The Morning Show Season 3 Review: Elon Musk references spice up the new episodes

The long-anticipated third season of The Morning Show released on Apple TV+ on Wednesday. The first two episodes of Season 3 are streaming at the moment and subsequent episodes will be released on a weekly basis.

The Morning Show has gathered a loyal following with its complex fast-paced storytelling and its A-list cast starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, along with an enviable lineup of supporting actors.

The hit series takes a behind-the-scenes look at a major morning talk show on UBA, a fictional TV network in America. While morning shows are meant to be bright, upbeat, and comforting, The Morning Show reveals the chaos, drama and toxic culture in the background, partially inspired by real-life stories and events.

In Season 1, we see Alex Levi, the premier morning show anchor in America, played with panache by Jennifer Aniston, coming to terms with the dismissal of her co-host Mitch Kessler, in the light of #MeToo allegations from female colleagues. Enter Reese Witherspoon as Bradley Jackson, a firebrand reporter from a small regional news network, who ends up replacing Mitch in unexpected circumstances.

In the first season, The Morning Show tackled the #MeToo issue with sensitivity and drove home the point with tragic consequences when claims were dealt with a toxic silencing culture. While Season 1 brought clarity and complexity to the issue, Season 2 muddied the waters by offering a long drawn-out redemptive arc to Mitch which became problematic, especially as Steve Carell infused his character, a sexual predator now living in a massive villa on an Italian hilltop facing the sea, with warmth and likeability. No surprises then that the storyline could only go a certain way. Now in Season 3, with Mitch no longer there, the show can move on to other themes.

Season 3 raises the stakes and relies on out-of-this-world storytelling, quite literally, as we witness Alex Levi preparing to go into space aboard a privately funded spacecraft from where she will report for The Morning Show. Accompanying her on the maiden voyage are the billionaire owner Paul Marks (reminiscent of Elon Musk but made much more appealing by John Hamm who plays the character with a cheeky restraint) and Cory Ellis, the network’s CEO (played brilliantly by Billy Crudup who brings equal parts madness, giddy joy, warmth and selfishness to the role).

Unbeknownst to Alex, Paul Marks is in talks with Cory to acquire UBA and much of the season will be about the machinations of the takeover of ‘legacy media’ by new tech. Season 3 seems to be a lighter, more glamorous take on Succession and it’ll be interesting to see how that storyline develops.

Paul Marks’ character is a welcome new addition to the show and will bring in much mayhem as Alex seeks to resist the merger and acquisition deal, while at the same time falling for Marks’ charm. In the first episode of Season 3, Alex is interviewing the real-life author and psychotherapist Esther Perel who asks Alex when is it that she feels most alive. Alex answers that it is when she is working on something she is passionate about. Perel then asks her, “Why only at work? When was the last time you allowed yourself that kind of immersion and intensity but with another human being?” Alex is stumped in the moment, but the answer, it seems, may be Paul Marks.

Bradley Jackson, who started in Season 1 as a mouthy ‘truth teller’, appeared chastened and tamed into a more palatable and pragmatic morning show anchor in Season 2. Her main character arc was her personal growth into finding her place and voice in the world. In Season 3, she definitely seems surer of herself but we’ll have to see whether this growth leads her to take responsibility for her life. In the second episode of Season 3, the network comes under a cyber-attack and while there is a threat of employees’ personal data being released, Bradley is obsessed with trying to hide something which threatens her credibility.

In this season, it seems we will also see a bigger role for Stella Bak (played by Greta Lee), the Korean-American young head of the news division. In previous seasons, much has been made about her youth and her seemingly emotionless approach to work without a backstory. However, in the current season, there are hints of a backstory for Stella as well as a work history with Paul Marks from her former life as a tech startup founder. These are welcome developments as the show routinely brings up the lack of inclusion of people of colour in the media industry, while sidelining its own actors of colour by not giving them fully-developed characters and storylines.

The biggest triumph of The Morning Show, which remains an overarching theme across seasons, is how two strong women support each other in the workplace rather than constantly competing with each other. Seeing Alex and Bradley’s transition from colleagues who can barely stand each other to confidantes and friends who have each other’s backs is one of the highlights of the show.