Tension and star power make Apple TV's 'The Morning Show' unmissable

The streaming wars have officially begun and Apple TV+ is here to fight.

The tech giant's foray into scripted content begins with The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell, a gripping inside-baseball drama that will have you wishing the episodes wouldn't end.

Aniston stars as Alex Levy, the face of a beloved American morning show that finds itself in a publicity quagmire when co-host Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) is accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct. Witherspoon plays Bradley Jackson, a local TV correspondent from West Virginia who goes viral just in time to be considered for Mitch's empty seat.

The Morning Show's trailer had the internet buzzing in August with the #MeToo of it all — particularly its similarities to the story of Matt Lauer — but the show goes deeper into every aspect of its setup, with crackling conversations, uncomfortable hysteria, and unflinching power moves across the board. Alex, Bradley, and the rest of the Morning Show team operate with a positively Westerosi sensibility about the climate and power structure of their insular, influential world.

Witherspoon's Bradley, armed with a light Southern twang and a truly appalling wig (this show has money. Get her a new wig), is the hardest character to pin down, due to her unruly behavior both on- and off-camera. Every now and then she edges into the TV trope of the professional who doesn't play by the rules — she's ready and willing to give a piece of her mind to anyone who crosses her path, alternately impressing and repelling colleagues depending on whether they find her feisty or abrasive (that's one each for Billy Crudup's network executive Fred and Mark Duplass as producer Chip). She's like the Horde from Split with previous Witherspoon roles, flashes of each popping in throughout and then vanishing within seconds.

Aniston carries the show magnificently, and in a vehicle like this there's no turning away from her stardom — her true TV stardom, a term that carries far more weight now than it did 20 years ago, thanks largely in part to her own work. Both she and Carell rose to TV fame at times when the traditional path was to parlay it into movie roles, but seeing them in their element, just acting the hell out of every hour, will make you crave and relish their regular presence again.

Aniston is electric, creating a woman who is at once powerful, ambitious, desperate, furious, confident, and exhausted with the life she chose. Not once is she over-the-top, rancorous, or needlessly sexualized in any way — you get the sense that this role was written as much by her as for her, guided by her hand as a TV vet herself.

"You don't have the power anymore," she tells the (male) network brass trying to control her in episode 3. It's not a threat, just a statement. The times have changed, and what was once acceptable is out.

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Where accused media men mostly disappear out here in our lives (though never for long), The Morning Show keeps us updated on Mitch's societally imposed introspective period. We never see or hear of him issuing an apology, but kicking right into defense mode. His conversations, particularly with other men, are astonishing — because they are entirely believable. They rue the changing tide and speed of social discourse, they agree that the Weinsteins of the world should be punished but fear for where that puts "ordinary creeps."

Writers Kerry Ehrin, Jay Carson, and Erica Lipez constantly maneuver the high-wire balance between conversations many of us have had or wanted to have and the utterly cringeworthy. ("It's all Weinstein's fault!" Mitch blurts out in episode 1. "Don't say that, you sound so ignorant," Alex replies.) There is a nuance to separating rapists from power abusers from average jerks that can be lost in wider discourse, that plays out in private interactions as it does in some of The Morning Show's most captivating scenes.

In that interplay between confusion and egomania, Carell thrives. In his first minute on screen, he conveys several dozen interpretations of the phrase "oh, fuck" with his face alone as Mitch receives a phone call confirming the allegations. You'll see shades of Michael Scott, not because it's the same actor with the same face or even the same performance, but because Michael was always prone to political incorrectness and cultural insensitivity, even when we knew him as a fundamentally good person.

We don't know who Mitch is at his core yet, and he has the chance to decide, albeit out of the public eye and with the knowledge that many Americans will never accept him again. In episode 3, he meets with a disgraced Hollywood director (Martin Short) — a dangerous predator in even Mitch's eyes — and recognizes that, at a minimum, he is not that.

The Morning Show seemed like a money pit based on the casting alone, but the first three episodes (out of ten) that we've seen prove Apple TV+ is throwing its hat into the streaming ring with gusto, providing quality television even if the market is saturated. The show has a familiar story, but depicts it in a way we've never seen before.

The Morning Show premieres on Apple TV+ Nov. 1.