The Morning Show Season 3 – Episode 1 + 2 Review
4 min read
Back for its third season, which starts Jennifer Anniston (Friends), Reece Witherspoon (Big Little Lies), Billy Crudup (Hello Tomorrow), Juliana Margulies (The Good Wife) and John Hamm (Mad Men), Apple TV’s The Morning Show, may have just finally found it feet, after a mediocre second season, but it’s not without its flaws.
As the first two episodes drop on the streaming service September 18th, both installments were directed by Mimi Leder (ER, The Leftovers), you can’t help but think you’ve seen this film before, and you most certainly didn’t like the ending. Alex (Anniston), wan’t more power at UBA and Cory (Billy Crudup) makes It his mission to not let that happen, whilst trying to ignore the company’s financial troubles bought to him by the brilliant Holland Taylor, reprising her role as Cybil Richards.
Whilst Alex has been fighting for a seat on the board since the series began, it just goes to show the troubles of being a woman in the workplace. The real-life struggles don’t stop there, with references to the war in Ukraine, the continuing COVID reconvey, Biden’s Administration and even illegal abortion, with the latter becoming a central theme in the premier.
Whilst we can all appreciate the real-world references, to ground us into the world of the characters, is there such a thing as being too grounded? TV is meant to be an escape from reality, not a constant reminder.
The season premiere ‘The Kármán Line’ centres around Alex being blasted into space in celebration of her twenty years at UBA, by a multi-millionaire who wants to revolutionise space exploration. Sound familiar? Yeah, as talented as John Hamm is, he’s essentially playing Elon Musk and there’s not even the slightest attempt to try and hide it.
With Bradley (Witherspoon) accepting a Journalist Alliance Award, she’s informed by Cory to drop her upcoming abortions in Texas piece for evening news, and as she accepts her award, she makes it clear that she won’t be dropping any news stories, any time soon.
Which begs the question, can The Morning Show create an original storyline that isn’t revolving around real word issues, and a business requisition that feels straight out the Succession handbook, it’s almost as if the writers have run out of ideas, which is rather worrying, considering the show has already been renewed for a fourth season.
As Bradley heads to Texas, and Alex bails on the space flight, Cory confronts Bradley and as she and Alex trade places as she’s the one who’s blasted into space with Cory and Marks (Hamm) only to have communication problems end the first episode.
It’s a decent start to the season, that feels a lot more contrived than its two predecessors’ and decently continues the intrigue for the season ahead.
But as ‘Ghost in The Machine’ begins, the connection is restored in what feels like a really poor attempt of a cliffhanger. Also, just what exactly are the opening credits meant to represent, three seasons and I’m still none the wiser!
Episode two centres around the entirety of UBA being hacked, in what’s at first believed to be an active shooter situation. A sex tape of Bradley and Laura (Margulies) is shared around the executive branch, and even more secrets of the team begin to come to light as Cory wrestles with the idea of paying fifty-million dollars.
Alex is reprimanded for bailing on the space flight and despite the multitude of f-bombs shouted by Anniston in the span of five minutes, there’s nothing she can do about it. It is wonderful seeing Jennifer Anniston swear at people, we can forgive her for that.
As Cory calls in a board meeting, with its own cameo from acting royalty and legend Stephan Fry, Cory try’s to convince the board to pay the money, but Cybil fights hard against it as she believes Putin is the one behind the hack, even giving the old U.S. saying, ‘we don’t negotiate with terrorists.’ Holland’s performance is reminiscent of when Jane Fonda starred on The Newsroom.
As episode two comes to a close, Bradley shares with the world that personal details will most likely be released and apologises for anyone who feels offended by them. She gives a rousing speech of sticking by the audience and how their support is always getting them through the hardest of times, very Holly Willoughby, firstly, are you okay?
Alex rocks up at Bradley’s with a bottle of wine and apologises for not being there for her with the video being leaked, it’s a familiar ending with the two of them bonding over a bottle of wine and just seeing how far they’ve come since the series began.
