Episode 9 Edgic Ratings:

Phoenix:
Adam: MORM3
Jade: UTRP2
Nick: CPP3
Tom: MORN4

Sterling:
Gabrielle: UTRP2
Jenna: MORN3
Ricky: CPP4
Stephen: OTTN3

Winner Picks
1) Nick- Nick and Tom were even last week, no question this week though. Nick came across very professionally and competant, plus the fact that Phoenix end their losing streak once Nick joins them bodes well for his chances.

2) Tom- Tom takes a big blow with today, Getting drunk made him appear unprofessional and it became clearer that Nick took more of a leadership role in the group. I'm beginning to see him more as the Liz Locke of this season, but I'm not eliminating him yet.

Everyone else: Eliminated

Whilst it's fresh in mind.

Phoenix:
Adam: MOR3
Jade: MORP2
Nick: UTR2
Tom: OTTN4 *

Sterling:
Gabrielle: MORP3
Jenna: UTRN2
Ricky: CPM4
Stephen: OTTNN3

Comments: I don't think we've seen a grain of competency from Stephen so far, and since he's PMing next week... oh dear for Sterling! Stephen was kept in for the lols.
Ricky seemed to be rather competent and his pitch was good, but Sugar was very uncomplimentary and picked at insignificant trifles like his comment on thinking the other team was, on paper, better disposed to win the task.
Jenna's edit reminded me of Jane when she left - not very much visibility probably because there wasn't that much to call her out on other than the advert. She didn't fight much in the BR. (or at least, she wasn't 'shown' fighting much)
Gabrielle appeared a fair bit but really only one clear point was made for her and it's that people liked the rose (though her comments on Stephen also made sense).

Adam appeared a fair bit but I couldn't really get a tone from his appearances. It mostly just seemed to be "Lol, it's Adam drinking" "Lol, it's Adam trying to be the choreographer" "Lol, it's Tom the wine expert, Nick the online guy, Jade the creative girl.. and... Adam."
Jade seemed to be keeping a fairly level head and saying/doing the right things, which gives her a plus.
Nick... again, didn't leave much of an impression on me. He was on 'the team that was doing all the work' but the stuff they actually did really wasn't praised or brought much attention to.
Tom - negative for the drinking/wasting time and for making a boring pitch. The * is because it wasn't really OTT, because Tom lacks that... energy. I can't think of a better way of putting it.

Could be that Tom does end up going sooner than expected if his apparent disinterest keeps up... Not sure whether to swap Tom with Jade in my f4, but Nick, Ricky, Gabrielle, Tom/Jade I'll say for now.

It's hard to call Tom as an OTTN, I can understand where you were coming from but in my eyes the negativity wasn't that one-dimensional for it to be OTT, in my view.

I think Nick deserved higher then UTR, he called out Tom on his poor performance as project leader and took a prominant role in the task as well as the pitch.

Stephen was terrible today, but I'd only give a NN in very extreme circumstances, such as racism or threats of physical harm for example.

Tom got tipsy, dull pitch, wasn't where he was meant to be, didn't have a good grasp of the task. For Tom, that's about as OTT as we'll get.

With Nick - he did a lot, apparently, but we didn't really get a detailed look at what, and since their pitch seemed more like a 'sales pitch', that isn't entirely positive for him, since he was a part of it and what was shown on the website. He wasn't seen much really for me.

Week 9

Phoenix
Adam: MORN3
Jade: MORP2
Nick: CPP3
Tom: MORN4

Sterling
Gabrielle: MORP2
Jenna: MORN3
Ricky: CPP3
Stephen: OTTN4

Almost felt like giving everyone a 3 visibility. It was fairly balanced for everyone.
This episode I thought Jenna had one of the least negative edits for a fired candidate yet, but I guess it still had to be negative to give a reason why she was fired. Being overly passionate about the video.
Despite Stephen's efforts, Gabrielle's contributions to the task were acknowledged positively a few times. There wasn't too much finger-pointing at Ricky, as he was seen to have a fairly good grasp of the task and where they went wrong. Whereas alot of Stephen's negative aspects were highlighted this episode. Kind of funny that he's taken the OTTN edit from Adam.
Adam and Tom were shown foolishly neglecting the task (Sugar even slightly humiliated Adam in the boardroom), while Nick and Jade were left to handle most of the responsibility. Even though the overall product was deemed boring, I think it was on Tom's shoulders as he let the task slip out of his grasp.

Contenders:
Nick - certainly boosted as the prize candidate since others are quick to want him on their team, plus he brings the good fortune of victory with him.
Tom - slipping after doing a rather muddled job of PM in an area he is an expert in.
Gabrielle - still up there after a confident performance.
Jade - taking Ricky's place, just because Jade seems more of a contender, whereas Ricky might be there more as a character.

Oops. My first prediction was right. Jade stays longer than Jenna.

Is it possible for us at edgic to look at producing Edgic charts for other series. We have the series 6 one with us (thank you very much for that BTW) but if we could get some others it would be interesting to compare and contrast winner edits and see who stands in the best position edgically.

Adam : MOR3 - don't really feel strongly either way about Adam this week, it's basically last week but with less positive content. He clearly has absolutely no contribution to bring to any aspect of the task, but it doesn't feel like he's really being called out on it to the extent that it becomes negative. Should put an end to anyone seeing his Redemption/Just Like Lordalan edit as leading to a win though
Jade - CP3 - outlines where Tom goes wrong on day 1, and is shown working hard and putting up with Adam being a doof, but produces a boring advert, and again, I don't feel the edit really comments either way
Nick - MOR2 - gets on with the work, but is called out by Lordalan for...putting a field in the background of the website? Edit for this whole team this week was kind of weak and confusing, tonally I'd say. Him praising Tom for being one of the only leaders he's worked with with a clear strategy is either a total puss-move on his part, or sign of a hatchet job on Tom.
Tom - MORN3 - missed the brief (allegedly), wandered off to get pissed, was smug in victory, seems oblivious to the fact that there's a task going on most of the time. If he wins, this actually feels more like his Doubt Episode than last week when he at least took a risk. Total "Michelle In Topshop" vibes, right down to the fact that it feels like a bit of a hatchet job.

Gabrielle - MORP3 - the clear protagonist of her team at this point. Shown completely getting the better of Stephen at every turn, but little insight into the overall picture of the task beyond a few positive contributions
Jenna - MOR2 - Can't give her an "N" with a "with regret" granted to her, can't give her a "P" given what a mess she made of that video. Relatively sympathetic boot episode, but as a likable candidate, not a competent one
Ricky - CPP4 - as good an episode as someone as doomed as Ricky can get at this stage. Had the task won, but let down by his team in a manner outside his control.
Stephen - OTTN4 - clear end-game villain, racing towards his satisfying demise, either next week or at the hands of the Interviewers. Overall story-arc (as fleshed out in the RT) of someone who was respected in the beginning for his age/experience/confident manner but who everyone sees through now because of his repeated screw-ups.

Winner Picks

1. Nick
2. Tom

Adam - MOR3 - 'lol see Adam look at art'. 'lol see Adam drink wine'. 'lol Adam's not good at anything, bless him'. The new Adam edit is patronising as hell, but it's done fairly sympathetically.
Jade - MOR3 - Competent and dull. Produced a competent and dull video. A positive for her was that she was twice shown being put on the same standing as Nick and Tom as an expert in something, but overall, the tone of her edit was neutral.
Nick - MORP2 - Being chosen with such certainty to move to Phoenix and having his hard work with Jade on day one emphasised in the edit just about pushes the overall tone of his edit to positive, but it was basically a week of background competence for Nick.
Tom - MORN3 - His edit was clearly negative - giving the impression that he wandered off to get pissed for most of the task, and in as much as he did engage with the task, didn't really get it. But so little was really made of it, either because his team won or because the edit made it much more significant than it really was, that's it's hard to know the impact this has on Tom's chances of winning.

Gabrielle - MORP3 - A very positive edit given what we saw of her actual contribution. Came up with the logo, which was marginal to the task overall, produced a decent website (and this was shown as yet another thing Gabrielle has experience of doing as some kind of sideline) that didn't seem particularly better than the other team's and was the one who first suggested there should be humor in the video - a contribution that was never attributed to her again. Benefited greatly from the need to emphasise her competence to throw Stephen's stupidity into sharper relief.
Jenna - MOR2 - Sympathetic edit as someone who made a mistake but accepted it, but realistically, she was not a contender at this point, so they could afford to give someone who seemed a fairly nice, hard working person a decent exit.
Ricky - CPM4 - Very mixed edit. The editing of the task seemed to go to great lengths to emphasise how well he understood the task, how right he was about how everything should be, what a good pitcher he was, etc. And then almost everything shown of the boardroom was negative - he was defeatist, the pitching that had seemed so good in the task edit was "ok", he, not Jenna or Stephen who actually made the video, is described as having made the big mistake of the task by not being at the shoot. This does not bode well for next week when he is almost certain to be drawn into the vortex of idiocacy that Stephen's PMing is promising to be.
Stephen - OTTN4 - I thought they had left it too late in the game to get a full villain edit going, but they seem to have managed it.

Winner picks:
Nick
Tom
Gabrielle

Episode 10 Edgic Ratings:

Phoenix:
Adam: MORM3
Jade: CPP3
Nick: UTR2
Tom: MORM3

Sterling:
Gabrielle: UTRM2
Ricky: CPP4
Stephen: OTTN3

Winner Pick: Nick
Eliminated: Everyone else

I came very close to giving Gabrielle a P rating at the end there, which got me thinking: Can anyone think of a fired canadidate that got a P rating in their boot episode? I think Bryce did in series 5 of the American version but what about here in the UK?

Phoenix:
Adam: MORN3
Jade: CPP4
Nick: UTRP2
Tom: MORN3

Sterling:
Gabrielle: MOR3
Ricky: CPM4
Stephen: OTTN3

Actually pretty even on airtime. Again Nick was on the side who got ALL the deals and Tom/Adam were shown failing pretty badly, so I gave him a plus even if we didn't actually see /him/ do much - Jade was seen actually doing stuff far more. And, this time she did have somewhat of a plan 'quality over quantity' which succeeded for her.

Stephen wasn't good (but less explosive than usual), he didn't seem to have the brief in mind, and Gabrielle didn't have the inclination to set things back on the right path either. Ricky was decent but the mentioning of his poor record does put a somewhat mixed slant on things. Gabrielle seemed happy to go; the energizer batteries had run down.

Other than Adam, and probably Ricky, the other three could all win... it depends what slant is given. Nick still hasn't had a breakthrough moment, Jade has that bad PM episode but no other really bad ep against her (and may be a late bloomer), and Tom's had a few dodgy ones lately but has also been portrayed in a very positive light prior to that.
(though, to be predictable, I think Nick > Tom > Jade > Ricky > Adam)

Considering just how UTR Nick has been, I'm getting more and more convinced that he's the Helen of the series.

Ricky I think is a Susan, someone who's been in the BR a few times but knows what to say (personally I think he's been unlucky to lose the task on a few occasions)

The Tom Pellerau edit is deffo being given to Tom G, and I cannot see anyone else winning atm.

Between Jade and Adam for the last finalist spot - I actually think/hope that Adam gets it, he's the sort of Jim figure of the series and I see Jade as more of a Natasha.

The problem with that though is that Tom P was far more of a positive figure throughout the show then Tom G, Tom P was made to be a character who the audience was supposed to actively root for and the mistakes which he did make were justified via the edit.

Comparing Nick to Helen is interesting, but what you have to remember with Helen was that she lacked the positivity that Nick has had throughout the series, Helen was basically sold to us as this brilliant, but emotionless robot, which I can't see right now. Also I think that if Nick wasn't the winner the signs that he would lose would have come through by now, although like Helen it could be a final episode collapse that undoes him should he lose.

Tom P still had a few duff tasks though - he could well have gone after the Paris task (he was lucky that Leon was there really) and "Emergency Biscuit" just kind of failed. I do admit though that Tom G has had much more criticism from LS this series though (although I am wondering if that criticism - the age thing and the "already successful business" thing are kind of a ruse).

Nick is just way too much like Helen for me - pretty competent, hasn't been brought back into the BR as of yet, good track record as PM. I suppose we'll see when it comes to the interviews (I can't see him being fired next task, especially as Adam appears to be PM). He's won most tasks but we haven't really seen him do much in the process - which was Helen up until around task 5 when she PMed.

The only other candidate who sort of has a Tom P edit is Ricky, but unless his business plan is brilliant then LS isn't going to hire him.

Nick needs a "duff" ep soon otherwise it would be a boring win.

Or a brilliant one.

Hmm, but we don't want it to seem like a landslide now do we? I think last year we wanted Tom to win but thought it would be Helen.

Week 10

Phoenix
Adam: MORN2
Jade: CPP3
Nick: UTRP2
Tom: MORN2

Sterling
Gabrielle: UTRM2
Ricky: CPM4
Stephen: OTTN3

Stephen was going to be a M for me, until the boardroom. While Gabrielle was probably going to be a N before the positive spin about her character in the boardroom. While Ricky seemed to have a fairly strong task, despite the few understandable mistakes. Sugar didn't half lay into him for the mistakes in the boardroom, though maybe it was to justify Ricky being brought back.
Adam and Tom brought pretty much nothing to the task, Tom especially had awkward silences during the deals, and it showed him smiling after winning, which came across as undeserved smugness. Despite the odd mishap with the numbers, Jade and Nick still came through in the end and brought the victory by themselves.

Contenders:
Nick - again a fairly solid showing, no real negativity.
Tom - barely hanging in there due to the desperation of his past edit to make him seem credible. But this is like task number 2/3 where he's done little and yet crawled through.
....after Gabrielle's firing, I don't think I'll add anyone else just for the sake of it now.

First ones that came to mind were Lizzie Magee and Harry Hitchens. Emphatically positive, I'd almost say - and rightly so. Maxwell was mixed.

I still think Vincent was the best PM in series 7 and am in no hurry to stop banging that drum. While the edit was out to screw him over a bit, I don't think it quite managed. Mixed at best, though, I guess.

Looking back, now... how was Howard Ebison's edit when he left? Shazia was probably closer to "mixed..." it's rare, for sure.

What?? He left everything to Jim! He ran with Jim's idea, went with Jim's shot etc. Melody did an excellent pitch and Tom came up with a few good ideas, but Vincent did nothing!

Adam - UTRN2 : has now I think fully inherited the buffoon edit that Stephen left behind in his race to be the end-game villain
Jade - CP4 : a good episode, but too little too late, and not flawless by any means.
Nick - UTR2 : almost a P, because his making the correct call on the dentist was immediately contrasted with Stephen getting it wrong (see also : his location researching on the Edinburgh task), but the calculator stuff is a black mark, as is his incoherence in the Sanctuary pitch. Comes out about toneless to me
Tom - MOR2 : not ruling him out, but another bad episode in a string of them.

Gabrielle - MORM3 : what a nice girl. Useless, but nice.
Ricky Martin - CPP4 : it's so odd that his best edits come when he loses most identifiably. I can't work out if it's a Tom Pellereau displacement thing (doubt it), or if losing just generally suits him. Him white knight'ing Gabrielle in the Boardroom was a great character moment for him
Stephen - OTTN4 : OH THE HUMANITY.

Winner Picks :

1. Nick
2. Tom

I remember they included a completely random shot of him bitching about Lorraine to Kate, quite nastily. I think that would have prevented it being "positive" overall, unless you're PantsMan.

Shazia I'd say was UTR toneless. So much of that episode was devoted to portraying Jenny Celery as the ultimate hellcunt that I don't think anybody else on the women's team really got a look in other than Lucinda. The outrage over Shazia being fired was (IMO) motivated 100% by how awful Jenny was, rather than anything Shazia actually did right.

Having seen the 'Final Five' programme last night, I think it gave a good confirmation of how they want people's edits to come across:

Tom - highlighted his maths skills and the fact that he is a risk taker, but then spent a good bit of time showing clips of him having a tantrum. This was followed up by both Nick and Karren questioning whether he is too young for this process. To me, this is a clear indication that they want you to know he had past his prime, but so that they can have a 'surprise' final boardroom, don't want it to become too obvious, ergo they declare him as 'the one they've got to beat.' Overall, a positvie edit that showed how he grew from background to lead, but has recently taken a few hits. Second place.

Jade - a surprisingly positive edit, imo this is to try and level out the strengths of the final five. Highlighted her creativity in some tasks, but also interestingly gave her the oppurtunity to admit her mistakes when she was PM - not something she did on the task. Overall it was a sympathetic edit, in effect trying to defend the decision to keep her in and play up her assets. Third place.

Ricky - the programme wanted to hammer home the idea that this series, Ricky had been the one to go on the most significant journey. From starting out as a fairly cocky character, his loss in the sauce task meant that we saw a different person emerge in later tasks. He was shown to be decisive and a quick thinker, and reading between the lines the programme also pointed out that his losses were mostly done to the failures of other people. Fourth place.

Nick - if this programme wasn't trying to paint him as the clear winner, I don't know what would. It showed both his strong wins as PM, spoke in detail about his previous business, and (surprisingly) gave him a "sob story" (although I hate the term) to endear him as a winner. If the only fault that Nick and Karren could point out was that he has never been in the boardroom, then he must be doing something right in terms of business (thought not gameplay). Lack of discussion into his businees idea was intriging though. "Shock" First place.

Adam - a very negative edit here. Karren and Jade spent a good five minutes moaning about working with him, his lack of direction and independence. Tried to play up his strong sales, but apart from that there was very little substance. Again, no mention of his idea. Fifth place.

Very good summary, couldn't have put it better!

The only difference of opinion I have with it is that I see Jade fourth and Ricky third. At the same time, we don't know anything about their business plans so there might be some surprises in the orders there, but I do agree everything seems to point towards a victory for Nick

Yes, I urmed and aaahed for quite awhile about the order, but the edit yesterday clearly put Jade above Ricky as being a potential winner. In the end, most of it does come down to the business plan, but I'd assume the wierd firings these year have been to keep in the people with the better plans, so he should like al 5...

From tonight:

Adam - was unlucky imo. I think the fact that LS put him up as PM was a bit of a set-up really. I felt as though his team just didn't want to work with him and that was unprofessional.

Nick - having his doubt ep so late in the game isn't a good thing to me. I can see him being 3rd or 4th in the final.

Jade - still think she should have been fired after the re-investment task. Again, 3rd or 4th in the final for me.

Ricky - if anyone is getting the Tom P edit out of those 4, it's him. 2 losses as PM where his team ultimately let him down, followed by a PM win tonight. I reckon he's one of the better candidates, just wonder how interviews will go for him. Final 2 spot for me.

Tom - after a few bad eps, he did good tonight. 2 people have posted saying he's in the final 2, and I reckon they could well be right. Final 2 spot.


Depending on the interviews, this is how I see it going:

4th - Nick
3rd - Jade


So out of Tom and Ricky:

2nd - Tom
1st - Ricky

All depends on the business plan of course, but I don't think there's been an ep where Ricky came across as badly as Nick did tonight. So for me, he's the winner.