For her 'Apprentice,' Martha's all business

Matchstick, meantime, melted down as it became clear that despite being a creative director, Jeff was a lousy project manager. Given that this sort of project essentially describes his job, he had absolutely no excuse. True, his task was made significantly more difficult when Dawn, the team's resident wordsmith, launched a bizarre diva act and demanded a quiet corner of her own so she could think her Big Thoughts.

But rather than try and manage Dawn into competency, 41-year-old Jeff, the oldest of the candidates, acted like a snotty little child himself.  He insisted on steamrolling his teammates, rewriting "Hansel and Gretel" into a rhyme scheme, which the Random House folks singled out as a uniquely horrible idea. For that matter, they were none too impressed by his other notions for updating the tale: making the two young children hate their names, and escape their house. Even Martha said that, as a parent, she was repulsed.

And in a sign that Martha has some valuable lessons to teach on her "Apprentice," when she got Jeff and Dawn, plus Matchstick provocateur Jim, into the boardroom, she immediately zeroed in on the problem. "At our company we need editors who care about quality," she told Jeff.

"You didn't hear me when I said that the main business message was to connect."

Yet even after she dismissed Jeff (using a previously reported catchphrase, by the way, and one that somehow seemed to work in context) she wrote him a handwritten note with some parting advice — a far more gracious move than you're going to see in Trump's world. Note that she told him he was the first "not to fail but rather not to fully succeed." So very, very Martha.

If The Donald's view of business is hardcore, Martha's is somewhat more refined — but with stakes that are just as high. And she has cigar-chomping Charles Koppelman at her side, clearly the hardball player, to bring that Trumpian edge into her conference-room sessions.

Sailing through conflict
Martha even handled the show's one previously disclosed conflict with her usual aplomb. Koppelman immediately forced contestant Bethenny to reveal that she was a long-time friend of his daughter and had dated his son. (Yet Bethenny claimed she had no idea Koppelman, Omnimedia's chairman, would be involved with this? Yeah, right.) Koppelman quickly, and tactfully, put Bethenny in her place: "If you're a great apprentice, you'll have the same opportunity anyone else has to win or lose."

The only thing holding Martha back, frankly, are the constraints of Burnett's production.  The show's framework still feels a bit too close to Trump's, and yet Martha evokes a different vibe — one that we'll hopefully see emerge in coming weeks as the show finds its footing.

As for the competitors, Matchstick seems fraught with enough problems to choke one of Martha's very well-groomed horses. Dawn is still around.  She got 12 hours to rest while her teammates scrambled to finish their hack job of a children's book, then threw a hissy fit when Jeff wouldn't let her go get a banana. (What, 12 hours weren't enough to get a snack?)  Rather than backing down, she snapped back, "Do you want to pick out my wardrobe today too?" The creative posse also has loose cannon Jim, who manages to be offensive and ineffectual all at the same time.

Perhaps that will give Primarius (can't we just call them "Corporatude" or something?) a few weeks to relax, but they had their share of sniping too.

If Martha can just keep the worn-out reality tropes at bay (she's already done away with some of the most clichéd "Apprentice" gags), it all might make for a compelling bit of TV.

MSNBC.com lifestyle editor Jon Bonné writes about both food and television, so he gets a double dose of Martha.

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