An entertaining show with an original premise (Dragon's Den)

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Dragon's Den
Date:	28/10/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: entertaining, illuminating, possessive of a voyeuristic charm

Disadvantages: dragon's arrogance often grates

Dragon's Den is an interesting show with numerous differerent adaptations existing in countries around the world including Japan, Russia, Sweden, the US and the UK. The UK version is hosted by the rather strange-looking ex BBC economics editor Evan Davis, and regularly features multi-millionaire entrpreneours Theo Pathitis, Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden, as well as several others.

Each episode numerous individuals with an invention/business idea approach 5 of the seated entrepreneurs (or 'Dragons') and try and convince them to invest their own money (normally between £50,000 and £150, 000) in their proposed business venture.

The show is entertaining for two main reasons. First of all the inventions and business ideas that the show's hopefuls come up with are frequently intriguing, and secondly because the show has a voyeuristic quality to it, as the dragons dissect the hopefuls' carefully constructed ideas and business models, often crushing their enthusiasm remorselessly as they take their proposals to pieces.

This can be very entertaining, like being a fly on the wall at a job interview that goes horribly wrong, especially when the hopefuls come across as smug and irritating, but conversely it can be very annoying to watch the dragons speaking to people in an arrogant and condescending manner, just because they have succeeded in making themselves rich by clawing their way to the top of the pile. Ultimately though the world of business is brutal, and the Dragons' business acumen is incredibly sharp, and Dragon's Den makes for illuminating and entertaining, if sometimes annoying viewing.

Summary: An interesting and entertaining business--themed show