[AUK] Baby Love

TV Programme: The Apprentice (UK)
Season: 5
Episode: 9
Date I watched this episode: 20/05/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 6 days.

Team Leaders: James (Em-9) and Lorraine (Ig-9)
Winner: Ignite
Empire Boardroom: James, Ben, Debra
Fired: Ben
The One That Got Away: Debra

• This was not in general a good episode to watch. There just wasn't much happening, and the fact that they were at an exhibition most of the time did not give their tempers a chance to flare up, making for not very good television.
• Why is James still in this show? I said early on that he is not going to make it through. Ben is a far better candidate than either James or Debra and it is a tragedy that he has gone. I watched the episode this week through The Apprentice Predictor and it seemed that most other people agreed that Ben was unlikely to be fired, but Sir Alan obviously had something against him.
• Unfortunately none of the products offered to the teams were actually any good. I think the teams put too much confidence in certain products. Just because the manufacturers of the birthing pool managed to make £5000 doesn't make it a done deal - they are much more experienced with the product. There certainly was an infatuation with the rocking horse - and it was totally the wrong market as new parents are looking to save money on small things, not waste money on luxury items.
• I don't know if Debra has learned anything from this entire process. At least Ben actually learned something. Lorraine on the other hand is still trying to get people to trust her instinct but she has become too big-headed. Kate and Yasmina are the only two serious candidates left.
  

[AUK] Cool Margate

TV Programme: The Apprentice (UK)
Season: 5
Episode: 8
Date I watched this episode: 14/05/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 8 days.

Team Leaders: Debra (Em-5) and Yasmina (Ig-5)
Winner: Ignite
Empire Boardroom: Debra, Mona, James
Fired: Mona
The One That Got Away: James

• Sir Alan's comment of "if you're gonna do it, do it!" just sums up the complete shambles that was Empire's performance. While it may be said that the gay community likes subtlety, the posters really were too subtle; just the right amount to scare off the straight people and confuse the gay people.
• One team was much better than the other this week. Well Ben did seem a bit outnumbered by those girls but he handled it pretty well. I think Kate, Yasmina and Ben are perhaps the strongest characters on the show right now and they worked well together. Debra has her head screwed on but creates a toxic atmosphere. James is far too quirky to get things done. And Howard makes me want to fall asleep, he is so boring. Meanwhile, the editors teased us by showing the small amounts of negative feedback for Ignite; in actual fact the pitch went very well.
• Debra was pretty hopeless this week and should have gone in place of Mona. She didn't listen to Howard's comments about there being too many words on the posters and she didn't manage her time well (not that I could have done much better). I did like how she backed up Howard in the boardroom though; although I think she had a bit of an ulterior motive in doing this to impress Sir Alan.
  
• Howard presented well too, although I think carrying forward that lie about the blank space was pretty underhanded and frankly stupid.
• Despite the fact that my blood is boiling that Debra is still around, I still do think that Mona is a bit of a one-trick pony and wouldn't have survived in Sir Alan's organisation when he was needing some creativity and other skills.
  

[24H] Day 7: 5:00am-6:00am

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 22
Date I watched this episode: 12/05/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 3 days.

• This season has just proved over and over again that 24 doesn't have what it takes anymore to introduce a real shock/wow factor into the show. The failure of the bioweapon to go off yet again just closed and opened another chapter in 24's story, which just goes to show quite how dispersed this season is. The "put the earpiece back in" thing was a good twist but in the end it meant nothing.
  
• Kim always manages to get herself into trouble. It's just a repetition of earlier seasons - Kim gets kidnapped and Jack is forced to do what the terrorists want. The scenes with Kim at the airport were not well written, directed or acted and they made me cringe a little. Perhaps the only thing that's different is that Jack is dying and so has more of an ability to go rogue. Renee will not be impressed though as she has seen someone today who is so resilient.
• The Olivia story is just not very dramatic, Martin Collier is not a great or interesting character to watch. The re-introduction of Ethan working with Aaron is perhaps interesting, but it is just like Aaron working with Mike Novick in season 5.
• Perhaps the only good thing about this episode was the interplay between Chloe and Janis - these two have a very quirky but well-designed and scripted relationship.

[PRB] Bad Blood

TV Programme: Prison Break
Season: 2
Episode: 17
Date I watched this episode: 10/05/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.

• This was an average episode for Prison Break, but due to the fact that this season is so good, this episode would have looked amazing during another programme/season. In other words, keeping up the high standard but not quite as brilliant as "The Message" for instance.
• Alexander Mahone showed how weak he is to children. He made a pretty major deal with C-Note, wanting to protect Deedee. Still, C-Note should know that his own days are numbered; once he finds the cons he will probably be shot himself. It's also odd how Mahone recruited Bellick in the last episode, and C-Note in this one; Bellick did not even appear in the last episode, and now Mahone has two "junkyard dogs" (in his own words) working for him.
• Bringing Warden Pope in was a pretty huge risk. I'm quite amazed that Michael went to the house with Sara and he could have got himself caught in an instant. But this interplay and convincing was pretty fun to watch. The final scene, where they all sit down to listen to the recording, was really dramatic, cut off at just the right moment, brilliantly filmed and directed.
• Great to see Sucre and Maricruz back together...but what can they do now? I fear it won't last.
• And another "couple" who are back together - Bill Kim and Paul Kellerman! They are both left in a proverbial gutter by Mike and Linc, I wonder how they will sort this out in the next episode.
• The flashbacks into T-Bag's past provided a welcome insight into his current psychological state. Being reminded of this he realises he has come full-circle, and I think we will see a redemptive storyline for T-Bag now.
  

[PRB] Chicago

TV Programme: Prison Break
Season: 2
Episode: 16
Date I watched this episode: 09/05/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 13 days.

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

[24H] Day 7: 4:00am-5:00am

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 21
Date I watched this episode: 09/05/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.

• Generally I am getting a bit bored of this season now. Well what has happened recently: Chloe is back, but doesn't really add anything to the drama; Jack is still ill and displaying the same repetitive symptoms; Henry Taylor briefly re-appeared in a "cameo appearance", again adding nothing which couldn't have been got another way...
• Other characters in this episode who were completely pointless included the Imam and the brother. Both characters seemed to be time-fillers.
• Renee says at one point "Jack was infected with the bioweapon. The same one that they are going to use in this attack...There is no treatment. He probably has less than a day to live. So if he is strong enough, trust me, he's the best person for this job." Not great logic there, Renee. Just because someone is about to die doesn't mean that they will be good at leading a mission. This was just a cop-out by the writers to get Jack back into the action, and there has been a number of them recently.
• Olivia Taylor can't possibly keep this up with the deception and she must know it. She will be caught eventually, and then what will happen? Will she be ousted for getting Ethan fired too?
• Jonas Hodges played a great character in this episode, a man who has lost everything including his name. So it's a shame they killed him off for good this time.
• FBI HQ seems a lot darker than the early episodes of this season. Perhaps it is to show the dark atmosphere that pervades, but it seems a bit unrealistic; there has been no lighting failures in the storyline.
  
• Tony Almeida is so cold that he almost doesn't seem human anymore. The actual plan that he has to take the blame off of his group is quite clever, but now it has been found out, I don't know why the scriptwriters labor the point so much.
  

[24H] Day 7: 3:00am-4:00am

TV Programme: 24
Season: 7
Episode: 20
Date I watched this episode: 09/05/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 13 days.

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

[AUK] Heading North

TV Programme: The Apprentice (UK)
Season: 5
Episode: 7
Date I watched this episode: 06/05/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.

Team Leaders: Mona (Em-1) and Lorraine (Ig-7)
Winner: Empire
Ignite Boardroom: Lorraine, Kate, Phillip
Fired: Phillip
The One That Got Away: Lorraine

This episode seemed like an attempt to create a mini-Dragon's Den within The Apprentice. Dragon's Den is BBC's other main reality business programme. However this structure didn't really work within The Apprentice; it seemed like a bit of a list most of the time: a lot of repetition of situations within the episode. This wasn't necessarily the editors' fault, but the task wasn't designed very well.

It seemed odd to me that both teams strongly decided to take the approach of trying to choose products which would sell well on the second day rather than the first. This was a huge risk and it paid off well for Empire but Ignite fell into the plainly obvious trap of not getting enough buyers lined up.

Everyone seems to be raving about Mona's performance in this task but I don't think it was all that great. Sure, she did some really good deals in the selling, but she didn't have the dynamic leadership qualities that other candidates in this series or past ones have had.

Howard is generally quite negative in his body language and facial expressions. He is also rather naïve if he thinks he can appeal to Debra's "generosity"! He says that "this is not about how many sales Debra can make, it's about how many sales the team can make" but his logic is flawed because every sale Debra makes counts towards their team total and obviously Debra is going to look out for herself; that is what the competition is about.

Lorraine is also looking out for herself in a much less subtle way when she says to Yasmina that she is going to do the pitch but doesn't give any kind of valid reason. In general Lorraine didn't demonstrate professional behaviour this week. She said that it takes a bit longer for things to dawn on her - in front of Sir Alan - so she is clearly a bit mixed up about how this entire thing works!! In my opinion, she should have gone this week. As she said herself, the fact they didn't sell was largely down to the product choice not being targeted to the more simplistic out-of-London market and she was the one making the product choices.

Kate has gone from "Hero to Zero" in Sir Alan's words. She really has gone down in his estimations and he is going to be keeping a much closer eye on her from now on. She however did demonstrate a professional approach by giving negative feedback on Phillip's performance in the boardroom, despite their previous romantic liaison. This was more than could be said for Phillip!

As for Phillip, he was thoroughly corrosive this week but the major failure was not standing up for himself in the boardroom enough against Kate's criticism, and instead employing the strategy of just laying into Lorraine. This was what got him fired. And like Sir Alan said, he showed his true colours in the end, when instead of thanking Sir Alan for the opportunity, he uttered the single word "Joke".

Next week however looks like it should be interesting with Howard pushing his homosexual tendencies on the group. However his generally uninteresting personality could mess up the dramatic feel of the episode, so we'll have to wait and see.

[AUK] Bric-A-Brac Race

TV Programme: The Apprentice (UK)
Season: 5
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 29/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.

Team Leaders: Ben (Em-6) and Phillip (Ig-5)
Winner: Ignite
Empire Boardroom: Ben, Noorul, Debra
Fired: Noorul
The One That Got Away: Ben

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

[PRB] The Message

TV Programme: Prison Break
Season: 2
Episode: 15
Date I watched this episode: 26/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 28 days.

Okay so I'm a bit behind with reviews at the moment but I really wanted to write a review of this one because it was great! The misdirection employed here was classic Prison Break, but also just completely unpredictable and surprising. The sequence of events and the time jumping really made you believe that they were going after the President in Denver.

Alexander Mahone is just too clever for them! Much cleverer than myself as a viewer of the show. He correctly identified their tells and knew the right people to interview. His ability to get things done is quite laudable. The tape they made was very convincing (and I enjoyed the "Fox News Bulletin" device at the beginning of the show), and the reporter who handed it over knew nothing of what was really going on; he seemed almost enlightened in his approach.

Other stories going on in this episode involved Sucre and Haywire. The story between Sucre and the old man was really heartwarming; I wonder if he will be seen again when Sucre returns the car, and what he will think when he realises who Sucre was. Haywire is a bit unbelievable. He is meant to be super-clever (despite his insanity); I mean he worked out the "tattoo map" in season 1! But he doesn't seem to have much of a plan for getting to Holland. I wonder what will happen with him and the girl in the next/future episode.

Now we have a situation where we have a possible defector and things are really coming to a head. Sara and Michael will finally be re-united but what will Paul be up to? I think it would make dramatic sense here for him to realise the error of his ways, but it really could go either way, like Michael indicated at the end.