The Morning Show is officially back for its third season after a two-year hiatus. After a wildly chaotic season 2 (we will never forget Mitch's deadly cliffside car crash that verged on the absurd) many fans may have wondered: how will they ever reach the same heights again?
Well, if the first two episodes are anything to go by, The Morning Show will boldly go where no wacky drama has ever gone before. This season, they've only gone and sent Reese Witherspoon to space. Yes, by the end of the premiere, they was floating around in a low orbit of Earth. Clearly, the return of The Morning Show will live up to all of our expectations.
But that's not all The Morning Show is doing this season. When it's not sending it's characters to space, it's keeping its feet firmly planted on the ground as it dives headfirst into a few highly topical issues: namely, the Roe v. Wade overturn, which it tackles with a surprisingly heartfelt storyline about abortion rights in the US.
Jen has previously detailed her fertility struggles.
What has happened so far in season 3 of The Morning Show?
The third season of The Morning Show promises to be just as bonkers as the first two season. Picking up after a time jump (it's now March 2022), things have shifted for our favourite news anchors: Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) is on the evening desk, Alex (Jennifer Aniston) is now co-hosting with Christina, played by Nicole Behari, and Jon Hamm has arrived on the scene as a probably-too-handsome Elon Musk-meets-Jeff Bezos kind of billionaire who might swoop in and save the network.
A lot is going on. There is a cyber hack and secrets begin going public and mass chaos ensues. The clash of big tech and traditional media is raging. Bradley is set on covering an abortion rights story. And then, of course, there's the whole Bradley in space thing. In short, The Morning Show manages to do what it always does best: mix the timely and topical with the utterly absurd. And we are here for it.
How The Morning Show season 3 is tackles the overturn of Roe v. Wade
In the beginning of the third season, Bradley is working on a story about abortion laws in Texas — when the story is scrapped by the network for fear of legal ramifications, she takes matters into her own hands, explaining to Alex that she wants her work to "mean something." So, she sets out to film the story on her own anyway.
As producers explained to The Hollywood Reporter, the storyline was actually already in the works before the overturn of Roe v. Wade earlier this year.
“The most surreal moment for me was having a script that had already had aspects of [Roe‘s overturn] in it and then the headline hitting us in real time in our real lives,” said Kristin Hahn, Jennifer Aniston’s partner with production company Echo Films. “I just remember the shock and pain of it, and we were working on notes on the script. It felt very, very surreal. We were living art imitating life a lot. It was very mishmashed, particularly for that episode.”
The internet is divided.
Added executive producer Mimi Leder, “It was really significant and important, and we were glad we were tackling it."
By the sounds of things, this season will continue to tackle the timely issue of women's reproductive rights. “Women’s agency was a really important theme for us and how it’s being challenged right now,” said Leder. "All of our women are significantly challenged, and, thematically, we came to a place where we wanted to talk the state of the truth in journalism and in ourselves and in the lies we tell ourselves.”
As goofy and overdramatic as The Morning Show can be, it certainly knows how to delve headfirst into the issues of today: Just as the show has tackled the pandemic and the #MeToo movement in the past, this is yet another example of how it fearlessly confronts political and social concerns of women today.
How are fans reacting to season 3 of The Morning Show?
So far, fans are, predictably, thrilled about the return of The Morning Show. “It's juice, it's intense, it's exactly what The Morning Show should be,” one fan wrote.
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Another fan gushed about Billy Crudup's turn as Cory. “I keep wanting to see him interact with the characters on Succession,” she wrote. Now that is a spin-off we would pay to see.
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And, of course, fans are thrilled about the weird and wonderful rocket ship twist:
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What else do we know about season 3 of The Morning Show?
Well, there's a lot more to look forward to. The 10-episode season will feature guest stars Jon Hamm and Nicole Beharie, as the future of the fictional network remains at stake.
From what we can tell from the trailer, the rest of the season will bring just as much chaos as ever, as Alex (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley's (Reese Witherspoon) colleague Cory (Billy Crudup) says: “It's time to smash and shatter. Let's burn it all down.” Eek.
Jen previously revealed that this season is a “juicy one”, telling People: “Everybody’s getting in trouble. Everybody has a secret. And everyone’s just walking the line. It’s a lot more sensual this year.”
It certainly seems like we're in for a scintillating few weeks of viewing if the trailer is anything to go by.
As they have done previously, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston will executive produce the series through their respective companies Hello Sunshine and Echo Films – and Jennifer has even hinted that she'd like to direct an episode in the coming new season. In 2021, she told Harper's Bazaar: “If there's a season three of The Morning Show, I want to direct one of our episodes.”
Of the upcoming episodes, Apple TV+ has teased: "This season, the future of the network is thrown into question and loyalties are pushed to the brink when a tech titan takes an interest in UBA. Unexpected alliances form, private truths are weaponised, and everyone is forced to confront their core values both in and out of the newsroom.”
We can't wait to see what happens!
New episodes air on AppleTV+ on Wednesdays.
