Take Three: The Morning Show

The Morning Show: Season 1, Episode 3 “Chaos is the New Cocaine” (B+)

I’m beginning to understand why Apple TV Plus chose to debut the first three episodes all at once. I’ve enjoyed getting to experience them one a time, but as one set, it’s definitely a strong opener. I also see why the praise for Jennifer Aniston has been so robust, and it’s very likely that she’s going to earn awards given the writing for her character and the sharpness of her delivery, in contrast with much of her previous work. Reese Witherspoon is just as good, and while I wasn’t too fond of her accent initially, I’m glad to see her branching out from an equally great turn in “Big Little Lies” for which she could actually compete with herself at the Golden Globes and other awards ceremonies. The two of them were superb in this hour, and I also very much appreciated Billy Crudup’s performance as Cory, who successfully changed the narrative and owned this major bombshell delivered by Alex and then had an entertaining back-and-forth with Bradley about just how combative she was. Mia stepping up to be Bradley’s producer was an interesting move, and she and Alex had a loaded conversation about their personal relationships with Mitch. It’s so intriguing to see how Mitch continues to be determined to tell his story while finding few friends. Martin Short’s Dick quickly revealed himself to be far more extreme than Mitch, and it was no surprise that he took Mitch’s identification of him as a predator as an insult. The final shot of the episode offered what I guess counts for Alex as a gesture of support: the least comforting instance of hand-holding I’ve ever seen.