You know a tv series is going to be at least great when you mix the talents of Jennifer Aniston, Reese Wintherspoon and Steve Carell. However, one could never have imagined how outstanding this Apple Tv + production is and how well it portrayed some of the most controversial topics in todays society, focusing on 3 major discussion points throughout the series. This 10-episode production with topics such as journalism and sexual assault was overly surprising.
“The Moring Show” starts off with everyone just finding out that Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell), the co-host of the most important morning television news program of the USA, The Morning Show, had just been fired because of sexual assault accusations. The program and their workers struggle with the sudden news, mostly because for them, Mitch was a great, loving, and humorous person, and a big role model for everyone working there. The one person that seems to suffer the most is Alex Levi (Jennifer Aniston), the other co-host of the program that struggles to wrap her head around the idea that her co-worker and best friend is a predator.
Meanwhile this is happening, a journalist called Bradley Jackson (Reese Wintherspoon), goes viral in the internet, since she was recorded giving a speech about mine coal while covering a miner protest in West Virginia. She gains fame because of the strong women image she passes while shouting at a protester that didn´t know enough about the subject of the protest. Consequently, she is invited to The Morning show as a guest while Alex is the only one hosting and everything changes from that point.
From the beginning, the series shows The Morning Show as a news program to make people content, sometimes omitting certain stories so they don´t lose their loyal viewers, fame, and, in consequence, money. Bradley Jackson is the first to point out that what the show is doing is not actually journalism.
This brings us to the first discussion point: what is journalism? Is it ethical to filter news based on the audience? If the news only shows a part of what is happening, one might say that viewers enter in a “satisfaction” bubble, making them ignorant to what is happening. However, no one is obligating the viewers to stick to a certain news program and the program is telling true stories. Therefore, the ethical journalism is a way bigger discussion that was thought to be, and the series approaches this discussion showing both sides of it: people want to watch it because it makes them happy and that is their right, and that people are entering in a “bubble”, making them ignorant.
The main discussion point is the sexual assault in the workplace, being show with Mitch´s behavior. It has been made clear that Mitch slept with many women at work, besides his wife. Still, no one has ever told him that what he was doing was wrong, so when he finds out that he has been fired, his first reaction is to fight the injustice he thinks he is suffering. We come to find out, that all his relationships were consensual which makes us wonder what happened.
As the episodes goes by, we get to know that the women that slept with Mitch were afraid to tell him “no” because of his position of power. Therefore, the sex was consensual and Mitch didn´t know he was wrong and yet, he is the only one to blame. Or is he? This takes us to the next discussion point: the culture of silence.
“The Morning Show” took a lot of controversial topics but the most polemic one was the culture of silence in the workplace. As a topic that happens every day in several real companies, the way the show approached it was amazing. We learn that some characters, that at the beginning of the show looked shocked about Mitch´s behavior, actually knew what was going on, however, they didn’t pay much attention before making the women that suffered the assault feel insecure and lonely in the workplace. This is the “culture of silence”, silently agreeing on not saying anything and turning the workplace very hostile for women. Therefore, if there were people that knew what was going on, but did not say anything, are they also to blame?
The greatest thing about “The Morning Show” is that it leads you to form your own point of view. The series doesn´t show a complete opinion yet it gives you the tools for you to figure one out by yourself. Besides the terrific acting by all of the actors (extra points for Steve Carell in this category), the similarity to reality is astounding. The situations, the news program, the dilemmas, the thoughts and opinions, everything could have been real. And it is actually real, it happens constantly and “The Morning Show” can help everyone to open their eyes about it while being super entertaining and fun to watch.