The Morning Show
Apple TV+
****
FLUFF and nonsense. That was what some expected when two of Hollywood’s sunniest stars headlined a drama exploring the heart of darkness that is the television news business. Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon proved the doubters wrong with the first series of The Morning Show, and now they are back for more.
The Morning Show is to Apple TV+ what The Crown is to Netflix: a high-end, award-winning showcase product that makes swithering subscribers stick around.
The new 10-episode series, which starts today on Apple TV+ and continues weekly, opens where the first season ended (SPOILERS FOR SERIES ONE AHEAD). Morning Show anchors Alex Levy and Bradley Jackson (Aniston and Witherspoon) have delivered a live on air, #MeToo expose of the goings on at their station, UBA. Heads must roll but which ones, and who will be left queen, or king, of the castle when everything shakes out?
Aniston and Witherspoon are executive producers of The Morning Show, the showrunner is Kerry Ehrin (Moonlighting, The Wonder Years, Friday Night Lights), and Mimi Leder, known for her work on action titles such as Deep Impact, directs several episodes. The result is a drama that is slick, blisteringly paced (think the tape scene in Broadcast News), and, yes, it features a lot of Aniston and Witherspoon. (No Piers Morgan, though, just in case you were wondering.) You can almost smell the money spent in some of the more lavishly staged scenes. In one, the camera goes on a bird’s eye tour through Manhattan, the city looking fairy tale wonderful as Dean Martin sings Return to Me.
Witherspoon’s character is not a million miles from other straight-talking women she has played of late. Aniston, though, is a standout as Alex, the alpha female of the station. Tough, savvy, glamorous, seemingly has-it-all Alex is a bundle of neuroses and secrets. Even though she stuck her neck out for the MeToo cause, the younger women on the staff question how deep her commitment to the sisterhood really goes.
It’s not all about the women. Also returning are Steve Carell as disgraced anchor Mitch, and Billy Crudup, playing station boss Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup). His is a high wire character, much given to making grand, Network-influenced speeches that worked well in the first series. Whether the same can be said for the second, we’ll have to see. “This is a battle for the soul of the universe,” declares Cory in the opening episode. Really? There was us thinking it was just TV.
The Morning Show works on many levels: as a look at an industry struggling to keep up with the fast-changing times; as a dive into sexual politics in the 21st century workplace; and as a good old fashioned soapy tale of power and its pursuit. Whatever, it works.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel