Hey! Been on a break however am back! Please let me know if i've missed recent reviews, I know I hav...
Hey! Been on a break however am back! Please let me know if i've missed recent reviews, I know I have already missed a few! xx
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Everyone loves watching a bit of reality TV. I've never been one to watch Big Brother or anything like that but watching people risk their money for potential businesses is more up my street. I had always liked business, watching the FTSE 100 every morning and even taking it as a subject at school. So you can see why I became addicted to the Dragons Den
What Is It?
This 4 disc DVD box set contains the first two series of the famous BBC show, Dragons Den. It is actually not a British idea. It was started by the Japanese (Sponsored by the business giant Sony) and has spread all over the world, from America to Australlia. However in the UK you have the same basic format. Potential entrepenurs have the ability to be invested in by a millionaire businessmen to take their business off the ground. Offers have ranged from around £20,000 to £200,000 and can exceptionally influential to the new business on a whole. The show is comissioned by the BBC and has the familiar economics editor, Evan Davis who can be regularly seen on the news. This is a real show, and the investments made will go on (I've actually bought one of the products of an investor in the form of the iTEDDY!)
The Dragons
If you have just joined into the Dragons Den success at around series 5/6, then you may only recognise two or three of these Dragons.
Peter Jones (Still going on Dragons Den) There is only 5 dragons per series, and if you have only seen the later shows then you will have no idea who Woodroffe is. My favourite dragon always is Theo Paphitis, as he likes to 'try out' the products before investing. All are specialised in their own areas for example, Peter Jones is more into Telecommunications and media, while Rachel Elnaugh tends to invest more in art/gifts/creative investments.
The Entrepenurs
The first investment in the den is a very odd one when I watched the episode in which vending machines sell umbrellas... I think I would use one but it was such an odd idea but it got backed by the dragons. The idea is that the people who have the best pitches get the money, however as you find out you have to be ultra prepared to be infront of the dragons. According to Wikipedia a total of £809,000 in series 1 and £710,000 in series 2 was invested by the Dragons. This just reflects how successful the businesses can then be with financial backing. This means you get some very good contestants and also some very bad. When a Dragon does not like what they see they simply say "I'M OUT" in which they do not want to invest in your product. They cannot go back on their desision and this can really knock the confidence of the contestant. If you fail to impress the Dragons then you will walk away with nothing, but if they like you , you will leave VERY happy.
Episodes
From each series you get 6 episodes which means 12, one hour episodes. Now unlike series 3 and behond there isn't really any memorable investments, however there are still some great ones. One episode showed Peter Jones and another dragon investing in a circus in a fantastic illusional pitch. This was a great episode and showed the great humour shared by the dragons when they are going to invest. But one of my favourite pitches had all the dragons thinking, when a puzzle company came and wanted backing (which they got) for their 3D puzzles. This worked out great and was fantastic to see another side of the dragons. I have to admit there are no classics here but the rejections are cruelly fantastic and watching the potential entrepenurs muck up enlights a great feeling on yourself.
Where To Get It/Price
I bought this on Amazon using a certain voucher I had earned on a website I should not mention... You can get this in a lot of places. Amazon is my favourite site in the world, and have a wishlist longer than anything I could imagine. You can also get this from such shops as HMV, Play.com, Tescos and Asda. Basically a lot of shops sell this, but if you want specifically series 1/2 you may have to search a bit more as the show only became really popular after the third series. However if you are a current fan, then it would definately be worth purchasing, even just to see the Dragons at an earlier stage. And I bought this for £15 which I felt was an excellent price for what you get. For 4 discs with all of series 1 and 2, what more could you want?
Extra Features
Simple answer - NONE! Now I like to have some extra features, maybe an interview, behind the scenes walkthrough, some extra information about how the Dragons got into business etc. But nope nothing. How annoying and makes the DVDs loose a whole star!
Overall
I really enjoyed watching these episodes. I bought this in about August time (2008) and slowly worked my way through watching these. I had only begun to watch the show at around series 3 and really wanted to catch the episodes before this. So as a huge fan of the show I bought this. I really like the fact we get to see the first ever episode of Dragons Den and see how it has progressed over the time. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the whole 660 minutes over a couple of months of episodes and are great to chill out with and as I love the show, you get some satisfaction (weirdly) in watching people muck up pitches and of course get the Dragons to invest in my favourite entrepenurs. Copyright of Scotlandizdabest on dooyoo.co.uk 2009
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