[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.