‘The Morning Show’ Review: Apple TV+’s Flagship Series Is High-End, Eminently Watchable Trash

Apple TV+’s big, buzzy launch series The Morning Show is high-end trash. It’s a soap opera with a blockbuster budget, The Newsroom meets Succession with a dash of an ’80s comedy thrown in for good measure. It’s also ridiculously watchable, and though it’s not saying what it thinks it’s saying — the show on the surface is a timely take on #MeToo and cancel culture — as a dishy propulsive drama filled with unlikeable main characters you mostly want to see epically fail, it’s imminently bingeable television.

Though there have been enough behind the scenes shake-ups and tweaks on The Morning Show to power a drama of their own, the end product is the Friday (November 1) launch of Apple TV+’s flagship show. It stars Jennifer Aniston as Alex Levy, one half of “America’s Parents,” the hosts of the titular show within a show. The other one is Mitch Kessler (Steve Carrell), whose firing as part of a sexual misconduct scandal in the middle of the night kicks off the action of the series. The other star of the show is Reese Witherspoon as Bradley Jackson, a small-time journalist who speaks her mind and has consistently tanked her own career.

Right in the names, you can see what The Morning Show is going for. Based partially on Brian Stetler’s “Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV,” The Morning Show is aiming to be a timely take on how we’ve lost the nuance of sexual politics during the flurry of the #MeToo movement. So the two main female characters are named Alex and Bradley, which, you know, right up front points to how separating into “men bad” and “women good” isn’t as simple as you might expect.

Except… It is? The sections focusing on Kessler, who is moping around his palatial home, smashing TV’s and lamenting how he hasn’t done anything a million men have done before don’t just border on parody, they crash through it, playing more like Carrell’s character on The Office than a Serious Prestige Drama™️. There are hints by the end of the third episode (three will drop on launch day, all of which were screened for critics) that things may go in a different direction; but to be perfectly frank, nobody needs to hear the man’s side of a #MeToo scandal unless it’s to profusely apologize and announce they are seeking help/removing themselves from society entirely.

That’s a minor part of the show past the first episode, though, an aside to the main thrust of the drama that initially pits the calculated Alex against the fiery Bradley. After a video of Bradley accosting a coal mine protestor goes viral, she gets the call to guest on the now rudderless Morning Show. The interview seemingly goes poorly, except in the eyes of the head of the network’s news division, a hungry, reptilian suit named Cory Ellison, played by Billy Crudup. Though Aniston and Witherspoon are very much the stars, like the show within a show, it’s Crudup’s bizarre, purposefully off-putting presence that saves the series. He barely blinks, every move and statement are succinctly calculated, and unlike Sorkin’s hopeful heroes, Ellison is aware that broadcast is failing, and he’s only aiming to get as big as he can before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.

And then there’s his relationship with Bradley. As fascinatingly weird as Cory is in his negotiations with Alex — she’s making a severe power-grab in the absence of Mitch — he’s soft and off his game when interacting with Bradley. When uncomfortable, Crudup lets loose a high, reedy giggle that would make The Joker jealous. In the midst of repeated, wincingly tired speeches about the power of news, and lamenting about how journalism used to mean something, Crudup is engrossing in every frame.

That’s not to discount Witherspoon and Aniston, who are both excellent in the series. The self-sabotaging Bradley’s actions rarely hold together, but Witherspoon powers through to create a character you might (maybe [sort of]) want to root for; even if her politics are confusingly described as conservative, but also liberal, in another needle drop statement about how you can’t judge a book by its cover. Aniston is far from Friends, or any of the comedies she’s known for, creating a near monstrous portrayal of a morning show anchor past her prime and at the end of her rope. She’s all facial tics and constant reapplication of make-up, in a busy performance that isn’t about an ice queen that is melting so much as a former star regaining her fire, and proceeding to burn the whole place down. Late in the third episode, Alex gives a speech in a boardroom to a group of men that is an all-timer for the actress… A clear Emmy submission tape moment if there was one, but I’ll be damned if Aniston doesn’t make it breathlessly exciting.

The rest of the supporting cast is reliably good as well, including Mark Duplass’ put-upon EP Charlie “Chip” Black, the one nice guy on the show (until he isn’t), Néstor Carbonell proving his natural guyliner hasn’t faded as the antsy weatherman Yanko Flores, and Jack Davenport providing the all important SMASH connection (though The Morning Show is better at embracing being a disasterpiece than that musical series) as Alex’s put-upon husband (or ex-husband? It’s never quite clear).

On the other hand, while The Morning Show focuses squarely on sexual politics, it stumbles even harder when it comes to race. A prospective anchor who doesn’t end up getting a fair shot at the chair bluntly asks “is it because I’m black,” only to have his concerns dismissed. The lead cast is all caucasian, though both Alex and Bradley work with black producers in awe of their talent. Gugu Mbatha-Raw does get a stand-out scene talking to one of Mitch’s victims, and again, there are hints we’ll delve into more of the other character’s stories as the show continues (it is an imprisonable crime that Adina Porter gets nothing to do except stand by Aniston’s side and look imposing), but for now the optics are not good, to use some of that entertainment news jargon.

But all that aside — and I understand that a lot of that will be hard to put aside — The Morning Show is an hour long, but feels like half that as the series rockets quickly through the process of rebooting their show in the wake of Mitch’s scandal. It’s also built for the binge, with each episode ending on a cliffhanger, then quickly picking up in the same moment at the beginning of the next episode. A lot of credit can go to Mimi Leder’s propulsive direction, which keeps everything moving and is glisteningly filmed. Though Leder has worked on multiple movie and TV projects over the years, The Morning Show feels paced more like her action work on Deep Impact than a TV drama about morning news. Of note perhaps, Leder also directed episodes of SMASH, and more relevantly worked on The West Wing and ER, both of which The Morning Show seems to borrow from heavily. Like Aniston and Witherspoon, Leder is the top of her game here, and that trifecta helps hold what would otherwise be a shaky ship together.

So: is The Morning Show good? It probably depends on what you define as “good.” If you’re looking for a subtle and considerate take on sexual politics in America, or a reasonable take on how morning news works (my apologies to everyone involved, but morning shows are soft news and that is okay), probably look elsewhere. If you want to see Witherspoon and Aniston chew the scenery, Crudup weird it up, and an eminently trashy soap opera full of all the backstabbing and manipulation you might need, with the biggest budget on the planet (thanks, Apple!) then this is the show for you. The only downside is that you’ll have to wait until the next Friday to watch the next episode.

The Morning Show debuts three episodes on Apple TV+ on Friday, November 1, and will air subsequent episodes one at a time every Friday after that.

Where to watch The Morning Show