Sold as a starring vehicle for Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, make no mistake – it is Jennifer Aniston’s show. Witherspoon plays a character (a loose cannon in relentless search of the truth) while Jennifer Aniston plays a meta version of herself. She’s supposed to be this major celebrity that America is in love with, but underneath she’s isolated and imprisoned in living up to the public’s expectation. How many times has Aniston in real life lashed out at tabloids? How many times has Aniston taken “dramatic” roles to shake the image of Rachel Green (and maybe grab an Oscar nom)? Takeaway: It’s hard to be Jennifer Aniston. I tend to think there are one or two other people in the world who have it harder (especially now), but in THE MORNING SHOW we reserve ten hours to focus on her.
So whereas Reese plays Bradley Jackson (Really, Jen? Naming her Brad?), Aniston goes by the pseudonym, Alex Levy, but there’s not a minute you’re not thinking “Jennifer Aniston.”
At this point I must stop and say I loved Jennifer Aniston on FRIENDS. And I enjoy a lot of her movie work (even the dramatic roles). I don’t know her personally. (I once had lunch with Jennifer’s dad, but I don’t think that counts.) I know a lot of the FRIENDS writers and none of them ever said anything unkind about her. And comedy writers hate everyone.
So in theory this Jennifer as Jennifer storyline should work. But here’s the problem – unlike Rachel Green, I have no idea why America is supposed to love Alex Levy. On air as co-host of essentially THE TODAY SHOW she’s not warm, she has no sense of humor, no real presence, and frankly doesn’t handle the “broadcast” fundamentals all that well. Witherspoon’s character is supposedly thrown in as her co-host (in a ridiculous never-would-happen story turn) and in one week is handling the intros and outros better than Aniston. Jennifer just plays a less interesting version of Jane Pauley.
You also clearly see the pressure on the show's writers to make her sympathetic. Yes, she can be a bitch, and rave at male dominance, and be narcissistic, and snap at underlings. But we have to balance that with long scenes of her crying. Lonnnnnng scenes. We get it. We got it 20 years ago when Holly Hunter cried in the far-superior BROADCAST NEWS. Will she ultimately do the right thing? What do you think?
Steve Carell is in THE MORNING SHOW too, but until the second half of the season is put out to pasture. He’s Matt Lauer essentially and the series begins with him being fired. So he’s not part of the real action. He’s a cutaway. To toss him a bone, Jennifer comes to see him a few times early on. Carell was as good as I've ever seen him, and thankfully he’s way more present after you’ve watched five hours.
But for me, the one thing that kept me binging was Billy Cradup as the smarmy network News President. Yes, he was an asshole, but damn was he having fun! You could just tell. My interest level in the series always spiked when he came on the screen. He was also given some great speeches.
Overall, the casting was amazing. Other standouts: Mark Duplass, Gugu Mbaatha-Raw, Bel Powley, Karen Pittman, Tom Irwin, and Nestor Carbonell (one of the many weird guys from LOST).
Warning: There are a lot of angry monologues throughout. The writers want to be Chayefsky or even Sorkin and there are flashes where they hit it.
Warning 2: Language-wise there are more f-bombs than in DEADWOOD.
And you can play the drinking game! Take a drink every time you see an alarm go off at 3:30 in the morning. You'll be smashed by episode three.
This is a tale of corporate politics and #MeToo. BOMBSHELL did it in two-hours. A lot of the same issues. I will say this -- the season finale is very strong. Forget that a lot of the story turns are absurd. Just as the iPhone delivers in the end; so does the iAniston.
24 comments :
I'm a Billy Crudup fan from way back. The way you describe his character reminds me of Alec Baldwin on 30 ROCK. I loved everything about that show but always sat up ands paid special attention when Jack had a scene.
I thought the middle section of the series worked best. It started off rocky and then it really seemed to find its stride. I am in the minority in that I thought the finale was overwrought and self-important. I'd give season one a B. But, A+ for Billy Crudup. He was an absolute delight and looked to be having the time of his life!
I'll always think of Nestor Carbonell as the mayor of Gotham City in The Dark Knight who looks like he wears eyeliner, though Carbonell has said it's just the way his eyes look.
The British comedy world suffered a great loss yesterday with the death of Tim Brooke Taylor, who died of Coronavirus. He was best known as a member of the comedy trio The Goodies. Ken, are you familiar with them? He had a long and varied career, appearing in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and even in Sharon Tate's final film, 12+1.
Fuck this despicable virus.
Why is Steve Carell trying to be a thing again?
Possible Friday Q (but anyone can jump in with their opinions):
What movies/TV shows that take place in a TV studio get the details of production most accurately? I know we don't always watch a show expecting moment-to-moment truth about How Things Are Done, but I imagine some shows capture them better than others.
Well, I have two thoughts:
1) If it's supposed to be a co-starring vehicle for Witherspoon, why isn't she in the four-box?
2) Did they pick up the production studio set built at Manhattan Beach for The Newsroom? Cause that was *perfect*.
* Yes, yes, I infer that the second person in the four-box should be Reese. But I know what Reese Witherspoon looks like, and that ain't it.
As an early adopter of Apple's TV+ (got a year free with my iPhone upgrade), I watched "The Morning Show" as soon as Episode 1 dropped. Releasing one episode a week (instead of all of them at once), Apple was kind enough to send me a message reminding me a new segment was up and available. Honestly, by the 3rd or 4th week, I lost interest. I'm a Jennifer Anniston fan, but her performance in "The Morning Show" was just one, long edge-of-hysteria trumpet solo. In her defense, that's how her character was written. But, still...
And, as great as Billy Crudup was, I don't have a strong interest in season two.
Regarding Apple TV+, still waiting for the next "BIG SHOW" from the platform. I imagine a lot of other folks are, too...especially now.
Isn't every media boss a great character?
NewsRadio, Just Shoot Me, I forget if they had one on Frasier, Spin City, 30 Rock, etc.
I liked it more than I expected. It started slow, but got going and I got on board. I really thought it was a strong ensemble.
I don't have Apple + but I was able to watch with a SAG Voting code. Sorry, Apple +, too many streamers I already pay for. Not gonna add another for one show to check out. Anyway, I was able to watch them all at once. This is definitely a show that should be dropped with a whole season at a time and not trickled out weekly. It's good, but not so great that I would wait anxiously week-to-week. If I couldn't binge it, it probably would have been lost in the shuffle.
At our house, we loved it. If Aniston was playing herself - which doesn't make good acting easier, in my experience - she does a terrific job of it. Billy Crudup is great, yeah, but Mark DuPlass is equally good. We are looking forward to Season 2.
And Steve Carell isn't a "thing." He's just an excellent actor.
Baylink, I didn't realize that was Reese, and still didn't after you said it until I took a closer look.
Above, Troy McClure mentioned Tim Brooke-Taylor in The Goodies. He indeed was a great loss, but none of the obituaries I've seen mention him in the radio show "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again". The show starred the 3 Goodies plus John Cleese, David Hatch and Jo Kendall. Check it out on YouTube. It's a show that deserves to be remembered.
Ken, I've got a Friday Question that I don't remember you covering before: what is parking like at the studio? Is a special area allocated for each show? Do show-runners get names on their spaces? Are you given a parking pass to hang on your mirror to get past the guard, like we do in college?
My only experiences have involved watching a show taping, and parking out in the wild was pretty difficult then.
Broadcast News - I completely forgot about that movie. That was a near perfect film in every way. Time to rewatch it.
MikeN
Frasier had two great media boss characters. One was station manager Kenny, and the other was the new station owner played by Miguel Sandoval who uttered the legendary line "All Latino music, all the time."
Lately, you and I have been at different ends of the spectrum, which makes this the great country it is. I don't like Jennifer Aniston or Reese Witherspoon and I hated Friends. I expected to shut The Morning Show midway through the first episode. It helped that Carell was around, but I actually really liked the show a lot, and looking forward to the second season. Billy Crudup has a lot of great lines similar to Kieran Culkin's character on Succession.
Friday Q: What do you think of the proposed baseball alignments around Cactus (Florida) and Grapefruit (Arizona) locales? Makes better sense than all games in Arizona (enjoy those 100-degree plus games),
And Mercedes Ruehl as Kate Costas (Dirty Girl).
I think that it's really interesting that Jen Aniston chose to do this project now when every other cable network seems to be wall to wall FRIENDS these days.
Aside from the endless FRIENDS reruns (and her years of TV pitching for Aveeno skin products) it's been nearly a decade since her last box office successes.
She's starred in some serious, dramatic projects but she's failed to become the Meryl Streep of her generation, in that Streep can elevate interest in even her more obscure pictures.
Aniston hasn't done that.
So I wonder if this project is some sort of midlife crisis, particularly as Ken aptly notes Aniston named her opposite number "Brad."
Why not?
That was me on the TMS review and baseball Q if you use it. Forgot to add my name.
I'm only 2 episodes in but so far Ken in spot on---I hate Aniston in this show and have no idea why all these people would put up with her treating them like dirt.
Martin Short's small role in one ep is Emmy worthy...and Carell's character's lack of self-awareness is very Michael Scott-like.
Hi, Ken. ThIs might or might or not be a Friday question. For reasons left unexplained about Jose Feliciano, I posted the intro and outro sing for ‘Chico And The Man’. So here’s my question for you: Have you ever worked on a show where the main star came to a sudden, irreplaceable end, much like Freddy Prinze? Not just left the series, but boom! tomorrow they’re gone and now you have a huge-ass hole to fill this week. How do you deal with that shit?
And even more sadly, does the word “irreplaceable” even exist anymore even if you’re a major star shitting cash? I think of this also when guys like Mclean Stevenson and David Caruso got all huffy and quit their TV series, which actually went on bugger and better without them.
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