The Morning Show fired on all cylinders of crazy in Season 3

[TMC]

https://slate.com/culture/2023/11/th...-jon-hamm.html

"If you’re like me, you might have fallen behind in watching the high-budget drama about the dramas behind the scenes at a morning news program," says David Mack. "Admittedly, I had become somewhat bored by its slow pace and overt self-importance. But in this latest season—the finale of which dropped on Wednesday—I can assure you the show’s creative team has been, to borrow a rocket term, firing on all cylinders of crazy. The result? It’s the most gripping and entertaining version of The Morning Show yet." Mack adds: "Now in Season 3, with much of the sexual misconduct and COVID arcs finally behind them, the show’s writers have apparently thrown everything they had at the wall. I can only surmise that no idea has been rejected. We’ve jumped two years into the future, and (Reese) Witherspoon has evidently become tired of wearing a brunette wig to set each day, because she’s now sporting her usual blond hair. She doesn’t even host the titular morning show anymore! But that’s no matter, because the Apple series has evolved into a bigger show about the power struggles and existential crises among the (fake) United Broadcast Association network and the (real) media industry itself. Yes, The Morning Show has finally become the Succession-style show I’d dreamed of, albeit one that is also now apparently set partially in space."

• The Morning Show Season 3 finale is a rare miss: "At the end of its first two seasons, The Morning Show went out with a bang," says Fletcher Peters. "Why, then, is the Season 3 finale so boring? The Season 1 and Season 2 finales—which, respectively, saw Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) and Alex (Jennifer Aniston) taking UBA prez Fred (Tom Irwin) down, then the dawn of the pandemic in New York City—left me slack-jawed, thanks to bonkers cliffhangers leading into the next season. After a lot of shake-ups in Season 3, one would think the same logic would apply here. Sadly, The Morning Show finales have gone The Godfather route—the third installment is by far the worst."
  
• ”The Overview Effect" isn't a series finale, but it certainly feels like one: "Since its debut in 2019, The Morning Show has been drawn to cliffhangers like a moth to a flame, but the Season 3 finale takes a different approach, instead opting for something that looks a whole lot like closure," says Claire Spellberg-Lustig. "'The Overview Effect' isn't a series finale — Apple TV+ renewed The Morning Show for Season 4 in late April, shortly after filming wrapped — but with its kumbaya energy and tidy resolutions, it certainly feels like one, particularly where Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) are concerned."
  
• The Morning Show Season 3 was more akin to a crash course in U-Haul relationships than it was about the ins and outs of a newsroom: “For that, we are eternally thankful,” says Elizabeth Pagano. “In many ways, the relationships in this season decided the many shapes in which the newsroom (both behind-the-scenes and in front of the camera) would transform. At the same time, those relationships also decided the fate of UBA. When done-deals become undone and then done again and then unravel once more in the blink of an eye, it can be tough to keep your head on straight and determine what exactly is causing all the chaos. But in Season 3 of The Morning Show, the answer was actually right in front of us the entire time. Perhaps it just took us all a bit longer to fully believe that the bad-guy-turned-good-guy could actually be a whole lot worse than bad. In a way, it almost seemed too easy for Paul Marks (Jon Hamm) to be the snake in the grass, which is why many of us turned to Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) to place the Season 3 blame. More often than not, though, a bad vibe is a bad vibe, and Paul really ended up taking the cake on that one.”
  
• Given the breakneck speed with which The Morning Show plows through topical stories, executive producer Mimi Leder doesn’t feel any complacency heading into Season 4: “If I was bored, I’d be gone,” she says, “but I’m not because I love the stories we’re telling. I love the possibility of the new stories we’re going to be examining.”
  
• First-year showrunner Charlotte Stoudt considers The Morning Show a "love story" between Jennifer Aniston's Alex and Reese Witherspoon's Bradley: "That really is the core of the show," she says. "And I think it is a show that’s built to showcase these extraordinary actors and how many we have in the show; there are just so many great performances. But it’s a show that comes down to the human face. To me, it’s about the human face and all the conflict that plays out inside and outside; and how you are both a private person and a professional person. This crazy relationship that began when Alex was trying to save herself turned into this spiky friendship where they really are the people who hold each other to account."
  
• "I wanted to see a different side of Alex this year," says Stoudt: "She had gone through essentially a near death experience at the end of Season 2," she says. "After she got better from COVID, we imply in Episode 305 that she and Chip got back to their roots and went out on the street and were interviewing people and she kind of got back to that run and gun — her old self. I wanted to just turn that prism of Alex (to) see different sides of her. I think she had a sense of, ‘I actually know how to make this place better. And I know that I know, and I should actually have some agency and authority in this.’ As you say, she has no partner. She has no allies. Cory is still like ‘No, you’re just talent.’ Bradley is very worried about an entirely different storyline that Alex knows nothing about. I do think Paul is someone who is her match, but also sees her. I think she’s very rarely seen in her full light as [a] brilliant woman, and also he’s just not afraid of her desire for power. I think it’s kind of exciting for him. So I wanted to see her become more vulnerable and open up like that, but also I think… in his way, Paul teaches her or helps her realize she actually has the resources to defeat him. He teaches her in a certain way how to destroy him. I think it’s not that she couldn’t have figured it out on her own, but his strength and ruthlessness was something she that mirrored to her and she went, ‘Oh, I know how to thread this needle,’ at the very end."
  
• How did Stoudt balance Alex and Bradley’s separation this season with moments where they come together?: "As soon as we had Jon Hamm I was like, ‘Okay, well, (Alex) is just going to fall in love with him," she says. "You see them on screen together, they just seem meant for each other. There’s the same level of talent and charisma. But I think in the end, she always has to choose Bradley. That’s kind of what the show is. I think even when the two women really disagree and get very crunchy with each other, there’s really a deep bond there. So I think it’s funny you say that because I will just say Season 4 they might spend more time together. Who knows?"
  
• Can The Morning Show ever evolve away from Alex and Bradley?: "Yeah, I mean, I think the absolute core of the show is Alex and Bradley and that love story, and how they keep trying to keep each other honest and call each other out. And I think that's always going to be there," says Stoudt. "But I think the great thing about the show is, there is room to expand these other stories. And I think we crave them. I mean, one, these actors are just so tremendous, and all these stories, comment on the other ones, you know, what I mean? Just the sense of, how do different women seek power? What are the kinds of bargains that different women make? And I think we need to answer that question. We need to see a lot of different women. It's as simple as that. Is it possible to sort of live according to my beliefs but still play on the sort of biggest chess board? I think that's a question most professional women ask themselves. And all those questions are answered so differently."