Harry Maxwell: Worst final five ever
george.millman
Posts: 8,628 Forum Member
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Former candidate Harry Maxwell has given his verdict on the final five, and dubs them 'the worst ever:
https://uk.celebrity.yahoo.com/gossip/omg/the-apprentice-2014-blog--this-is-the-worst--final-five--in-the-history-of-the-show-132842160.html
I have to say, I disagree with him on virtually everything that he says in here. My responses to each point are as follows:
-With regards to this lot being the worst final five ever, I can only presume that he hasn't seen Series 4.
-His analogy about Series 8 confuses me a little. I would say that out of the final five in that series, Nick, Jade, Tom and Ricky all performed better than Harry himself did in his series. I think that Harry's series had arguably the strongest group of semi-finalists there has been, but with respect I don't think that that had anything at all to do with him. He was the weak link out of that six, and in fact holds the international worst record - in no other incarnation of The Apprentice around the world has a candidate survived for seven tasks, lost all of them and not had a win, including a loss as a Project Manager. Admittedly Harry did not deserve a record quite as bad as that because although I didn't really rate him, he was not dreadful, but he certainly has some nerve in his assessments of some of these guys.
-Daniel apparently is only there for his entertainment value. If that is the case, why aren't Steven, Sarah and/or James there? I think they have more entertainment value than Daniel, though I accept that that is my own opinion.
-Bianca's contribution is difficult to recall. Okay, I'll admit that he has a point on this one, but that doesn't mean that she hasn't done anything good. As a candidate himself, he should know that sometimes things are left out of the edit. I think a candidate should be judged on what we see, not on what we don't. Admittedly she has made some pretty big mistakes, but only on two out of ten tasks, that we have seen anyway.
-Mark's pitching to Tesco went wrong. That is true, but he has shown himself to be a very strong performer on other tasks.
-Solomon is 'more interested in getting laid than getting an investment'. I can only presume that Harry's source for this is the fact that it came out that he has made a sex tape in the past. This is irrelevant to his time on the show, and given the amount of rumours about Harry's own love life, I find this judgement of Solomon quite hypocritical.
-Roisin apparently doesn't know about ready meals. How on Earth does Harry know that? For all we know, she has done a lot of independent research into the market.
-Harry thinks that Roisin's edit means that she will win, though he doesn't think that she should. Personally, I am the complete opposite. I would love Roisin to win, although I don't think she will. I think that her edit has shown a lot of positives, but has also taken care to show enough negatives. Also, I think she is a little too similar to last year's Leah to win it. Admittedly I didn't think Leah was going to win either, so I may be proved wrong on that, but we'll have to wait and see.
Harry Maxwell has always come across to me as being one of the few candidates who is just as unpleasant in outside interviews as he was on it. I feel that a lot of his opinions are quite crude, hypocritical and just confusing, and I don't see what point he is trying to make with them.
What do other people think?
https://uk.celebrity.yahoo.com/gossip/omg/the-apprentice-2014-blog--this-is-the-worst--final-five--in-the-history-of-the-show-132842160.html
I have to say, I disagree with him on virtually everything that he says in here. My responses to each point are as follows:
-With regards to this lot being the worst final five ever, I can only presume that he hasn't seen Series 4.
-His analogy about Series 8 confuses me a little. I would say that out of the final five in that series, Nick, Jade, Tom and Ricky all performed better than Harry himself did in his series. I think that Harry's series had arguably the strongest group of semi-finalists there has been, but with respect I don't think that that had anything at all to do with him. He was the weak link out of that six, and in fact holds the international worst record - in no other incarnation of The Apprentice around the world has a candidate survived for seven tasks, lost all of them and not had a win, including a loss as a Project Manager. Admittedly Harry did not deserve a record quite as bad as that because although I didn't really rate him, he was not dreadful, but he certainly has some nerve in his assessments of some of these guys.
-Daniel apparently is only there for his entertainment value. If that is the case, why aren't Steven, Sarah and/or James there? I think they have more entertainment value than Daniel, though I accept that that is my own opinion.
-Bianca's contribution is difficult to recall. Okay, I'll admit that he has a point on this one, but that doesn't mean that she hasn't done anything good. As a candidate himself, he should know that sometimes things are left out of the edit. I think a candidate should be judged on what we see, not on what we don't. Admittedly she has made some pretty big mistakes, but only on two out of ten tasks, that we have seen anyway.
-Mark's pitching to Tesco went wrong. That is true, but he has shown himself to be a very strong performer on other tasks.
-Solomon is 'more interested in getting laid than getting an investment'. I can only presume that Harry's source for this is the fact that it came out that he has made a sex tape in the past. This is irrelevant to his time on the show, and given the amount of rumours about Harry's own love life, I find this judgement of Solomon quite hypocritical.
-Roisin apparently doesn't know about ready meals. How on Earth does Harry know that? For all we know, she has done a lot of independent research into the market.
-Harry thinks that Roisin's edit means that she will win, though he doesn't think that she should. Personally, I am the complete opposite. I would love Roisin to win, although I don't think she will. I think that her edit has shown a lot of positives, but has also taken care to show enough negatives. Also, I think she is a little too similar to last year's Leah to win it. Admittedly I didn't think Leah was going to win either, so I may be proved wrong on that, but we'll have to wait and see.
Harry Maxwell has always come across to me as being one of the few candidates who is just as unpleasant in outside interviews as he was on it. I feel that a lot of his opinions are quite crude, hypocritical and just confusing, and I don't see what point he is trying to make with them.
What do other people think?
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Comments
I remember a couple of years ago he wrote a similar review of a series, which included a comment about how rubbish the treats were these days. It made me think, 'Which was your favourite treat, Harry?'
I do agree with the poor quality of the final 5, though not necessarily with his exact reasoning.
I more agree with some of the comments underneath his article, especially the one that basically says - 'Roisin to win but really I couldn't care less who wins'.
I had a few exchanges with Harry over email in the week after he was eliminated from the competition - I was trying to set up a phone interview but between logistical issues and the PR people not making it easy it never happened - and he came across very differently to me. I've swapped another handful of emails since, but not for maybe 18 months now.
I got the impression of a slightly immature public school-boy (because, obviously we were all already *totally* mature at 16 or 17) who was certainly full of bravado and a little arrogant too, but nothing like the monster he is commonly portrayed as being. No more so than any other cocky teenage boy, anyway.
As for his online columns, like Katie Hopkins he's been hired to be a rent-a-mouth because of his reputation on the show, so there's an element of him playing up to a stereotype - they didn't hire him to provide a calm, reasoned view of the show. I'm not saying he's a shy, polite and modest fellow in real life, but what we see is definitely an amplification of the real Harry rather than it being what he's like all the time.
He outed Harry Hitchens, and was pretty horrible to him, and that's what I formed my opinion on.
Seriously?!
However, despite his bad pitch & sniping, Mark is one of the strongest candidates left.
Bianca has come a long way since her 'exclusivity' nonsense.
Roisin is good & calm in a crisis but...I don't think she is as good as everyone says she is.
The only reasons why Solomon & Daniel are still there must be because they have money-spinning business plans.
"...that there are far too many bladdy people on this bladdy forum that take it all way too bladdy seriously. It's just a bladdy TV entertainment show, much of which is bladdy arranged by the bladdy producers precisely to make it bladdy entertaining and therefore pull in the bladdy ratings. Anyone who believes otherwise is so bladdy naive that they probably still believe in bladdy Santa and the bladdy tooth fairy.
Now go back to the house and stop bladdy deconstructing every tiny bit of it. It's a load of bladdy bollux. Just enjoy it for what it bladdy is!"
Although you're wrong about one thing. Santa does actually exist. I know he does, because he's in the trailer for Doctor Who. (Although he does look rather a lot like that bloke out of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz ...)
Shortly before Harry came out. Apparently he told confided in a couple of people privately, one of whom told Harry M who spread it around - although Harry shortly after decided to publicly come out, so it didn't make that much difference. Of course, this is all from the other Harry's personal recollection so there may have been a misunderstanding somewhere, or I myself may be remembering the details slightly wrongly, and if I have I apologise to anyone affected. I tend to trust Harry Hitchens' viewpoint though, and I think it says a lot that he is completely open about their dislike for one another. Normally Hitchens is very professional, detached and doesn't say negative things about people based on personal opinions. So Harry M must have been pretty awful for him to be so direct about it, I think.
As for what you say about him being a Katie Hopkins figure, I fail to see why that means I should sympathise. I actually quite liked Katie on the show as I thought she was clever and witty, and afterwards I admired her for saying what she thought, even though I often didn't personally agree. As time went on, my respect for her steadily decreased, because I realised she was just doing it out of spite and not caring at all who she hurt in the process. Why should I respect someone like that? If Harry's just saying this sort of thing to make himself a controversial figure, then I wish him well but in my opinion that makes him even less worthy of respect than if he was just writing about personal opinions.
Not expecting you to sympathise - merely pointing out that people like Harry and Katie who are seen as being controversial figures are signed up to write columns in the expectation of being controversial, not because they're expected to provide reasoned discourse. So they tend to be even more exaggerrated versions. Katie was signed up to I'm A Celebrity in the expectation of stirring things up - in the end she was actually quite quiet, perhaps more of her real self than her "media self".
In fairness, Janice Dickinson took part in that series, so Katie was always going to have a struggle competing for the role of female controversial character.
I know that people are signed up for that reason, and if their opinions are controversial that's great, but it doesn't mean that I have to agree with their opinions. And they surely should come across as being honest. The whole point of those people is that tough honesty is entertaining - people like it when people express their viewpoints without taking any prisoners, and often have a grudging admiration for that person. Take Saira Khan, for example; she can be outspoken, and I personally love it because she comes across as really authentic, and she isn't controversial about everything so we know she's more than just a controversial rent-a-gob. Katie's fans have dwindled massively over the past year, and that is because she takes it way too far; even if she does believe what she is saying, her views seem to come from nothing but spite, and that is hideously unattractive. Harry is very welcome to express his opinions if he has a forum to do so, and I would actively encourage anyone to do that, but if he's just trying to be controversial for the sake of it, I find that even more unpleasant than just not agreeing.
It's interesting that unlike Katie, he doesn't seem to do television jaunts very much. I think that he has a tendency to get more flustered than Katie. Katie is able to think on her feet, and I'm not sure that he is.
No, he really didn't. As I said above, he holds the worst Apprentice record of all time, not just on Lord Sugar's version but out of every incarnation of the format around the world.
Ruth Badger's take would be interesting actually.
Ruth likes brash sales people like her.She backed james on YBF if i remember ....
Many of the people who went a long way in the process, and have been most perceptive at commenting on the Apprentice, seem to have given up this year.
Luisa is very good, but she's got the Sun job and her comments there are behind the paywall. There's sometimes some gems of insight in her twitter. Last weeks offerings included - "Their branding is terrible it looks like a 90's throwback of clipart has been sick" She can think like his Lordship " It's guna be a double - final 5 next week..... Bye Katie and Sanjay I think. Mark is too strong & Sugsy likes him" And sometimes she spots the error in real time - - like last week's "No Katie don't put saffron in trifle, it will taste horrible & savoury "
George already answered but basically, Harry Hitchens had to come out because he was going to be outed in the press by that vile person Harry Maxwell.
He actually was quite horrid about Harry H on Twitter too, which was unnecessary.
As George said, Harry Hitchens has always been a well-mannered, professional polite young man with a good head on his shoulders. For him to comment makes me feel Harry Maxwell is a right snake.
I've 'spoken' with Harry Hitchens a few times and I think he's not only a really nice guy, but he's also a bit inspirational..
I really find his approach to life refreshing.
Totally agree about Harry H, though - I thought he was not only likable but would have been a worthy winner.
That's why I love YA2, there were some really awesome people on it. I think it's common knowledge on here that Zara was my favourite, not just in that series but of all time, but other than Harry M I think any of the last seven could have pulled it off. Even Hayley could have done it - she wasn't an outstanding performer, but she was all right, and had she survived Week 6 a couple of really awesome performances in Weeks 7 and 8 could have secured the win.
Aha that's why I can't stand him either.
It's not down to who's the strongest candidate, it's whether LS likes their Business Plan, Neil Clough was the strongest candidate at this stage of the last series, but his Business was unworkable, & so was fired.
I think it's debatable between him and the two girls who ended up in the final. I was expecting two out of three of them to make it to the final, two out of three did.