Martha, Martha, Martha!

Ahhh ... good reality TV is back! Despite Pops' comments about the struggling Apprentice franchise, we checked out Apprentice: Martha Stewart last night. I have to admit to actually having more respect for Ms. Stewart after her foray into prison; she did her time and certainly did not deserve the accompanying public vilification.

Apprentice: Martha Stewart sports an entirely different look and feel from the Trump version, complete with a cheery conference room, personal phone calls from Martha to invite candidates to tasks, and an appropriate "Dear Jeff" letter to the candidate who did not "fit in". Rules are the same and Martha matches Donald with the near glee in which she delivers her "you're fired" line: you just don't fit in (complete with evil eyebrow).

Up for grabs: a cushy job working directly with Martha Stewart at Martha Stewart Omnimedia.

The early parts of the episode were extremely scripted, especially when Martha made comments to various employees on the way to greet her apprentices. One of the candidates, I believe Carrie, described the experience of meeting Martha Stewart as the "culmination of my life". I laughed at first and then realized that if George Lucas were going to give me a job at Lucasfilm I might get excited and say something silly too. Maybe.

Team names: Matchstick, the creative thinkers. Primarious, the corporate thinkers. Stupid, both team names.

The task was the same that every student gets from their English teacher at one time or another: take a fairy tale and make it contemporary. Although you don't have a professional illustrator etc. from Random House. Matchstick even had a professional writer on their team (Dawn). Did Jeff (project manager) utilize her? No .. because she could not work in a loud group environment. You would think that creative people would be used to allowing others to express their creativity in the conditions that suit them best. How hard would it have been to find her a quiet space to work? In the end the "creative" team produced a horrible rhyming version of Hansel and Gretel that as a parent I would never read to my kids (it encourages running away and not obeying your parents). Primarious smoked them with a fun version of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Did Jeff deserve to go? Absolutely. You can't fault Dawn for asking for and being denied adequate working conditions. Jeff made up the awful rhymes and story concept. What I don't understand is why he took the insufferable Jim in with him to the final conference. It was obvious very early in the conference that Jim wanted Jeff fired and bringing him in at the end just gave him another soapbox for his arguments against Jeff. It would have been much more strategic to bring in one of the women who praised Jeff early on and use her to argue against Dawn. BUT, that wouldn't have prevented Jeff's "not fitting in".

I had fun watching this show and look forward to the next. Hopefully Martha suggests they make French Fries. One at a time. Like I saw in the only episode I ever watched of Martha Stewart Living.