The Apprentice; Pachinko; Hospital

“The 16th (yes, really) series of The Apprentice has ended and I had the same thought I always have when watching the finale. How come, when they bring the previously fired candidates back to assist the two finalists, their personalities have transformed? While previously they were proud of being ghastly narcissists and claimed to be ruthless killers in business, when many of them just looked like friendless virgins, suddenly they are generous, rounded colleagues who genuinely seemed to want to be helpful, the arrogant bullshitting (largely, anyway) gone. This suggests the showboating was an act, possibly encouraged by the producers (imagine!).”
Carol Midgley, The Times

It was an unexciting final. The only great episode of The Apprentice is the interview round, in which Claude Littner and co tear the candidates’ business plans and self-esteem to shreds. But it’s also the programme’s weakness, because how do you show interviewers advising Kathryn that her financial projections read like “the rantings of a lunatic”, or telling Harpreet that “you’re making this up as you’re going along now”, and then reverse-ferret a week later to pretend these are two of Britain’s finest business brains?
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“After a long lay-off during the pandemic and a few lacklustre years before that, The Apprentice appeared to be all played out at the start of 2022. But thanks to the deliciously dim novices and some innovative challenges, the show has earned itself a new contract. I’d still panic, though, if I saw any of the idiot entrepreneurs in charge of a ferry — or even a surfboard.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

After two years away because of Covid filming restrictions, The Apprentice arrived back on our screens with a bang 12 weeks ago. It turns out that a break was exactly what the long-running competition series (the first episode premiered 17 years ago) needed. From a cruise ship logo that looked like, well, faeces, to a baby food brand with “dies” on the jar, series 16 has been a gift.
Emily Baker, The I

It unfolds steadily, with no cliffhangers or cheap tricks. Trauma is present – the trauma of a colonised nation, and of the individual stories therein – but this is not a misery-fest. Instead, the adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s bestselling novel is a tale of emotional resilience, its most poignant moments – displaced people yearning for home – and national tragedies balanced by endurance and hope for the future.
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“This adaptation brings to life a Korea you would never have gleaned from Squid Game or K-pop. It’s a vast, sumptuous, dynastic political TV series of the kind scarcely made any more, complete with swooning strings from Nico Muhly’s score. It reminds me of the historical television dramas I grew up with – Roots, Tenko, The Forsyte Saga. But there is a difference. Pachinko sophisticatedly cuts across continents and eras, from a rustic fishing village under the Japanese yoke in 1915, to braces-wearing financial workers greed-brokering deals on green computer screens in 1989 New York and Tokyo.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“The saying has long been that hospitals are now giving intensive care at the front door; now, he said, they are pretty much giving it in an ambulance, a reference to the ambulances backed up outside hospitals. The fallout from Covid, as this film showed, is as equally a valid subject for documentary as Covid itself. It’s a pity they only made one.”
Carol Midgley, The Times