24H] Day 7: 2:00am-3:00am

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 19
Date I watched this episode: 26/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.

• Not sure why Tony actually helped the FBI to find and destroy most of the bioweapon if he wanted to take it for himself... Anyway Tony has now become the new antagonist as the series enters its fourth phase.
  
• It's good to see Kim Bauer back (she returned in the previous episode). However as usual it seems that they're focussing way too much on her personal life and throwing her into a side story which is completely unrelated to the main threads.
• Olivia Taylor is pure evil in her methods, and is just so cold with that reporter that it chills my bones.
• Jonas Hodges had wishful thinking if he thought he was going to get out of the White House alive. Far too many people knew about his involvement and actions, and he was a complete liability.
• I'm quite surprised that Larry Moss didn't get a silent clock. The credited cast has fluctuated more this season than any other. We've lost Ethan, Henry, Sean, Bill, Chloe and now Larry, not necessarily all deaths, but still, usually a cast credit indicates they're going to sit it out for the whole season. Regina King broke this mould last season and this was pretty unexpected, but this season has been ridiculous. Morris has been waiting around at FBI headquarters for the past few hours, supposedly. The only credited cast who have survived the season are Jack, Tony, Allison, Renee and Janis, and of those, Tony wasn't in anywhere near all the episodes.
  
• The predictable route for this season now is that Jack will wake up and not remember what he found out about Tony, but then remember it again toward the end of the season. Or perhaps he will remember when he comes around, but then the rest of the season is spent chasing Tony?

[24H] Day 7: 1:00am-2:00am

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 18
Date I watched this episode: 25/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.

(No review exists for this episode at this time).

[24H] Day 7: 12:00am-1:00am

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 17
Date I watched this episode: 25/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 14 days.

(No review exists for this episode at this time).

NOTIFICATION: Future Updates

I've had a re-think about how I manage this blog as it is taking up more of my time than I actually spend watching the episodes! I think from now on I will not be posting reviews for all episodes I watch, but only certain episodes, with some discussion of and information about the preceding ones. Also, the reviews will likely be shorter than previous reviews.

[AUK] The Advertising Challenge

TV Programme: The Apprentice (UK)
Season: 5
Episode: 5
Date I watched this episode: 22/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.

Team Leaders: Kate (Em-3) and Kimberly (Ig-4)
Winner: Empire
Ignite Boardroom: Kimberly, Lorraine, Phillip
Fired: Kimberly
The One That Got Away: Phillip

There are many reasons people watch this show: for the drama, for the ineptitude, for the tension. And these are all good reasons, but perhaps the most appealing thing about this show is the really happy, emotional moments; seeing people positively interacting with each other and succeeding. I compare this episode to the 2nd episode last year ("A Dirty Job") where we really wanted Raef's team to win. Here, it was Empire, led by Kate, who swooped to a truly triumphant victory.

Kate led a great team, and really struck positivity, making sure to avoid being negative about anything. She comes across as positive in general, although she's never been in the boardroom and I'm not sure how she would cope with having to get into a fight with someone else. She also has the advantage of being very beautiful (though not exactly my type...) and so whenever she says anything, all the guys are laughing at her jokes and generally trying to be very nice to her.

The interaction in that team and their celebration when they won was quite heartwarming. It was particularly apparent in the bit where they were in the filming location and also when they were designing the cereal box. I actually thought the advert was pretty good and it certainly had the audience smiling. The only possible negative was the way Yasmina reacted to being removed from the recording; she took this way too personally and needs to control her emotions!

The way the episode was cut together was also very good; I particularly liked the phone call that Alan had with the executives from the ad company. I was pleased to not really see much of Noorul as everyone knows now he is a dead man walking. In fact I'm quite surprised he still sticks around and seems to think ironing shirts is very important for him to win?!

Now onto the other team's pants...or something. I just think the whole thing got very distorted from Phillip's original idea. First we had "It's so natural you feel naked but with your pants on" which was actually not too bad, then we had "dance in your pants" which was just silly with Phillip's dancing, and finally this stupid Pantsman thing. I really do think though that Phillip was the culprit here, and may very well have manipulated the task to get someone else out. That aside, he was the only one who actually came up with an idea which was within the rules of the competition. He just acts very unprofessionally, going into a sulk and a tantrum sometimes, and Nick Hewer obviously hasn't realised the severity of this.

I only have positive things to say about Kim. She managed the team very well including some very big personalities. She took the attitude of "everyone's ideas are good", made the team into a democracy while taking a back seat and then summarising and moving forward. Kim went out dignified and although Phillip did have a go at her for bringing him in, she was very nice about it when she made the decision. I think she will do quite well for herself.

I think Kim has a great management style and the only problem was that it led to no one stepping up and saying this is a bad, bad idea!! Except for Lorraine of course but she was just too indignant and emotional about the whole thing, not very businesslike and I don't think she would do well in Alan's organisation. She should have gone this week. Mona also didn't do herself any favours this week; she was very unprofessional against Kim's criticisms and then ended up making a bit of a mess of the presentation anyway.

This was the best episode of the season so far, and I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere is bound to take a dip but I hope it resurges at some point before the end of the season!

[AUK] A Soap Opera

TV Programme: The Apprentice (UK)
Season: 5
Episode: 4
Date I watched this episode: 22/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 14 days.

Team Leaders: Paula (Em-1) and Noorul (Ig-2)
Winner: Ignite
Empire Boardroom: Paula, Yasmina, Ben
Fired: Paula
The One That Got Away: Noorul

Well this episode proved how completely wrong I was about a number of things. Mostly about Noorul who I pegged as a great candidate from the start. He is actually literally the worst Apprentice candidate ever (and I’m including Ifti, Lohit et al in that). He was completely laughable this week and almost cringeworthy. He talks a good game but there is just nothing there. I actually feel really sorry for him because he seems like a really nice guy. I like him, but he isn’t cut out for this show.

Most of my impressions were admittedly taken from the offline VT pieces which admittedly are not quite so pressured. Noorul claims that he “loves the sound of his own voice” but he hardly said anything this week. Also, he says he is a natural leader and drives people…but to be honest I’m sceptical he’s ever been in a business situation or had to manage people before.

Phillip and Kim butted heads this week and Kim had Lorraine to back her up, but to be honest I think Phillip made a lot of sense. The team did need to be forceful with Noorul especially about important issues, and Kim’s approach just wasn’t working. I wonder how Noorul is feeling now after Sir Alan has told him he was not responsible for the success? The rest of the team almost seem to be consoling him during the treat.

Anyway none of this actually mattered because of the absolute travesty that was Empire’s costings. To be honest most of the blame has to rest with Yasmina, as she was very convincing when discussing it. I think Sir Alan was very unfair on Paula, indeed he seemed to change his mind at the last minute. Maybe he fell for Yasmina’s logic, which didn’t actually make sense to me by the way.

Having said that, I was rooting for Ben to get fired once we got down to the final three. Yes, Ben, who I was praising last week so much (I really am very fickle when it comes to this show)! Especially with his comments about how he wanted to brutally murder everyone, there really is no place for that in business and it shows to me some misplaced anger. He ran so far away from that costing task he was barely visible on the horizon, and it seemed a deliberate ploy. Despite Yasmina’s error, I think she has a lot more to give, and to be honest she is also quite hot! However she did admit coldly to having screwed Paula over which I didn’t appreciate.

As for Paula, she really impressed me. She had so much dignity and integrity, something businesses should value more than they do. She kept a smile on her face and was very good at motivating. I really don’t think she should have been the one to go. The only bad thing I would have to say about her was that she immediately looked for someone to blame when the costing error became apparent – she seemed to panic there. This was quite out of character for her.

I was quite surprised actually that Nick intervened at all; he obviously held that back for a while. Just imagine what would have happened if he hadn’t intervened and they had had this shock in the boardroom!! Altogether this episode had more than enough to keep me entertained.

[24H] Day 7: 11:00pm - 12:00am

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 16
Date I watched this episode: 11/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 15 days.

The episode seemed to mainly serve the purpose of setting up the battle against Starkwood, which was quite rightly termed "a war in our own back yard". Unfortunately, this is not a new venture for 24, and bears striking similarities to the war against McLennen-Forster in season 4. As of the end of the episode, Larry has been put in a very difficult position, and likely has no choice but to retreat and wait for troops to arrive (violating the Posse Comitatus in the process).

Jack's results coming back positive was pretty obvious - even he didn't seem surprised when he got them, given what he's been through. There is not really any good way for this to get resolved unfortunately - we are going to end up with a similar situation as Michelle in season 3, where it turned out her DNA was immune to the pathogen; how convenient! There is generally at least 12 months between 24 seasons, and this virus (with supposedly no cure) kills in a couple of days. In fact the effects of the virus are really quite disturbing to look at during that Oval Office video. Perhaps Renee knows this, because she really is getting very emotional, and possibly too emotional to do her job.

Jonas Hodges is a bit creepy - especially in that scene with Tony. The way everything came right with Siegel was the pinnacle of this episode though. He got to "save his own ass" and fooled everybody. Even the call to Hodges from his office would have been a ploy, I'd imagine. So Hodges certainly is clever. I'm still not quite sure of his motives though.

Olivia Taylor seemed to do no wrong this episode. Her previous exploits with the leaking of information were not mentioned, and suddenly her mother has regained her trust enough to make her Chief Of Staff, an office which affects the entire country and should not be given out lightly. I must admit she is a much stronger character than Ethan Kanin though, in terms of dramatic value. I think she'll end up putting Aaron Pierce in a very difficult position when he realises what she's really up to.

There really isn't much of anything to say about this episode. Even Tony Almeida wasn't given much to do here and seemed almost background. I wasn't overly impressed or disappointed by it; it just kind of washed over me and I am looking forward to future battles within the Starkwood compound.

[AUK] Survival Of The Fittest

TV Programme: The Apprentice (UK)
Season: 5
Episode: 3
Date I watched this episode: 08/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.

Team Leaders: James (Em-3) and Debra (Ig-3)
Winner: Ignite
Empire Boardroom: James, Ben, Maj
Fired: Maj
The One That Got Away: James

I'm getting pretty worked up right about now over some of the people who are still in this show, but really shouldn't be. Not that I thought Maj was amazing this week or anything. In fact I am pretty sure Sir Alan made the right decision, so maybe I am contradicting myself....but I am just incredulous that James still manages to be around after everything, and my blood is boiling that Debra is still sitting around with that smug smile on her face!

In fact, James I can tolerate but Debra was the one I was mainly annoyed at this week. I think the worst moment was when she was talking about Lorraine just before Lorraine was going to do her practice pitch. And Debra was saying about how this was just a trial and if Lorraine failed then they would "re-assign that to someone who is maybe more confident"...and I thought that she was just doing an off-camera piece and then she said "off you go" or something, and it became clear she was saying all of this to Lorraine's face!! I have to admit though that her lack of backstabbing is one of her more redeeming qualities as Maj pointed out on You're Fired. But later in the programme she was saying how "if the product hadn't been as strong as it was" she wouldn't have used Lorraine for the pitch, well she's the project manager so why didn't she do that anyway to maximise chances? Anyway I'm glad Phillip stuck up for Lorraine in the boardroom and it shows they are taking a united front against Debra.

Debra definitely has to calm down her big personality as was pointed out by Paula in the episode and re-iterated by Michelle on You're Fired. Nick Hewer had it spot on when he talked of her experience with the camera, she just "can't leave anything alone" and is a control freak. This came through especially in the section with Noorul and he just looked uncomfortable, as though he didn't even want to be defended but she just had to do it anyway. If anything he would have felt more uncomfortable about Yasmina saying how Phillip was much fitter than him, well she wasn't quite so blunt but she said "well Noorul's fine" which was pretty blunt in itself. I hope it wasn't her idea to do the "Rock Your Body" song because that sounded absolutely terrible and was not a very good plan.

As for James, well he was doing his usual boardroom antics, looking like he was going to cry at any moment. But he made some serious errors in this task; not least of which was that he was way too quick to praise every single idea. He seemed to be a bit all over the place and whenever anything was brought up he said "yes that's it!" or something similar - basically he was just too much of a Yes man. Fortunately for his sake though he is very convincing in the boardroom when he is explaining his general reasoning.

I think in general it is a fairly easy mistake to make trying to be too complex with something, I've certainly made that mistake in business in the past. Ironically it was Maj who proposed the more complex version of the design in the first place (though this was glossed over in You're Fired) and yet he was blamed for not actually contributing anything whatsoever!! As for the general look of the device, it did look kind of sleek to start with but then it was just clashing too much with the colours in all the other rooms - especially the boardroom which is that cool shade of blue.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I actually like Ben here. Okay he was rubbish at demonstrating...but those comments shown in You're Fired were taken out of context; he was talking in relation to who would be best in the poster. I think he's the kind of guy who really can go all the way and I'm more sure about that than I am/have been about the other candidates in this season.

When it finally came down to it in the boardroom, well Ben is awesome at fighting his corner and the battle between him and James was entertaining to watch. If word of this spreads then people will be scared to take him back into the boardroom in future. Maj did put the blame on James at the start but then was just too laid back and didn't engage enough. Admittedly his passion for the job has not come through this season and I think Sir Alan was ultimately right to fire him. I liked this episode though; it brought the kind of drama which I watch this show for.

[AUK] A Hungry Business

TV Programme: The Apprentice (UK)
Season: 5
Episode: 2
Date I watched this episode: 01/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.

Team Leaders: Rocky (Em-2) and Yasmina (Ig-2)
Winner: Ignite
Empire Boardroom: Rocky, James, Howard
Fired: Rocky
The One That Got Away: James

This was not a particularly enjoyable episode. I do remember last year's second week, when I was really rooting for the boys team and was so pleased when they won. But this year, I just found myself bored, with no real great TV moments.

I think one of the main things about this episode was the screentime problem. They did try to split the screentime more equally between the characters. But ridiculous as it may sound, this might not actually be the best strategy at this point in the series. Since we don't know any of the characters, it's better to focus on one or two so we can get to know them, rather than focussing on loads of people so there is nothing particularly memorable.

I think Yasmina made a good team leader, which might be a controversial opinion. I know that she did take something of a dictatorial style when it came to leadership, but she also did listen to the team's views, and the way she came across to me was just that she made quick and firm decisions. She certainly excelled at pulling the team together and they all gave her good feedback at the end. The overall achievement of the team was good too; even Margaret was impressed.

I did feel sorry for Kate during the negotiations. She had been delegated this task which seemed fairly straightforward, but didn't anticipate all the difficult questions. It was admittedly quite funny, especially when she said "I've heard of a bellini" (I haven't) but I can picture myself in the exact same position. Debra didn't exactly help afterwards when she refused to put the episode behind them, and pretty much said to Kate that she had scored herself the sack if they lost the task.

The fiasco with the "chicken wrap" was very badly handled. They really should have been a lot more apologetic, even given him a refund in order to boost their ruined customer service appearance. It was particularly ridiculous when they said "thanks for the feedback" on the way out, as if this was just a minor mistake.

The boys team - they clearly hadn't thought through the Olympic theme. It was a good idea on paper, but the sheer tackiness of their execution, along with the weird selection of food, just completely ruined it. However, the absolute travesty here was the negotiation led by Philip.

It's pretty clear that when you ring an events company and ask them for prices, they will give you a high price at first, and expect you to negotiate it down. Also in that case you are paying for expertise. Here they just got it totally wrong by going in way too high, which was Rocky's fault initially. But Philip didn't manage to rectify the mistake as he should have done by asking what the budget was. This was probably the most interesting part of the episode. Incidentally I've noticed Philip's habit of looking like he is doing sums while calculating, something which will no longer come off as genuine for people who've seen this program!!

In the boardroom, Philip actually stuck up for Rocky which was surprising. Perhaps this was why Rocky didn't bring Phillip back with him. He did come across as just too nice for this business. In particular he delegated James as the timekeeper and didn't try to blame him for the laterunning and general stress around that, but took a lot of the blame on his own shoulders. Especially due to his age, he didn't do himself any favours there, nor when he told Sir Alan that this was the first time he'd been questioned on something he'd done.

While I do think Alan made the right decision to fire Rocky because of that, I think it is a shambles that James is still in. With him going on about how "the hurt this has caused me", how he was the most valuable contributor, and how the "pair of them" should be fired, eliciting an eye-roll from Sir Alan, I'm surprised Sir Alan didn't make this a double-firing week.

In general this episode had the odd shining moment but it just wasn't fun to watch and this is shaping up to possibly be the worst season of this show so far.