“The Morning Show” and the chaos of the newsroom at the heart of the fictional UBN network is back and somehow, improbably, unbelievably, more chaotic than in previous seasons.
Or, some may argue, not chaotic enough. At least not if it wants to match this moment in the real world, where the media landscape seems to be in a constant state of drastic change. There’s Bari Weiss, a former New York Times Opinion columnist turned Substack star, atop CBS News as its editor in chief. Oh and, of course, there’s the defunding of public media, newsroom layoffs and the rise and rise of podcasts and subscription newsletters of it all.
Only one thing can be a unifying balm in such times: Jennifer Aniston’s hair.
As we reach the midway point of the fourth season, members of the Styles team gathered to discuss the show’s ripped-from-the-headlines-approach, possible predictions for the future of news media and all that TV anchor style.
GINIA BELLAFANTE I’m addicted to this show and consistently ambivalent about it. This season seems both soapier and more zeitgeisty than ever.
JACOB GALLAGHER Perfect smooth brain television.
ALISHA HARIDASANI GUPTA They predicted, last season, that we’d have a billionaire-funded vanity space flight. And, this season, they essentially predicted the Bari Weiss plotline. I wonder what else they’re hinting might be in our near future.
GALLAGHER Whenever I watch an episode, I’m always thinking, “Wait, is this what network news is actually like?”
HARIDASANI GUPTA I’ve worked in broadcast news in the past at CNN, and I am always transported back to those days. There is something real about it, even amid the over-the-top-ness of it all. CNN’s Brian Stelter was a producer and consultant for the show, including for this season.
BELLAFANTE The show seems to live in the future and the past, but not the present. TV news is less and less relevant, but the show has a deft eye about which way things are trending in the industry.
GALLAGHER To me, “The Morning Show” is actually an anticapitalist work. No amount of power or money will ever make these people happy. They are an extraordinarily frown-faced, overworked and underwatered group of people. They have families? Maybe? But we never see them. They simply live to work and backstab each other. And nothing will ever satisfy them. But they just can’t stop! They love the news too much! I think in that way, it captures the certain mania of being a news person. You just want the story no matter the cost!
HARIDASANI GUPTA I was thinking that I haven’t seen Jennifer Aniston smile once in this season so far.
BELLAFANTE Totally. I mean what happened to Alex’s daughter from the first season? Boarding school? College? Covert ops? I can’t remember and neither can the writers it seems!
GALLAGHER I will say, though, that I do enjoy how this season, there’s a whole background plotline about journalistic ethics.
We’re seeing the characters grapple with the internal push-pull of journalism. We’ve talked about the prescient nature of the show, but do you think it reveals anything about how we actually view news today?
BELLAFANTE I think it gets at the point that it is regarded as just another commodity.
HARIDASANI GUPTA I do think the glass-ceiling-woman versus another glass-ceiling-woman thing is a little old. Do we still care about girl bosses? Do we care about the fact that we don’t really care?
GALLAGHER To me, that feels like a conceit that the show is sort of stuck with. I am ready for the two main anchors to join hands and sing “Kumbaya.” No more verbal sparring matches over goblets of red.
BELLAFANTE The show is steeped in anachronistic lean-in, girl-boss feminism. To its detriment!
HARIDASANI GUPTA For all their so-called empowerment, all the female executives are ultimately beholden to capitalism. And so for one of the anchors, Chris, to want to attend her daughter’s recital seems weirdly radical.
BELLAFANTE Ambition is Job One, always.
GALLAGHER I think the show really does nail the aesthetics of televised news today.
The shift-dresses, the makeup, the execs in suits and now the Rogan-esque host in his oil cloth trucker jacket. The show really puts a spotlight on how everyone in network news falls into their neat little boxes. That homogenous corporate-chic image of the anchors is certainly as vital to the medium as the chyrons that tick below them.
HARIDASANI GUPTA It’s interesting what the style is decidedly not: big hair, blond hair, heavy make up.
GALLAGHER It’s very MSNBC, not Fox News. That’s actually, to me, the biggest tell about what kind of network we’re watching. Not any news story they seem to cover.
HARIDASANI GUPTA Given the crystal-ball nature of this show, what other fictional news events do you think we’ll see next? I think we’re on the verge of covering the re-election of a President Trump-esque character.
BELLAFANTE Maybe there’ll be a Mamdani-like character presiding over City Hall, next week.
GALLAGHER Space … again!
Alisha Haridasani Gupta, Ginia Bellafante and Jacob Gallagher
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