The Morning Show is a series that has undeniable casting appeal production quality and text, but it doesn’t connect to me. I’m a journalist, I worked at a morning newspaper like the one they portray, and at least in the newsroom I lived in for years it wasn’t even half as glamorous as they portray, but that’s not even the problem. Nor are the themes they try to highlight each season. The problem is connecting with characters as confused and inexpressive as Alex Levy (Jenniffer Aniston) and Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon). They are both rich, famous, powerful, and influential, but they are in constant unhappiness that more than distresses us, it irritates us.

With such a negative introduction I must be paradoxical because the third season seemed to open with more consistency than the previous ones, perhaps because at this point we already know the dynamics of the series a little better. And do we expect less? In the first season, the themes mixed sexual abuse, ageism, sisterhood, and business politics. On Monday, COVID-19, cancellation, homosexuality, and… corporate policies. We open on the third with a cyber attack, sex at work, and… corporate politics. Pause for yawning. Okay. Alex Levy has his own show, Alex Unfiltered, Bradley on the (most prestigious?) evening news. It seems that they are finally genuinely friends and that the world revolves in peace. If only it were like that. Bradley is no longer (secretly) dating Laura Peterson (Juliana Marguiles) and has not started a romance with Cory (Billy Crudup). Chip’s (Mark Duplass) passion for Alex is ignored, and Mia (Karen Pittman) remains miserable and resentful of men. We have the ruthless Stella Bak (Greta Lee) leading the journalism and now a charming billionaire, Paul Marks (Joe Hamm) wanting to buy the station. Alex and Bradley are still frustrated at not being able to get what they want when they want it, which could just be a recognition or even an article that the broadcaster prefers to cover up.

If Bradley, or Alex, were “really” journalists dedicated to the news, part of their impulses would be interesting, but in their millionaire lives when they embark on a story it is not for people, it is for fame, something that the series does not address. Bradley’s suicidal-professional-personal instinct, of always risking everything, doesn’t work either. She doesn’t come out of the closet, she doesn’t fall in love… if it weren’t for Reese Witherspoon’s undeniable charisma, she would be a more than confusing character for us.

The antagonism between Alex and Bradley promised from the beginning, comes up against the political incorrectness of having two women vying for power, but their friendship is too forced for us to buy it. One gets the impression that the series was born with an intention, changed direction to avoid negative reactions and until now has failed to find its footing for the same reasons. If we compare it to Succession, which also somehow deals with a TV channel, the problem with The Morning Show is still trying to protect its characters from dislike and defects. None of the Roys, least of all Shiv (Sarah Snook) were nice people. They were all shamelessly narcissistic and precisely this challenge made us love-hate them without guilt. Placing Alex and Bradley as people pretending to be empathetic doesn’t make them complex, it makes them distant.

So The Morning Show is back in the same place, with the same problems that are easily ignored due to the lack of options. Critics praise Jenniffer Aniston, who has already won an Emmy for the role of Alex, but for me, it is Reese and Billy who carry any illusion of curiosity about the lives of these people, more deserving, if we can consider anyone to deserve the select place of finalist for awards. The series is overrated in terms of awards and praise, it is just another attempt by TV to show behind the scenes, without managing to convey any realism. Still, with actor and screenwriter strikes already drying up the supply of new content, I’ll appreciate and follow what I have.

About the cyber attack, the connection between Paul and Stella, and the future of UBA? There wasn’t much room for speculation, but, certainly, the shadow of doubt about Stella’s involvement will be highlighted throughout the story.

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