Sold as a starring vehicle for Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, make no mistake – it is Jennifer Aniston’s show. Witherspoon plays a character (a loose cannon in relentless search of the truth) while Jennifer Aniston plays a meta version of herself. She’s supposed to be this major celebrity that America is in love with, but underneath she’s isolated and imprisoned in living up to the public’s expectation. How many times has Aniston in real life lashed out at tabloids? How many times has Aniston taken “dramatic” roles to shake the image of Rachel Green (and maybe grab an Oscar nom)? Takeaway: It’s hard to be Jennifer Aniston. I tend to think there are one or two other people in the world who have it harder (especially now), but in THE MORNING SHOW we reserve ten hours to focus on her.
So whereas Reese plays Bradley Jackson (Really, Jen? Naming her Brad?), Aniston goes by the pseudonym, Alex Levy, but there’s not a minute you’re not thinking “Jennifer Aniston.”
At this point I must stop and say I loved Jennifer Aniston on FRIENDS. And I enjoy a lot of her movie work (even the dramatic roles). I don’t know her personally. (I once had lunch with Jennifer’s dad, but I don’t think that counts.) I know a lot of the FRIENDS writers and none of them ever said anything unkind about her. And comedy writers hate everyone.
So in theory this Jennifer as Jennifer storyline should work. But here’s the problem – unlike Rachel Green, I have no idea why America is supposed to love Alex Levy. On air as co-host of essentially THE TODAY SHOW she’s not warm, she has no sense of humor, no real presence, and frankly doesn’t handle the “broadcast” fundamentals all that well. Witherspoon’s character is supposedly thrown in as her co-host (in a ridiculous never-would-happen story turn) and in one week is handling the intros and outros better than Aniston. Jennifer just plays a less interesting version of Jane Pauley.
You also clearly see the pressure on the show's writers to make her sympathetic. Yes, she can be a bitch, and rave at male dominance, and be narcissistic, and snap at underlings. But we have to balance that with long scenes of her crying. Lonnnnnng scenes. We get it. We got it 20 years ago when Holly Hunter cried in the far-superior BROADCAST NEWS. Will she ultimately do the right thing? What do you think?
Steve Carell is in THE MORNING SHOW too, but until the second half of the season is put out to pasture. He’s Matt Lauer essentially and the series begins with him being fired. So he’s not part of the real action. He’s a cutaway. To toss him a bone, Jennifer comes to see him a few times early on. Carell was as good as I've ever seen him, and thankfully he’s way more present after you’ve watched five hours.
But for me, the one thing that kept me binging was Billy Cradup as the smarmy network News President. Yes, he was an asshole, but damn was he having fun! You could just tell. My interest level in the series always spiked when he came on the screen. He was also given some great speeches.
Overall, the casting was amazing. Other standouts: Mark Duplass, Gugu Mbaatha-Raw, Bel Powley, Karen Pittman, Tom Irwin, and Nestor Carbonell (one of the many weird guys from LOST).
Warning: There are a lot of angry monologues throughout. The writers want to be Chayefsky or even Sorkin and there are flashes where they hit it.
Warning 2: Language-wise there are more f-bombs than in DEADWOOD.
And you can play the drinking game! Take a drink every time you see an alarm go off at 3:30 in the morning. You'll be smashed by episode three.
This is a tale of corporate politics and #MeToo. BOMBSHELL did it in two-hours. A lot of the same issues. I will say this -- the season finale is very strong. Forget that a lot of the story turns are absurd. Just as the iPhone delivers in the end; so does the iAniston.
from By Ken Levine
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