By Debadrita Dey
Season Premiere – September 2021, Apple TV+
Cast- Jennifer Aniston (Alex Levy), Reese Witherspoon (Bradley Jackson), Billy Crudup (Cory Ellison), Steve Carell (Mitch Kessler)
The second season of The Morning Show opens with an air of tension around it. However not to deny the show just keeps on living up to its standards and elevating itself in the eyes of the viewers. But the most daunting questions that the show leaves us with is whether it is reality check of the world or an action replay of the major events that we might tend to forget and move on? Well the answer might be within the question. Season 2 opens up picking up the banter from where Season 1 left us off. This season we get to see a lot of introspection into the lead characters like never before along with the show modifying and upgrading itself into being a hub of representation with the incoming of new, young and diverse faces. This show has to be applauded for its diversification but that comes with a cost too. Something that The Morning Show has quite pragmatically showcased are the events which took the world into a bounty ride last year, the COVID 19 pandemic, representation problems, racism while cancel culture gets the limelight this season.
The show shifts on from one issue to another but marks their importance every time. While on the other hand within the boundaries of the show, Hannah Shoenfeld’s sudden suicide begins to haunt Mitch Kessler throughout the show for his wrongdoings. Then there comes this handful of chaos with Alex Levy leaving the show after the grand exposé resulting in a crack in the already existing bittersweet relation between her and her co-anchor Bradley Jackson besides the whole Morning Show being sent in frenzy for the absence of their strong lead anchor. However, the team brings Alex back to “handle the mess” that Bradley has supposedly created or on a second note, to alleviate the show’s TRP, which had had a severe decline and take morning news back to its position with “America’s Sweetheart” in the frontline.
The events soon starts to take a turn with Cory Ellison restored in his position, Maggie Brenner launching a book on Alex Levy and slamming her for her hidden relationship with her co-anchor Mitch Kessler and evidently trying to bring her down while Alex vows to tell the world her side of the story. Bradley is exposed to be coming out owing to her hidden relationship with her co-host Laura Peterson and ending with Mitch Kessler abruptly ending his own life. There is a constant shift in focus as the lead characters are made to deal with the issues that seem to be pre dominating the world’s view right now.
We see many characters reprising their roles which is surely unexpected after what happened in Season 1 but truth be told the original head turner this season is clearly Laura Peterson. But something that the show actually needs to worry with is the screen time of the supporting actors, it is clearly a star studded drama but the others also have to have their equal share of the story. This season of Apple TV’s behind the scenes drama unlike the previous one is raw and plain truth of the world that breathes behind the cameras. . The show has given us a lot of insights into the behind the screen ongoing and makes us realize that behind the glamorous lights and the make ups, there is a human and they too have a story to tell, a life to survive. There is so much that is going on this season, so much of nerve wrecking drama, so much of revelation.
Taken into account the two things that formed the backdrop of the show were LGBTQ+ issue and cancel culture, this season they have, without fail predominated the show. With Bradley finding her love interest in Laura and with Alex forced to be cancelled after her relationship with her ex co- anchor and rapist Mitch Kessler is revealed they both face the consequences and are portrayed as examples of being the victims of these cultures that have gained importance lately. Besides giving us a firsthand account of how shoving someone away from the society or cancelling someone just because they don’t seem to abide by the standard norms that some think as a controller of the society descending into chaos can harm the target physically and mentally. But we also see how the two women instead of succumbing to this fight their way out and slam the world for their narrow-mindedness. Also a matter highlight should be how the relation between the two anchors Bradley and Alex slowly starts to improve with time and how they develop a strong bond and friendship, women helping women is the message that spreads and is also the message that sometimes needs to be shouted out to the world.
The storyline of the show since season 1 has always been unique for focusing and portrayal of current matters of importance that the world is dealing with. It doesn’t sideline the issues as a matter of fact but actually deals with them in real time. It is a web of conspiracies winding and unwinding but never ending, a reality check on world, a portrayal of the world as it is in the real sense and not as it should be or as rosy as it seems to be at times. It is an eye opener, a harsh reality sometimes too difficult to digest. The creators and the writers of the show have to be applauded for making it so diverse and addressing that issues that need to be spoken about. All in all the show never fails to surprise us with its all encompassing view of the world that’s constantly changing for good or bad. The show has once again left us with a cliffhanger and all we can do is wait for Season 3 which has been officially announced earlier this year to come and take our breaths away one more time.
Rating: 5/5