The Morning Show

So I got Apple TV+ for free and I decided to watch this. Season 1 was better than I expected, Season 2 sucked.

It's a fictionalized story of Matt Lauer / Mitch Kessler (played by Steve Carell) getting caught in a MeToo scandal. It was a fairly mature take on a complex subject, and they didn't play Matt, er Steve Carell, as the caricature character they might have, and it brought up some reasonable discussions and was somewhat entertaining. Season 1 was worth watching, then Season 2 jumped the shark.

ℹ️ Info

~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2020-01-10

I figured with such a snowflaky topic, that Apple might go full snowflake and make complete SJW tripe. They didn't.

Some of the characters were a little cliché, and the dialog oozed self-importance and taking themselves way too seriously. (Everyone had a view and was going to share it with you). But the monologues were often interesting (if slightly preachy), it was well acted, and while I didn't really "like" most of the characters (of each being a little too one-dimensional and predictable), the characters were true to their roles and all came with some warts and questionable judgement (and few clear saints or demons). OK, I kind of liked Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup), his character was the most interesting and sort of least explored. So there was a little superficiality... but far less than I usually expect from Hollywood, or even Apple -- and the delicious complexity of bad choices without it having to be bad people making them.

So while they hit a few predictable notes, it generally threaded the needle on a complex social issue, with enough moral ambiguity that it trusts the viewers to discuss and decide, instead of beating you over the head with their view. And it was rewarded with 3 Golden Globe nominations because of it. At worst, it gave my wife and I a show we both watched together, and could discuss nuances of.

🗒️ Note:
The Season Finale did go a bit snowflakey and was more what I was expecting from Apple/the Series. I don't want to get into it, and spoilers... but even that wasn't enough to ruin it for me (and it did have enough ambiguity that I was OK with it). It leaves open a few directions, has a bit of a cliff hanger (while wrapping some threads up), and to me might have been the payoff to the SJW's, or might have just been a trite way to end the Series on the happiest note they could -- not knowing if they would be renewed. So it could be taken a couple of ways -- and leaves open some complexity in Season 2. Either way, I'll have to watch some of Season 2 to know, and there's enough invested that I'm looking forward to it.

Season 2[edit | edit source]

So I went into Season 2 being a supporter. And it sucked. It stepped on every land mine that Season 1 had dodged.

It went Woke -- one of the leads was suddenly Bisexual, and a big sub arc about getting outted, and how mean that is to LGBT folks. (With of course the openly gay person being the most moral of the lot). The Gay-Black guy was being oppressed. The Asian over-achiever was a victim of racism. The white guys were all innept and entitled.
The leads became far more entitled Diva's, and the CEO far more a manipulator/backstabber. And all the charcters were more petty/vindictive/narcissistic; if you didn't like any of the Characters, how could you like the show. (They went from being a little grey, to all whiney/self-absorbed).
The only arc that held my interest was the Mitch one -- and he was broken over being so wrong as to let women with issues sleep with him for their own advancement (while they owned no agency for their actions, including suicide?).

It dabbled with COVID and the election; mediocre at best -- and mostly avoided DJT stuff (other than spitting his name with contempt).

Not quite finished with it. But it went from somewhat interesting and somewhat mature, to Hollywood drivel, in one season.

Film Critics[edit source]

Main article: Film Critics

If you want to see leftist bias in media, you just have to look at all the examples of how far off from their reviewers are from their viewers. I use the spread as a predictor of whether I'll like a film. Big spread with audience over critics? I'm going to like it. But big spread with critics over audience? I'll usually side with audience.

Film Critics/Throwing Shade

Tatometer	Summary
	The Morning Show - There was a surprisingly large Reviewer/Viewer split on this (61/91 -- or 30 point spread). And the reviewers that hated it. Likely because it was too adult and offered greys. Which to me reads that they wanted it to be more clear cut Social Activist Propaganda masquerading as a TV show (all men are bad, all women are saints). But I think the audience responded more because it was surprisingly grey. Season 2 was 67/67 -- it fed the Reviewers bias for Woke and came up a little in their minds, but it dropped dramatically in the viewers eyes for good reasons; the nuance and ambiguity was gone.

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Apple TV+ is an subscription video on demand service of Apple, that debuted on November 1, 2019 (announced on March 25th at a Special Event).

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