And you thought Piers Morgan’s departure from Good Morning Britain was dramatic… just wait until you see what’s in store on the set of The Morning Show. Think caramel lattes, clicking heels and Steve Carell as a sexual predator – and that’s just the half of it.
The Morning Show follows the fate of a rotten-from-the-inside-out news network, oozing with enough corruption and plot convolutions to make you wish it was a real broadcaster, keeping gossip columnists busy for days on end. In reality, there is truth to Apple’s “glossy, soapy, inessential indulgence”, in the words of The Guardian’s Jack Seale, particularly in its exploration of workplace harassment.
After a shaky start, season one delves into what Benji Wilson describes in The Telegraph as “nuanced-a shakedown of the #MeToo movement that “the industry” has yet to produce”; a true TV treat which kept its audience on tenterhooks, right up until the season’s climactic finale. Without giving too much away, someone might die, and it might be the network’s fault – juicy, we know.
+ Check out Nine Perfect Strangers for another glossy American drama
However, despite eventually receiving high praise, such as The Guardian writer Stuart Heritage’s lament that “hand on heart, I have fallen for The Morning Show – and I have fallen hard”, the critics are still sceptical when it comes to season two. In The New York Times, James Poniewozik describes the show as “a hard worker with a good resume”, boosted by the seriously star-studded cast, including pocket rocket Reese Witherspoon and family favourite Jennifer Aniston. However Poniewozik then goes on to admit that it is “familiar, which is no sin, but it’s unmemorable”- yawn.
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Described by The Telegraph’s Wilson as “fantastic-looking, remarkably well-made and well-acted”, it is certainly watchable TV – the perfect thing to put on whilst you scroll (a terrible habit, we know, but we all do it).
It’s guilty and glossy and gushing with quippy one-liners that will make you feel as important as its protagonists assume to be, and whilst it may not be great TV, the way it occasionally has us perched on the edge of our sofas indicates that it is at least good TV.
First shown September 2021.
