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The Apprentice - is every series like this?

91 replies

acrossthegardens · 10/02/2023 21:18

This is the first series I've ever watched and every week it's not really a case of which team was better, just which was the least shit.

They are terrible?! Every week they are terrible? These can't be the best candidates available they seem clueless?! Is this a particularly bad series or is it always like this? I've not been impressed once Confused

OP posts:
ouch321 · 10/02/2023 21:21

I'm just watching this week's episode.

It did not used to be like this. The show started c 2004 and the candidates were, IMO, more with it back in the day..

It's got more of a reality show vibe these days.

tillyoumakeit · 10/02/2023 21:22

Yes!! That's the fun 🤣

Mumoftwoinprimary · 10/02/2023 21:24

When it first started it was (fairly) business minded people who wanted to win a job with Alan Sugar. Now it is just TV personality wannerbes who were rejected from Love Island.

ssd · 10/02/2023 21:26

God they are awful aren't they.

CathyorClaire · 10/02/2023 21:26

It's a bit of a throwback to the delusional dawn of reality TV but that's what makes it so awesome.

Wouldn't miss it.

GinIronic · 10/02/2023 21:30

"Maps? Before my time!" 😄

Jagley · 10/02/2023 21:33

It is, and we love it still, makes us laugh how oblivious they are. Even the contestants seem a bit cut and paste from last year to be honest.

hamstersarse · 10/02/2023 21:34

i watch it purely for the second hand cringe I experience

I still get amazed at their total over confidence and lack of awareness when going into these situations. They are without fail always completely inappropriate and lacking in any hint of humility (which id have thought it a key component of an apprentice)

Lentilweaver · 10/02/2023 21:36

No, it used to be a lot better. The women had normal faces back then. And people knew how to spell Arctic and/or do basic math.

Gingerkittykat · 10/02/2023 21:38

It's changed over the years and the contestants seem to be chosen based on looks and not ability now.

last year the finalists were someone who ran a dessert shop and someone who sold matching human and dog pyjamas, hardly inspiring.

EasilyDirected · 10/02/2023 21:38

It has got worse, usually by now some of them start showing a bit of potential or at least personality, but not this year, I've watched the whole series so far and can barely remember anyone's name.

Lentilweaver · 10/02/2023 21:42

All the women contestants want to open cake shops now. Grrr... Don't get me started on how they make the women dress. I have already ranted on the actual Apprentice thread.

Flowerfairy101 · 10/02/2023 21:43

This is the first series I've given up on and I don't know if I'll watch it again. It used to be one of my favourites and I really looked forward to it but I feel like it's just dross now, same old with ever worsening contestants.

itispersonal · 10/02/2023 21:43

It's losing its appeal for me! Each task seems to be done so backwards- like Thursday they have to host and cook the food how many of us could cater luxury food - why can't they constantly talk to the sub team.

Marketing projects done in 2 days!

Shesasuperfreak · 10/02/2023 21:46

I stopped watching it about 2 seasons ago.

Lord Sugar just votes of who he wants.

Sometimes the project or proposal will be really bad and its clear who came up with the item. Lord Sugar will fire someone else randomly.

Back in the day the two sidekicks of his would actually report who was shit on the task but in recent years I found myself shouting "Karen, tell him their lying!!!"

Also got fed up with the 'surprise' double or triple firing. It felt built into the show as opposed to it being because so many that week were shit.

And finally, the fact that the business plans are reviewed at the end. So all that work and tasks are for nothing when it turns out 2 of the final 4 have the dumbest business ideas.

(Bonus: Lord Sugars dumb jokes that everyone fake laughs at. "You couldn't sell procecco at a hen night..." Every. Single. Year

Shesasuperfreak · 10/02/2023 21:47

They're for their

Snugglemonkey · 10/02/2023 22:28

This is the worst series ever and I am finished with it. I am sick of the women who do not reflect women. I am sick of the business partner nonsense. It clearly is reflected in who goes, making a mockery of the tasks. I think the feedback is ridiculous. Last week, the sub team leader left the team meeting and immediately deliberately disregarded her instructions in a blatant act of total CFery, but barely mentioned in feedback other than via contestants. This week Simba was blamed for the limiting of water, despite it being fuck all to do with him.

It is just pissing me off. More than usual!

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 10/02/2023 22:38

They're definitely set up to fail - as that makes for more car-crash exciting television. To be fair, they're given ridiculously short amounts of time to do something that they're unfamiliar with.

If you approached an actual ad agency with an actual ad and told them you needed it all done in one or two working days, they'd use their professional expertise to tell you that it wasn't a realistic timescale - and reject the commission if they couldn't renegotiate a realistic schedule!

I love the way so many of them come out with blatant lies about having worked in/run X business for 23 years when they're only 27!

Like everybody else, I watched open-mouthed last year when the boys' team not only ended up with a turd-themed cruise, but then decided the best thing to follow it up with was a turd-themed electric toothbrush! Not one of them appeared to have heard of the word 'whiffy' (meaning smelly) and genuinely thought it a better name for a toothbrush-star wizard than William, Winston, Wilfred or similar!

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 10/02/2023 22:39

Also, I kind of get why they insist on it, but how is it in any way realistic that businesspeople in 2023 do not have access to the internet?!

terriblyangryattimes · 10/02/2023 22:49

I'm so over it too. I've watched it since it first started and every year I say never again. I mean it this year. It was much more interesting when the winner got to work alongside Sir Alan, compared to now where he just bungs then some money to invest in their business and 'mentors' them. From memory the Katy Hopkins series was very entertaining.

I'm also so over his one liners. It looks like he is too.

TheFireflies · 10/02/2023 22:51

I’m struggling …

Icecreamandapplepie · 10/02/2023 22:52

I'm still in it for the interview episode which is the best hour of telly all year.

Especially if Claude is back.

confusednewbie · 10/02/2023 22:56

yes it has lost a lot of its appeal. Its very controlled now. They dont get to decision make - doing market research after a product has been developed that cant then be changed makes no sense. The lack of discussions between the sub team and main team. The rush to get task’s completed in two days rather than working it through properly. All these fake commitments to invest in a make believe company ‘the buyer ordered 10,000 units’. - well they didnt really as it doesn’t exist as a product so they picked a number out of thin air.

I used to find it fascinating- learning about the inner workings of a business etc.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 11/02/2023 08:55

All these fake commitments to invest in a make believe company ‘the buyer ordered 10,000 units’. - well they didnt really as it doesn’t exist as a product so they picked a number out of thin air.

Mad, isn't it? And even if they did want to order, would they really trust/value the produce of some complete amateurs who've knocked it together in a shed in one day - just on the grounds that the other team of amateurs was even crapper?

I still cringe at the baby food from last year, where the team intended to call it 'First Time Foodies', but because of their shonky graphic placement and use of dishes instead of letter 'O's, it looked blatantly like 'First Time Dies'. Just what every loving parent is clamouring to buy: food for their baby that seems to advertise that it will prove deadly from the very first mouthful....

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 11/02/2023 09:21

I've watched since the first series. The tasks used to be more realistic - for example, in series one, a task might have been 'make an advert for X thing.' Now, it's make an advert, plus a digital billboard, and do a pitch to a panel of experts. Because they have to cram so much in, the results are bound to be of lower quality.

Also, the candidates wore what you'd think of as 'office clothes' rather than glamorous clothes in bright colours.

The Apprentice - is every series like this?