To make great dramas about the present moment, you must be either quick or prescient. Life moves so fast that one moment the news is talking about Covid-19, the next it’s investigating the Capitol insurrection. And then, before you know it, they’re on the frontlines of Russia’s war with Ukraine. To quote Ferris Bueller, if you stop and look around, you might miss it. And so, for writers wanting to skewer the present moment, to tap into social concerns or current affairs, the choice is stark: quick or prescient. Unfortunately for Apple TV+’s lavish headline act, The Morning Show, it has never been either.
Life goes on, that’s the mantra of news journalists and The Morning Show. After workplace pest Mitch (Steve Carrell) met his maker in an Italian roadside ditch, a chapter of the show was closed. But sure enough, life keeps up the sprint. Alex (Jennifer Aniston) is on top of the world, following her Emmy-winning pandemic show, and Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) is comfortably ensconced at the evening news. All the same, that tranquillity is not unperturbable. Both women want “too much”; meanwhile, Cory (Billy Crudup) is trying to seduce an ambitious, rogue billionaire into purchasing UBA, the network that airs the The Morning Show.
