The Morning Show isn't quite adding up to the series its star power suggests it could be just yet, but hot damn, can it roll out a string of compelling moments. Mostly, they involve watching Jennifer Aniston play Alex Levy as her blood pressure rises right up to the line of causing us to wonder whether Alex is completely losing her mind or just now finding her power. And that's a promising direction. Because isn't power exactly where The Morning Show's two main themes - behind-the-scenes drama of broadcast news and exposure of rampant sexual impropriety in the entertainment industry - overlap perfectly in a Venn diagram of ruthlessness? The Morning Show premiere had impassioned outburst after impassioned outburst about the state of news and the #MeToo movement, and while it was very fun to watch Aniston and Reese Witherspoon do their impassioned thing, and it's always a worthwhile endeavor to showcase female anger, none of it ever reeeeeally added up to any substantial point of view on... well, the state of news or the #MeToo movement. Hannah tells Ashley that going on the enemy show will make it look like she's scorned and bitter, just trying to get back at The Morning Show by aligning with their enemy. She'll look weak and manipulated by YDA: "Trotted out like a piece of meat and discarded when you're not needed anymore." Finally, Hannah plays the bravery card, telling Ashley that if she's going to blow the whistle on Mitch Kessler for being a predator, she has to have the guts to do it in his own house. Steve Carell has proven he can act his ass off in any character and genre (including just... randomly getting really hot in real life?!), but at times as Mitch he sounds so much like Michael Scott... presumably because Mitch is being purposefully portrayed as a buffoon of comical proportions. Like when he says to Chip with absolutely no self-awareness: "At first they came for the rapists, and I did not speak up because I am not a rapist, and then they came or the powerful men and you did not speak up because you are not a powerful man, but what are you gonna do when they come for the everyday, run-of-the-mill creep like you, Chip?"
Review of A Seat at the Table
