Originally Posted by carnivalist:
“But they have tried to cast the usual archetypal characters, as they've always done, apart from the first series, when they were running blind. It's a prime-time light entertainment programme after all - anyone who believes the production team are principally interested in the candidates' business competence is dreaming. If that was the case the programme would be on BBC 2, or even 4, in a dead slot.
You can see the show archetypes they were trying to follow - e.g. Jane the domineering, fractious female baddie; Adam the Alan Partridge-esque hard-selling figure, totally lacking in self-awareness; Tom the calm, collected, competent & phlegmatic Tim/Michelle/Stella etc character, Bilyana and Katie the televisual eye-candy and so on. I even suspect from his audition and very early persona, that Azhar was intended to be another Saeed pratfalling figure - however I seem to recall something happening with him early on, after which he seemed very miserable and retreated totally into his shell, almost as if he just didn't really want to be there anymore.
The problem is that they haven't done the casting very well, which has led to a group of rather dull characters. I suspect it might have been less bland and more explosive if Bilyana and Jane had stayed longer, as there are now no catalysts in either team, but we'll never know.”
Or its the Big Brother problem. Casting gets it right, but the producers and vote (in this case single vote) take it another way. You also change the perspective from long term stories - to short term ones that end in quick departures.
i think there's also a fundamental problem developing around the change in prize - and they have something going wrong with their tasks.
The problem with the prize might be that he's only interested in a few people and saves them at all cost - whilst others go for trivial reasons. At best he will be looking at more than just one person - it may not be as baised as it seemed to last year. The prize, though, has other effects, He seems , even more than usual, to be getting rid of most people because he doesn't want to deal with them on a day to day basis - rather than because they did anything that wrong. He alternates that by sacking people when he can find a reason for reasons that have nothing to do with their ability to run a business, or do what they say they can do well. He's missing out on the key questions about who has a good skills set, and drive, and concentrating on the trivia like who can't argue well, who is annoying , who makes a mistake working in a strange field and who can't sell junk. He compunds that by keeping a series of PMs who quite clearly had no idea what they were doing and demonstrated a lack of more fundamental skills.
The tasks don't help because for some reason, more than ever, they are being won unconvincingly . A lousy PM performance and/or people making massive significant. mistakes, results in a win by default, or accident, or one success in the middle of alarming incompetence. There's been no shining performances - perhaps because the tasks didn't create the opportunities.
The result is that there are few good performances, and little logic to who is left. The prize isn't going to be won by someone who did very well, or someone who comes with a story of building themselves up by their own enterprise at a earlier age - Gabi, Jenna, Jade Adam and Ricky have all done enough to have been sent home already.Tom is there - but he and Nick look as if they need no more help . The people who seem to have had the strong CV's Bili, Maria, Katie, Laura, Azhar, have gone for other reasons , and I find it difficult to see how they were weaker as potential business partners than Jade, Adam, Gabi, Ricky or Jenna.
The result is there's a randomness about this series thats unconvincing, its got no outstanding candidates or performances , its better characters have gone, and its two credible winners are very dull.
