Numerous clips have been shared online regarding how self-importantly Aaron Sorkin and company took themselves while they were making “The Newsroom,” a show that practically announced itself as the last stand for human rights and journalistic decency in the world. Holding that impossible standard high in its third season is Apple TV+’s expensive hit “The Morning Show,” a program that makes it feel like if morning news in America falls, then the apocalypse is just around the corner. It’s fascinating to watch these characters become the center of every story they’re trying to tell in a way that hardly ever interrogates the privilege of making the reporter a bigger protagonist than the issue on which they are reporting.
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And yet the third season, which brings in heavy-hitting guest stars and elevates some of the better-supporting cast members, works because it leans into its melodrama, recognizing that this is a soap opera for adults who follow the MSNBC nightly news anchors on Twitter. The second season wandered in an unsatisfying middle ground sometimes, mainly because it didn’t know what to do with Steve Carell, whose character arc really ended a year earlier. With that weight off their shoulders, the writers here go nuts with an array of hot topics, leading to some interesting conversation starters, entertainingly eye-rolling twists, and generally entertaining plotting. It may not be as “important” as it thinks it is, but it’s never dull, which can’t really be said about the very news products it’s unpacking.
“The Morning Show” picks up relatively close to the present day but with enough runway to drop in the Dobbs leak and unpack what happens when a billionaire tries to control the news. Over the season, invasions of privacy, including a massive cyber attack that leaks personal data of the UBA staff, and even the January 6 insurrection will play prominent roles. It almost feels like the writers of “The Morning Show” looked at the major events of the last three years and charted them on a graph, seeing where their characters could intersect with the insurrection, challenges over women’s rights, and even the rise of Elon Musk. The result is a season that hums with timely energy, even if it feels directed in a way that brazenly announces its pretensions.
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When the season opens, for reasons that will become clear in a lockdown-centered episode mid-season, Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) doesn’t work for The Morning Show anymore. After some ace January 6 reporting, including footage she shot herself inside the Capital that day—yes, the show actually recreates some of the insurrection—Bradley got the coveted Evening news gig, separating her from BFF Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston). In fact, Alex has been focusing more on her streaming show, working with Cory (Billy Crudup) to build that aspect of the news empire. To start the season, Cory is focused on the courtship of Paul Marks (Jon Hamm), a billionaire who is simultaneously working on a rocket project called Hyperion and considering buying UBA. What happens when an eccentric billionaire owns the news? Is it possible to keep the business world and the fourth estate separate? Draw parallels to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk as you choose.
Hamm isn’t the only welcome addition to the third season. The excellent Nicole Beharie (“Miss Juneteenth”) takes Bradley’s place on The Morning Show as Chris Hunter, an outspoken former athlete who finds herself the center of a pair of controversies this year, including a racially charged one related to the aforementioned leak and a social media one after she speaks out on the Dobbs leak. Beharie’s arc is one of the more interesting of the season, asking how much we demand our journalists hold their tongues in order to avoid any whiff of bias. At what point does that diminish the so-important concept of perspective? Have we succumbed so much to the pressure of “fake news” criticism of mainstream media that we’ve lost all viewpoints altogether?
Another strength of this season is the welcome development of Stella Bak (Greta Lee), the President of News at UBA, who works with Cory to seal the deal with Marks but has her motivations and secrets related to the deal. Lee was so stellar this year in “Past Lives,” and it feels like maybe someone here saw that turn and decided to give her a meatier subplot. She nails it, especially a fantastic episode in which Stella has to determine how far she’s willing to go to close the deal with a pair of slimy investors.
Of course, this is “The Morning Show,” so that’s the tip of the iceberg. Mia (Karen Pittman) has a relatively thin subplot involving a relationship with a wartime photographer; Chip (Mark Duplass) gets an unexpected relationship that leads to drama; Laura (Juliana Margulies) returns to play a major role in Bradley’s arc, although an actress as stellar as Margulies deserves a bit more than this plot-centered character demands. Great guest stars occasionally pop up, including recurring roles for Tig Notaro, Natalie Morales, Holland Taylor, and Stephen Fry.
It’s obviously a crowded season of “The Morning Show,” but that ends up working in the show’s favor. If there’s a subplot that’s making you roll your eyes, it will only be minutes before another one is being pushed down the narrative track instead. And while not everything works this season, there are more than enough standout performances to justify the time spent with these characters, especially Crudup, Beharie, and Lee. Aniston and Hamm end up spending a lot of time together, and their portion of the season stretches character believability at times. It’s hard to tell if the writers or Hamm don’t really have a grip on what makes Marks tick, but he feels a bit too shallowly sketched as if the likable Hamm didn’t want to go too hard into what could have been a more scathing portrait of unchecked power. Witherspoon, too, gets a little lost, but that fits her character this season as Bradley is forced to question her ethics and what happens when the reporter becomes the story.
“The Morning Show” isn’t exactly the sharp analysis of modern journalism that it might have promised in its first season, but it’s become almost more enjoyable by simply getting more ridiculous. Of course, Bradley was there on January 6. Of course, Alex is key to closing the deal to save the company. Of course, Cory is everywhere, always getting into trouble. It’s a soap opera for adults. And that’s not an insult. [B]