Disagree - if you want to get on in America you need to get chummy with your senator.

In the end its all about pricing strategy - how much do you need to donate to their re-election campaign to get them to do what you want.

True in the monetary sense with the diamonds but how do you weigh eating a lump of fungus against probably your first chance to hob nob with the powers that be.

Lee was never in danger of leaving. Leslie thought that Lee disappearing for 45 mins would mean he could be sacked but he was the only one to use the initiative that we have seen in UK Apprentice i.e. selling business to business.

He was also the only one to realise the cost of a sandwich/slice of pizza was too high. NB he was not responsible for pricing and there was a lot of negativity when he brought it up.

Leslie made the common mistake of taking only one person to the boardroom - more bad judgement. Lee looks like the best candidate in his team. Not smart to take him on.

BTW - Michael feels more at home losing???

Yep - the right peeps went again this week, AFAIC.

That's because that team started getting cliquey again with him as their target.

It was Michael's idea for his team to wear dressing gowns on the Gillette task...for which he was heavily slated by Trump in the boardrom, so he hasn't been that invisible.



Me too and I don't care how much she earns/is worth, she's a cold fish. And a b!atch.

The 'dressing gown' idea gave us that deeply disturbing moment of Brent doing star jumps on the 'sidewalk'. It haunts me still.......

Agreed. And he didn't have long to wait. It was somewhat annoying for me to praise Lenny and then have him perform so badly in the next episode.

Although even here, the problem wasn't energy. Rather, he had a vision and made it happen, and it was the wrong vision. Lot's of bad judgements made all the worse for being avoidable, if he'd only listened to Charmaine and the judges. Still, he got the job done, just not as well as the other team. I think the editing made him out to be worse than he probably was. Eg by showing the others griping about being left to do the floor. It's also worth noting he was first to see the judges so had much less time to prepare. Not nice to use Lee to gang up on Charmaine, though.

Michael seemed a bit lucky. It looked like he was carried by his team, eg working through the night to make up for his time wasting.

I'm not sorry Lenny was fired, but I still feel he had more Apprentice qualities than, eg Lesley. She's been pretty much invisible the entire series. Presumably she works hard and doesn't cause problems, which makes her a good employee but not what the show is about. (I've not watched the next episode yet.)

Just watched the last 4 episodes - My thoughts for what it's worth.

Week 5: Cruise Ship Ad

I thought both ads were good but the right one won. I didn't have a problem with the castaway idea, but it was too ambitious to get over with their limited time/budget so should have been scrapped for something simpler. I think the right person was fired although Tarek could also easily have gone. Disliked Andrea.


Week 6: Jingle

I thought both teams did well, but the right Jingle won.

I do not get Trumps thinking in the Boardroom. First he warns Lee that his team may think he deserves to be fired because he missed the task due to his beliefs and that lifes not fair, etc. but then when Bryce does take him in, Trump tells Bryce he was wrong for doing so. Then secondly he says he would rather have the two people who wrote the jingle in the boardroom because they 'didn't do a good enough job' (even though they are not musicians), than Lenny who did next to nothing. Neither of these things make any kind of sense to me and seem to defy logic.

I think the wrong person went this week. It should have been Lee. Sorry, I know he has his beliefs and I respect that, but he knew when these holidays were before going on the show. This isn't a job, where I think allowances should be made, this is an application process/competition that requires attendance. If it clashes with your religious holidays then you should say no to the whole thing, not turn up for half the events and get bys at the expense of people who have been doing the work. For example, there are many incidences of athletes who have had to miss track meetings due to religous holidays. They don't turn round, miss the heats and then expect to be put through to the finals.

Bryce did do wrong to be so late for the meeting, although it would seem this wasn't his fault, however he did well in managing to get his team to work as a team after the fall out from the previous task (especialy getting Tarek on side), so taken as a whole, I think he deserved another chance.

Felt bad about their reward. The previous week the team got several thousand dollars worth of diamonds, and this week they got to eat mushrooms.


Week 7: Renovating A Room For Kids

I liked Lenny at first and thought he was a bit of a dark horse, who was hiding his talents for the right moment to shine. But no, it turned out that dark horse was nothing more than a pantomime horse, with Lenny at the front unable to see where he was going and oblivious to his faults/mistakes, and Lee bringing up the rear kissing Lenny's behind all the way.

The right team won (inspite of their leader), the right person was fired. Michael dodged a bullet. Disliked Andrea.

Felt sorry for the girl. Her one wish was to go on a shopping spree, and who does she get to take her round? A bunch of nomarks from a show I doubt she's ever watched.


Week 8: Pizza Sandwich (but hey, it's got lettuce, so that counts as healthy, right?)

Both teams did well. I don't think the right team won in terms of the actual campaign, but it was down to numbers, so you can't argue with that. Disliked Andrea.

Once again Trump's logic in the Boardroom doesn't add up. He says it's great that Lee took a gamble even though it didn't payoff, because sometimes it's worth taking such gambles. But then chastises Leslie for taking the gamble to price the pizza sandwich too high, even though that gamble could have won them the task.

Didn't like the way Lee handled himself in the Boardroom and I am very surprised that Trump didn't pull him up on his behaviour.

Despite all that though, I think the right person went.

The reward cracked me up. Am I the only one who thought the Brit was totally faking his 'awe'?


p.s. Did I mention that I *REALLY* dislike Andrea? She's like an evil amalgam of all the worst bits of Bree from Desperate Housewives and Miranda from Sex in the City.

Excellent summary, NightSwimmer.

Let me just join the "Serioud dislike for Andrea" club.
In fact, I don't like team Synergy as a whole either, it's a team full of nasty people who could turn on you in a microsecond if they thought it would benefit them.

But that's the way it should be if one is judging the candidates and each episode objectively. For what it's worth, I had exactly the same stance as you vis-a-vis Lenny: haven't felt he deserved to be sacked at all until this week.

He wasn't - he asked all the right questions of the execs, even though he did go on a bit. As he was the only one to come up with any ideas on the Gillette task, it wouldn't surprise me if most of the ideas for this week were his as there was no evidence to the contrary. He's clearly creative.

The others were intent on having someone - anyone - to pick on, having shed Brent. It'll probably be someone else next week. Michael's strengths outweigh his weaknesses even though he may well not be Trump's kind of person.


Agree.

I was baffled by the annoying one from the UK. I thought he was a Brit until I heard him warbling on about America, as if he was American, though saying how he esteemed the UK or something...Did anyone follow all that?
Whatever he is, Brit or American, he is mega irritating, though.

Lee seems to be a self-serving creep imo and 'loyal' to anyone or anything that helps him at a particular moment. We've all met his 'type' at some time or another.
Lenny seemed willing to admit his different cultural background, and that perhaps was his downfall.

That's true. He'd probably be good in real life, without such time constraints. As it was, it seemed like he wasn't managing time very well. Like they might not have got to the shop that day if the others hadn't forced it.

Although I'm enjoying this series, it feels rather unsatisfying because the task footage is so short.

Sean is a seriously annoying tit. The worst one is the episode (at the start of the series I think) where he claims to be Valedictorian from Southampton University. First of all he went to Southampton Solent University, not the main Southampton University at all, in fact when he was actually there it was known as Southampton Institute of Higher Education. Not saying there's anything wrong with Southampton Institute of Higher Education (or its current name) at all but that obviously Sean thinks there is to be deliberately misleading about it. Secondly Valedictorian doesn't exist in the UK higher education system. Maybe he got a distinction or the highest score in the class or maybe he just got a first, who knows, but he definitely did not get Valedictorian. He's deliberately taking advantage of the fact that the original US audience doesn't know a lot about the UK higher education system. Slimeball.

I hate Sean too.

He said that although he was born in Britain, he considers America his home, and a place that has given him so many oppertunities, and that he has held a Green Card (allowing perminent residence) for a couple months (at the time of filming).

He might have been genuine with his reaction to being in Washington, etc. but it all seemed a bit OTT and fake to me.


I wondered about that, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and think it was down to him making it understandable to the Americans he was talking to. He did (as I understand it) come top in his class, which is (kind of) the equivalent of Valedictorian, and an American would have no idea what "Southampton Institute of Higher Education" actually meant. So I can understand him simplifying things especially as my partner is American so I know the need to sometimes take liberties with language to save confusion. However, I am sure the prestigious nature of how it sounded was a welcome bonus.

He was in awe of the wrong things though. Washington is very imposing. The White House isn't - its relatively small to show that Presidents are not kings. The Capitol is imposing because it directly represents "we the people" - though the people selecting where the capital should be selected a swamp area, some say, in the hope that the Congress wouldn't meet very often...........

Does anyone know where I can watch all of season 5 online? It doesn't seem to be on BBC Iplayer (I don't think they have the rights?)

http://www.youtube.com/user/JrCarvalh0

Well, that's very interesting, as I thought he went to the Southampton redbrick university and as for the (non-existent in the UK) Valedictorian, that's another instance of him talking as if he is American.

Oh he's called Sean it would appear. Lee was that twerp from a past UK series wasn't he? Apologies.

Lee is the Jewish guy who was absent for two episodes, and who defended Lenny in the boardroom when he got fired.

Sean is the Brit.

Yeah I've realised that now. Some of the contestants in the opening credits have made no impression on me at all and I'm unaware of when or why they left. That happens in the UK series too!

I can see Sean winning although other than possessing a Valedictorian in crawling, I don't really know what his strengths are.

They are all such a ghastly bunch in this series aren't they? They'd all be right at home on the UK show, IMO. Sean is a disgrace to the UK frankly.

I have a feeling The Hair will go for a woman this series - Not Andrea surely?