Whilst reporting the big, breaking daily news in front of the camera from America and around the globe, the crew of “The Morning Show” are unwittingly creating their own scandalous news behind the scenes in this fast paced, highly addictive, multi-award winning drama.
Set on one of the most successful fictional breakfast news shows in America, The Morning Show airing on the American network of UBA (United Broadcast Association) goes behind the scenes of the mayhem and scandal around the world to the mayhem and scandal within their own highly tense New York media broadcast company. Nominated for 27 Primetime Emmy awards, 10 Screen Actors Guild awards and winning many from the already aired successful three seasons we find ourselves diving back into the world of chaos, backstabbing with the larger than life love to hate characters. All with their own agendas to get to the top via the precarious ladders whilst avoiding the pitfalls and snakes seemingly lurking in every dark office.
Starring a plethora of very talented actors, we are once again witnessing the gold standard of streaming through the ‘Apple TV+’ platform. Initially designed and created as one of Apple’s flagship shows The Morning Show was at launch a make or break within their high quality service of original films and series. At a cost of now over $15m per episode through the major stars’ wages and of course production, TMS is a highly glossy, extremely well produced machine that once the ignition is switched on, it is oh so hard to turn off.
Anchoring the show, we have a backbone of major stars who give us a very strong reason to come back for more episodes and indeed seasons. Premiering in pre-Covid November 2019, season one hit the ground running including a bevy of stars including some fine yet intense acting from Jennifer Aniston as the stalwart breakfast anchor of 15 years Alex Levy, and the brilliant Reese Witherspoon as feisty reporter and new to the company Bradley Jackson. Here we have our show’s producers in real life who whilst steering a steady ship have created something smart but also highly addictive. With each episode running just under an hour with no interrupting ads, these are not quick to watch yet the premise ensures they fly by with the joy of consuming each series extremely easily.
As with many series, the requirement is of course to start at the beginning introducing us to the ever developing characters who in their own part of the media world move this series along at quite some speed, some of course with their own ghosts who rear their exes ‘severed’ heads as we move through. Dropping us head first into the well laid out drama we have co anchor Mitch Kessler, played by the multi talented Steve Carrell who is publicly outed and fired because of a seemingly private affair with a coworker behind the scenes of the very same Morning Show. As the pilot begins with an almighty bang, the pace rarely lets up through each episode and indeed series. Following as closely as possible the ‘me too movement’, Covid-19, racial inequality and now Artificial Intelligence, TMS does not shy away nor indeed drop the ball when it comes to well planned, fast paced, deeply intense dialogue driven action. Some have described this as OTT. I do not. Many seasons of alternative entertainment have been started by myself but in many cases have not had the writers or indeed actors to carry off their own premise.
The litmus test of whether to begin watching such professionally written and well acted entertainment – if one is coming in late – is to see how many seasons have already aired. As we go into season 4 – with each new episode dropping weekly – there are already talks to begin filming season 5 and with an ever expanding cast of actors being drawn into its ever powerful gravitational media pull. Season 2 onwards gave us the addition of Bradley Jackson’s love interest Laura Peterson played by The Good Wife’s Julianna Margulies, billionaire Paul Marks played by John Hamm and now we have the outspoken Media tycoon Celine Dumant played by Marrion Cotillard all adding their own power thrust within each of their scenes. Last but by no means least, we have Martin Levy (Alex Levy’s father) played by the very British Jeremy Irons. However, it is the existing main players who really keep one’s attention on the here and now with stars such as multi award winning Billy Crodup playing the fast thinking CEO Cory Elliston, who superbly wears his public and private masks of both joy and pain as he tries to keep the whole TMS ship moving along; whilst bailing out everybody with their own seemingly titanic disasters along the way, including his own.
With the pull of large screen cinema being my main evening attraction around four nights a week, streaming has to grab me quickly and with gusto to keep me coming back for more. Very few have done this. The awesome Suits on Netflix and the extremely well written and highly entertaining Only Murders In The Building on Disney are two of the only ones which I have sung praises about to friends and beyond. ‘The Morning Show’ is no exception. Oddly enough, with very few British actors in this predominantly American series, the academically and brilliantly gifted Stephen Fry, seems out of his depth as one of the board members within the fictional media group. Coming across as acting rather than being absorbed within his role his screen time is limited; giving us more of the screen grabbing Cory Elliston and Alex Levy.
Anniston, Witherspoon, Crodrup make this made up media world in amongst the reality of predominantly surrealist New York a visual treat with an acting masterclass, of how to keep the tension throughout not only the episode but indeed each series and beyond. With our main stars tête-à-têtes in some quite dense, fast moving scripts, TMS superbly illustrates the beauty of joy quite often in a world of industrial media pain.
Wake up to the world of The Morning Show and follow the trials and tribulations of their public and private professional lives.
Author: Piers, Maidstone Store
