The Morning Show S2: What the Must Watch reviewers think
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week Hayley Campbell and Radio 1's Screen Time host Ali Plumb (covering for Scott Bryan) review season two of The Morning Show on Apple TV+. Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Billy Crudup star in the drama about a network TV news show in the wake of 'Me Too.' In season two, Covid-19 begins to dominate the news agenda.
Apple TV +
Ali says: "Money is no object here"
“We have to acknowledge the first season’s finale. It ends with this tree-shaking, let them have it, Network-style, 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore' moment. In this first episode of the second season, they're scrambling as a result. It’s that whole 'Where are we?', 'Where are all the characters?', 'When can we get them back together?', 'When can we regroup?'-type thing.
"In the beginning of a new season it can be a bit tough, you sometimes want the first episode to end so you can get to the main reason why you're there: Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, together behind The Morning Show desk. They're who we like, they're who we want together. The first episode of season two doesn't have that, but it's coming.
“It's worth adding that there’s a slick comfort to watching this type of ‘Anything can happen!’ luxury on Apple+. Money is no object here, everything is perfect. It’s like walking into an Apple store, the lighting always 'just so', and their attempt to 'rough up' the behind the scenes stuff doesn't really work - after all, it's live TV! We need papers flying, carnage everywhere. But there is an odd deliciousness in seeing Apple making a polished, big-budget streaming show talking about the downfall of traditional terrestrial television - as well as sexual assault, sexual misconduct, bullying, secrets, lies, fake news, the price of fame and so on.
"I'm not going to say the word ‘cheeky’ but it’s a statement of intent from Apple. There’s knowing fun to be had there, but the show definitely isn't 'fun' in the traditional sense. The Morning Show is not going to pretend the pandemic didn't happen, so don't go expecting too many out-and-out comedy moments this season."
Apple TV +
Hayley says: "More of a soap opera than I want it to be"
"It has a really good sense of impending doom. It's coming up to NYE 2019 and when they're planning what stories they're going to run, news from China about a new respiratory illness is pushed aside in favour of something hopeful because 2019 was supposedly so bleak. Jennifer Aniston’s character agrees to come back to New York and embark on a new big TV deal, which is exciting for her, but we know we're only three months out from a pandemic collapsing the world and New York becoming a disaster zone.
"It has all the ingredients to be an interesting season and an interesting show. It’s a show that arose to dramatise the inner workings of a TV channel in the wake of #metoo, and now it has a pandemic to dramatise too. In the early days of the pandemic even we tried to talk about what was happening within TV channels. But my prior experience of this show is that it won’t make the most of what it has. I think this is down to the writing and the fact that it's more of a soap opera than I want it to be. Actors do these strange monologues that are delivered like they’re saying completely different, better words but the actors want them to be award-worthy speeches so they throw everything into them.
"I think, fundamentally, I just don’t care enough about who gets to be on the evening news or who has to stay on The Morning Show, and that's what it all comes down to. I don’t think this season will change that."
Apple TV +
The Morning Show S2 is available now on Apple TV+.
Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds and all other good podcast providers.
This week, the team hear from Rachel Shenton about the second series of All Creatures Great and Small on Channel 5 and Lorne MacFadyen from Vigil on BBC One. Plus, they review Y: The Last Man on Star on Disney +.
