What went wrong with The Morning Show’s second season?
The Morning Show's self-aggrandizement has turned this season into a total train wreck
TV Features The Morning Show
Apple TV Plus’ The Morning Show, an ostensible prestige drama, has always been out of step with reality. The debut season struggled with its sprawling narrative about the #MeToo movement before finding its footing in the second half. The sophomore run, however, goes off the rails almost immediately, as the show opts to depict the pandemic through the lens of its characters’ unrelenting self-interest.
TMS’ bumpy execution doesn’t reflect the seriousness with which the show and and its protagonists hold themselves. This ongoing vanity problem is best embodied by morning news anchor Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston). She contracts the COVID-19 virus in the unhinged season-two finale, titled “Fever” (released on November 19). As she deals with physical and emotional distress, Alex is wooed by the network’s newly launched, but already failing streaming service to appear in a special about how she’s coping with the diagnosis. And how is she coping? In her lavish and spacious skyscraper apartment, of course.
The writing is so tactless that Alex is touted as a relatable everywoman, the kind who can guide viewers coming to terms with a global lockdown, by her producer Chip Black (Mark Duplass). Yes, let’s trust the judgment of a man who’s just lied about testing positive to be in the same room as Alex when she goes live.
Alex’s million-dollar salary and easy access to healthcare make her the polar opposite of the general public, who don’t have the same resources to fight a deadly disease. Of course, Alex and everyone in her orbit refuse to acknowledge that. To make matters worse, her streaming debut turns into an angry rant as she lectures viewers who may want to cancel her, assuming that takes precedence for the American people instead of worrying about job losses, medical costs, and you know, general survival during a pandemic. Alex’s self-centeredness would be comical if it were at all self-aware and not just appalling.
Season one was uneven but compelling, leading up to a finale in which Alex and new on-air partner Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) expose their network for being complicit in covering up the crimes of Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell), Alex’s former co-host who sexually assaulted several women during his tenure on their show. Yet season two blatantly backtracks on this seemingly progressive story by focusing on Mitch striving to be a good person while quarantining in an opulent Italian villa. Who thought we needed a redemption arc for this Matt Lauer-inspired character?
Throughout season two, Alex is hailed as a feminist hero, but TMS undermines this development as she mourns her doomed relationship with Mitch. She spends much of season two worried the public will turn against her upon learning of an upcoming book that reveals her consensual affair with Mitch. She even travels all the way to Italy in episode seven, “La Amara Vita,” to make sure he signs a letter falsely claiming the two never had sex, though it’s hard to believe anyone would take his word. But later in the episode, Alex and Mitch get emotional reminiscing about their bond. She then goes on to defend his character after his death. Her inconsistent arc is the show torpedoing whatever commentary it tried to deliver in its first season.
TMS never painted Alex as a saint; she’s always been a complex woman with her own demons. But the writing for her this time around is shockingly stupid, and involves her saying the word “cancel” multiple times per episode. Turn it into a drinking game, maybe it’ll make the show bearable.
Alex’s vanity is endemic to the broader show; almost every other character treads down an equally pompous path. Network CEO Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup, delivering the only worthwhile performance) believes he is in “a battle for the soul of the universe,” when all he’s doing is running a greedy corporation. By the end of “Fever,” he’s tangled up in a mucky love triangle with Bradley, whom he purposely outed to the tabloids a few episodes earlier, and her girlfriend, Laura Peterson (Julianna Margulies). Chip has obviously lost his mind as he voluntarily puts himself in danger by lying to Alex about getting COVID just to be close to her and further prop up her ego.
TV shows about rich and egotistical characters who believe they’re the center of the universe can be entertaining and damning: Succession, Veep, and Arrested Development are prime examples. Unfortunately for TMS, the writers and performers haven’t figured out if the show is a weighty drama about the industry it’s depicting or a satirical takedown. By aimlessly wavering between both, the Apple TV+ series has become an unenjoyable farce.
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Well, since the first season fucking sucked… more of the same would have also fucking sucked.
first season was already trash. had the same trappings of prestige like the later seasons of house of cards. everything screamed “prestige tv” but if you actually looked past the immaculate set design, costuming and cinematography you realized it’s all just a bunch of meaningless hot air and despite looking good, it just wasn’t actually good.
it’s all just a bunch of meaningless hot air and despite looking good, it just wasn’t actually good. …so you’re saying it’s the Morning TV news show equivalent of prestige TV drama?
What they’re saying is [i]The AV Club[/i]
there were some memorable scenes with Jennifer Anniston in season one, but it legit didn’t seem to know what kind of show it was by the time we got to the wildfire episodes. I want it to be cancelled so Anniston can move to a better project.
The second season has been insufferably terrible, but Billy Crudup was almost reason alone to watch the first season. I don’t know what happened this year — it was almost like he was playing an entirely different character, but his performance in the first season was one of the most purely enjoyable I can remember on TV in a long while.
At some point during S2, maybe about midway through I asked Mrs. F. who we’re supposed to be rooting for? She didn’t know either. Maybe Bradley? But then the way she treats her brother s he’s about to go into rehab ruled her our.Alex? Who slept with a married man.Chip? Who lied to Bradley? S2 was a mess. We won’t miss it if it goes away.
Alex sleeping with a married man is a weird thing to point out as a reason not to root for her. She’s done so much worse, and is so much worse, than that choice.
I just picked from their top terriblenesses. Alex is awful. Chip – awful. Bradley – awful.
I don’t know. I enjoyed the season because I assumed I wasn’t supposed to root for any of the characters? Of course, I spent the entire run of Breaking Bad thinking Walt was an asshole and hoping he’d get caught, and that seemed to have been a minority opinion. I also enjoyed Mad Men, and I wasn’t rooting for any of those characters either.
You weren’t rooting for Peggy?!?
Not through the entire series, but at some points, sure.
No Joan? Not Peggy? Not Megan?
No one rooted for Megan.
I really liked the Megan character.
I thought Megan was a really interesting character. It was kind of like seeing what Don and Betty may have been like at the start of their marriage. And I like the way that Megan goes into the relationship knowing everything Betty didn’t – that Don’s a philanderer and really some dude called Dick Whitman – and it still doesn’t stop her being ultimately humiliated by him.
At least one person did.
It’s been a while, who was Megan? I’ll give you the other two.
Don’s second wife.
Not Hollis, the unassuming elevator operator who plays a crucial role in Roger’s oyster-upchucking embarrassment?
The brother was an asshole though
Pulling a Newsroom and going “real life with 18 months hindsight” was just a bad idea.
And even Aaron Sorkin couldn’t pull that off. I kind of liked the first season of Newsroom, but on rewatch realized how bad it really was. Not even Sam Waterston and Jane Fonda could save that mess.
Oh god remember the episode where they found out that Bin Laden had been killed and were rushing to be the first to break the story but the tallest white man (who was very high on marijuana drugs at the time) still took the time to grant his coworker, Terry Crews, the solum honor of quietly telling some cops about it? I was so close to cumming. I just needed another moment or two of authority figures being respected.
Truer words were never spoken. I always think of The Newsroom when I watch The Morning Show, and that’s not a compliment.
I only ever got through the first episode of ‘The Newsroom’, and I couldn’t stand its smarmy Deepwater Horizon storyline. “Only we, the fictional characters with access to perfect hindsight, have the integrity to cover this story honestly.” It’s the TV plot equivalent of Marky Mark saying he could totally have stopped 9/11 if he’d been on those planes.
I mean, sure the first season had its many issues but, towards the end it really became something good. But I guess that was mostly due to Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s performance as Hannah? She was great…and gave you someone to care about.But wow, this was one of the worst things on TV this year…
Oof, I fully agree with this. Gugu’s character and her story was absolutely the best part of the show. It’s incredibly sad seeing the intelligent writing for her character in s1 and then looking at the horrible writing of s2. What happened in that writer’s room in between seasons?! It’s so gross to kill her off and then give a weird redemption arc for the person who was a catalyst to her death. Plus, there’s so many more interesting characters who could have got his screentime, like Mia and Stella!
This show seemed to take the position that what we are all invested in after #metoo allegations are the poor unfortunate guys who really regret their downfall. It reminds me of my awful grandpa who used to watch war films and say ‘well the Nazis might have been bad, but what smart uniforms’. The producers took totally the wrong line with Mitch and how much we wanted of him. The entitled Alex was unbearable, from her ridiculous luxury log cabin isolation (HA!) to the fawning over her and her unhealthy relationships with Mitch and Chip. Actually unbearable covers pretty much every character on this show. Is there one who doesn’t deserve a slap?? Bradley came close with her coming out of nowhere coming out, her addict brother and their complicated relationship and I was actually quite touched how she improbably found him in the finale. This show became quite the hate watch for me. How self aggrandising can they be this week? A mess.
That Hugo Boss sure knew how to cut a suit.
“Schindler and I are like peas in a pod. We’re both industrialists, we both made shells for the Nazis, but mine worked, damnit!” – C Montgomery Burns
Season one might not have been great television, but it was damn entertaining. Season two was both not great television and not entertaining. I stopped watching after the first few episodes because I couldn’t take one more minute of Mitch’s ridiculous and wholly unnecessary subplot in Italy.
I liked the season. It wasn’t nearly as good as the first one, but it was still a good watch.To each their own.
I enjoyed it as well (but for the last episode, which was … not good). I did not read the Mitch storyline as being a “redemption arc,” but rather showing us that, in real life, people aren’t just cartoonishly “good” or “bad.” It was genuinely interesting, and it invited some nuance into the conversation.
I definitely think the show has problems with giving you relatable characters to root for in S2 (and that’s a problem for me), but I don’t think the criticism here makes sense to me. The characters are supposed to be out of touch and venal, and I don’t think the show is actually suggesting these people are good role models, or that she’s right during her cancel culture rant (the same way the show got you to sympathize with Steve Carell’s character early on when it showed that he was nowhere near the worst guy around, and then underlined that yep, he was still pretty scummy though in the back half.)
It’s like people don’t realize that this is a Jennifer Aniston flavored version of Succession.
You’re not *supposed* to root for anyone, they’re all majorly flawed human beings making terrible decisions repeatedly.
I think the bigger issue is that “Succession” (and most shows with a-holes at their centre) KNOWS their characters are a-holes and knows the viewers see them that way.“The Morning Show” seems confused about this and seemingly expects viewers to see these whiny millionaires as somehow likeable/relatable. It’s a big tonal mismatch.
Yeah, there’s this line: Alex’s self-centeredness would be comical if it were at all self-aware and not just appalling.Isn’t that pretty much the whole point of Alex?And Mrs Lizardo and I both commented that if Mitch is an example of what a cancelled lifestyle looks like, then you can cancel the fuck out of me right now.But season 2 was kind of a hot mess. The reviewer is right that the show is superficial popcorn TV masquerading as prestige.
“But the writing for her this time around is shockingly stupid”
This is exactly how I would describe the first season, which I enjoyed very much.
This show really needed to be a binge watch. I feel like I missed a lot by waiting a week between episodes and small details I forgot weren’t important until it was obvious.Someone mentioned that Anniston was only allowed to be within 6 feet of certain actors, and on a rewatch of some of the episodes it’s obvious that she’s acting with a green screen around her. Maybe all the actors had that provision in their contract, because this episode just felt disjointed and unconnected. Like Daniel, who I really enjoy, now has a grandpa that has never been brought up before? So much that he’s going to drive across the country and pull him out of home to what…live in a hotel for a few years? It seemed like a made up reason for him to not come back to the show when he hardly needs one.
I know Aniston was REALLY serious about COVID(in a way I applaud, since so many celebrities seemed to think COVID rules didn’t apply to them since their wealth helped them), so maybe it’s true? But we saw her hug people and she was definitely with Reese in the early part of the season.
The Daniel arc (or lack thereof) was the most frustrating part of the entire season for me.
He was incredibly relevant for the first 3 episodes (getting stuck in China when Covid hit, then angling to get the evening news spot, then butting heads with the higher ups and going off the reservation when they try to placate him), then he essentially disappears for the next 6 episodes until the season finale where he has his loving grandfather to care for, so he quits.
The problem is that there are way too many characters with seemingly important stories and arcs happening at the same time, and unfortunately, there’s simply not enough time to fit them all in. Mitch takes up an inordinate amount of time (along with the sub-narrative of Cory dealing with the lawsuit from Hannah’s dad), and because of that, many of the more minor arcs either don’t get fleshed out (like with Yanko and his issues with cultural appropriation, then his fistfight with a stranger), or they get dropped for seemingly no reason (Daniel’s arc). Alex’s back and forth with everyone was so time consuming that it sucked up a lot of the air in the room, and because of that, it seemed they just gave Bradley a whole bunch of “interesting” things about her personal life to make her relevant to the story (her being a lesbian/bisexual, her addict brother, bad relationship with her family), even though her character arc was basically completed with the end of Season 1.
The show strikes me as being way too ambitious, and attempting to grasp a lot of big ideas and themes without realizing that there’s simply not enough time to adequately handle all of them, let alone with a cast where they’re actively trying to make every character important and relevant. The fundamental issue is that they can’t decide what their focus should be: either a character-study or a industry-study. You really have to figure that out by season 2, or you end up with a muddled mess like this.
Most of the notable prestige shows we think of use “industries” as a frame to focus on the characters. The Sopranos had the mafia as a frame; Breaking Bad had the illegal drug industry; The Wire took an interesting semi-anthological approach, with 3 seasons focused squarely on drugs, and two seasons on other areas (the longshoremen in season 2 and the newspaper in season 5); Oz had the prison; Mad Men had the advertising industry; House of Cards had the US Congress and Executive Branch; Succession has the media and entertainment industry. After watching these two seasons, I’m not sure what The Morning Show wants to do, because it’s too light on the purely industry side of things (The Newsroom was much better on that regard), and it’s too tied to real-life happenings to make the character study interesting (because the real-life stuff is far more interesting).
Covid was clearly shoehorned into the plot, and I do think the show would’ve been better served had they just leaned fully into the alternate universe and simply not had Covid be a thing. We didn’t need a facsimile of real-life, and by keeping focus on two real-life occurences (#MeToo and Covid-19), it detracted from the two areas where the show really needed to focus: the characters and/or the inner-workings of a popular TV show.
Giovanni, thank you for this thoughtful response, I’d love to read more of your criticism. I agree with all your points here. So many times I read reviews where all it really is is a synopsis of the plot and not actually a critique of the show. I have a lot to say about The Morning Show, but I have to say, sometimes it is so strange in its choices, it almost defies belief. Arcs that should be moving, or at least interesting, are deeply annoying, for example, the entire plot line about Hal didn’t interest me in the slightest and I’m a recovering addict. There must be something about the overall sensibility the show’s concept that leaks into all the writing because so many things don’t work. The Mitch in Italy thing felt hopeless from the scenes earlier in the season. I don’t know if I have ever watched a show where I was more invested in the talent but couldn’t believe the choices the writers were making. I’ll leave it there, but again, thanks for your words here.
It didn’t even work as wealth-porn because it looked like everyone shopped at the same store. Like the set designer got a really great deal at CB2 or something.
There were so many weird and unfinished sub-plots that I have to think real-life COVID re-writes played a big factor. The whole Yanko punches someone sub-plot? what was the point? The Daniel/Mia race issues seemed almost like a throwaway since they were handled so briefly.
Who thought we needed a redemption arc for this Matt Lauer-inspired character? Steve Carell, obviously.Since he was one of the Big! Hollywood! Stars! AppleTV+ lured to their platform with a “juicy dramatic character”, he clearly wants to be a big part of it and both collect checks and garner awards notice. If it were me? I’d have cast him off at the end of S1, and found him something new to play — maybe a disgraced character (not Mitch Kessler!) trying to redeem himself after a fall. Like a Wall Street type who got so high on derivatives (and cocaine) that he’s one of the architects of the 2008 market crash, say — and unlike the rest of them wants to make it right somehow, so he founded and is working for a Habitat For Humanity type organization.You know, a fantasy….
I would say Bradley’s brother was an unnecessary addition to the show, but Laura (Julianna Margulies) was good. I hated Stella in the beginning, then I got her later on. If there’s a third season, how much of it will revolve around COVID?
It’s been a while so I may be mistaking commentary here for elsewhere, but I didn’t think the first season was that well liked here either.
By the end of “Fever,” he’s tangled up in a mucky love triangle with Bradley, whom he purposely outed to the tabloids a few episodes earlier, and her girlfriend, Laura Peterson (Julianna Margulies)….what?
Yeah. It’s not exactly a triangle, since that implies all of the sides are connected in a roundabout way (and the term love triangle has almost always been a misnomer, or misused, for exactly that reason).
What it is is that Laura and Cory both like Bradley, and Bradley only appears to like Laura. There’s nothing between Cory and Laura, and since Laura doesn’t know about Cory’s feelings towards Bradley (and since Laura is a lesbian, she doesn’t have romantic feelings towards Cory), it’s not a love triangle in the strictest sense of the term.
wow. usually when I’m insisting a “love triangle” is really a love pivot, it’s because they left out the gay side!just the whole concept of a potential relationship between a bi(?) woman and the creep who outed her is gross and had me wondering what they were doing here.I guess Lesbian Julianna Margulies explains why I started to get ads for this show recently.
Honestly, this show is a hot mess and I really can’t recommend it on any grounds, but Lesbian Julianna Margulies was genuinely enjoyable. Of course, it helped that unlike the rest of the cast, she maintained some semblance of consistency in characterization/did not have a deranged meltdown every other episode. I feel the need to add that she is introduced as “putting the L in LGBTQ” which surely belongs in the hall of fame of hilariously clunky ways shows inform their viewers that a character is gay.
oh, wow. that sounds like a line from a 90s/00s teen show introducing a guest star for a Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss.
just the whole concept of a potential relationship between a bi(?) woman and the creep who outed her is gross and had me wondering what they were doing here.It’s made even creepier by her having no idea that he was the one who outed her. He’s about to confess to it in the finale and instead confesses he’s in love with her.
It was just really wrong headed to make a show after the pandemic, BLM, discussions of white privilege, Trump, the rise of cancel culture as it is today. And thinking that setting it before all that means the audience are going to give you a pass and ignore those things.
I enjoyed it overall. Some missteps nut overall it was a fun season.
Nobody fucking watches Apple +
I can only hope Carell was well compensated for all of his time they wasted.
“…ostensible prestige drama…”
This is the most brilliantly succinct description of this show. Well done!
Vulture have been covering this noting that an alternate title could be “everyone is spiralling” and well… yup.That said, I really enjoyed it. Everyone took the most Maximum Drama approach to every situation which made it a great Friday night watch at my place.
I listen to the great las culturistas podcast, and Matt Rogers gives mini Morning Show reviews, and this show sounds so wild.
wow, this reviewer REALLY does not get this show. this season DID suck, but for none of the reasons mentioned above. this writer really wanted mitch to be painted as a black and white villian with no complexity, because of her own politics. sad and unprofessional
This show sounds like the biggest waste of time ever. It sounds incredibly uninteresting..i cannot fathom why anyone would waste time watching pointless shit like this. Get a hobby, or better taste.
You articulated all of the reasons that I stopped watching. My biggest reason: We don’t need a redemption arc for Mitch.
The writing is so tactless that Alex is touted as a relatable everywoman, the kind who can guide viewers coming to terms with a global lockdown, by her producer Chip Black (Mark Duplass)So, we’re completely ignoring the fact that Chip’s character is written to be a dysfunctional sycophant, and that’s *why* his explanation of Alex being an ‘everywoman’ rings hollow?
The show is full of terrible characters doing terrible things. Succession is a critical darling, if you want to feel good about rooting for someone there’s plenty of pre-chewed bubblegum shit on every streaming option.
It’s simply a matter of opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed both seasons. Reese is amazing in everything she does. I love love love Billy Crudup. He’s got an irresistible charisma about him, maybe it’s the smiling eyes. Mark Duplass is hopelessly charming as Chip Black and it’s refreshing to see Jennifer Aniston play a flawed character that isn’t perfect and perky. I even found myself drawn to the vulnerable Mitch Kessler in season two that I very much disliked in season one because of his pompous attitude toward his “innocence”. Great actor Embeth Davidz was cold and unfeeling for him in both seasons and the way she came at Alex in season two was superior. The reason that the virus is downplayed is the timing of the show’s setting. It’s very early into Covid, which was a time when we knew very little about how dangerous it was going to be…thank you DJT for that! The lockdowns and job losses hadn’t hit as of yet with the time frame in the show. Is the writing Oscar worthy? No. Is it entertaining enough for people to watch from one week to the next? Apparently it is. Even the complainers below who have nothing good to say about it have watched both seasons. So it really is just a matter of personal preference. I very much enjoyed both seasons and if there is another, I’ll watch it as well.
The only fair answer to that presumptive headline is… The Fucking Pandemic. I just finished this season, and knowing how it was brought together I’m shocked at how good it was. Was it GREAT? No. But it was still damn good. And reading about what they had to go through to even DO this season… huge props for what they were able to accomplish. We got a new season that did not need to happen at all. I’m grateful for it.
I’ve been sitting on S2 of this show for so long and I can’t figure out if I should even bother. Came here for help, and I leave…still wondering. There’s a Camus story in this somewhere.
I wouldn’t bother. There’s some good work by Carell as part of his ‘redemption arc’ (the arc was ridiculous but his acting was solid) but other than that I think it’s just all nonsense.
I think I’d be more on board with the “writers are in on the joke” idea if any of the mouthpieces of the public weren’t weird sockpuppets. The Italian cafe confrontation scene was so unhinged I couldn’t understand what point the writers were trying to make about cancel culture. That angle was underlined by Alex’s awkward monologue. It really felt like the writers were hailing her as sticking it to the public in peak white feminism style but not being very good at that either. If they weren’t, like some commenters here suggest, the writers need to do a much tighter job.
Mia is the only character who feels dynamic enough to pull off the complexity of her situation. It’s okay for the characters’ intents to be hidden from the audience. But the writers’ intents should be clear, and on that measure, it’s not looking so great.
The same thing happened with See. First season out, AppleTV+ was new and success was not a sure thing.Several of their other shows came and went, but a few got accolades. The show runners succumbed to Apple Vanity(tm) and push came to shove any voice of restraint out the door.
Funny enough in the past season I was watching it next to Succession for the first time and I thought of TMS favourably compared to Succession. Succession had absolutely nothing happen for ages, endless insane metaphors to the point that after several lines “monologues” I literally yelled to my screen “ wHAT THE F” The Morning Show did scare me with their Mitch redemption arc, that entire time he and Alex were together was like watching a thriller for me. A true trainwreck that couldn’t be stopped. I think the part I enjoyed the most is how absolutely horrible they let Anniston be. Truly disgustingly narcisstic and a clever use of the actor’s reputation to offset the actions of the character. You mention the show tried to make her a “ feminst hero” when actually any time it was brought up it was clear they meant the opposite. Maggie’s scene with Alex in the hotel was so tense, Alex was 100% wrong but the enjoyment that Maggie got out of it was horrible – truly a nest of vipers all around. Alex is a horrible person, but I can’t help but remember that any time a man does a horrible thing we very quickly pivot to the women in their life as if they deserve equal blame.
Random thought: the show-within-a-show seems like the worst thing ever. I mean, morning news shows are, by nature, terrible, but “TMS?” What a piece of shit.
In my perfect world, Tina Fey created her own TV show about a network morning show that debuted at the same time, and after it’s successful run was over in 8 years, people posted memes about the failed over serious “The Morning Show”.But we don’t live in that world sadly (or at least we don’t get so lucky 2 times). This show just felt like “cry fest” every episode. Do Aniston or Witherspoon ever get a chance at any fun? Apart from Billy Crudup, no one on this show is allowed to spend 1 minute on screen without freaking out or breaking down in tears. Poor Greta Lee was brought in to look constipated for 10 episodes.Anything to do with cancel culture or things of that nature came off so cringy. “Did I get cancelled?” The worst may have been Aniston’s assistant yelling at Duplass about him being a mediocre white man. This show felt like a bad twitter argument.
The headline feels rhetorical? I caught the first season finally, after incredible reviews, and found it to be tense, well-acted, with taut writing throughout. The producers maybe didn’t notice that season one was… the end? There was no more story to tell. You set up a conflict, and then you resolved the conflict. That was the end of your story, everyone can go home.
I actually thought the season was pretty good for all the reasons you list above – they are all vain, and vapid, and self centered, and that’s the world the show runners created. And I thought Jennifer Aniston absolutely killed it this entire season. All that said the finale didn’t feel like a finale. It just kind of ended with a lump. Like we all lived through that chaos and while it was fun to take a peek at what went into the cancellation decisions I wanted a little more of the fallout.
And no way Reese gets into the ER to find her brother.