Spoilers "The Morning Show" Discussion Thread (May Contain Spoilers)

[cybermook]

I binge-watched the whole series, which started off great but then drifted into feminist fantasyland. The production values are first rate as are the performances, but story line eventually ranges between bad and awful. It is obviously framed by a "progressive" viewpoint, but it is so overdone, creating its own stereotypes that it doesn't resonate. All males are evil, ruthless, power-hungry individual or wusses and losers. The "powerful female leads" are conflicted but ultimately virtuous. When it began I thought it was nice that for a change to see people working together without identity badges, but that disappears as minorities in privileged media positions (and actually overrepresented) are deemed to be victims of "institutional racism," which even this ideologically-laden vehicle fails to provide any evidence for apart from fairly innocuous verbal faux pas.

Assumptions are also ridiculous. The news division is conflated with the entire network I can't name one host on a current network morning show and I doubt many others can either. Nevertheless we are supposed to believe that the main host (albeit played very well by Jennifer Aniston) is a sort of a renown, all-powerful, and influential individual that can determine the fate of the organization, or even just the news division. By the third season all pretense of "professional journalism" goes down the drain as their abortion position becomes bedrock gospel for all. Whatever your issue-position may be on salient issues, you have to be really dense not to recognize propaganda for what it is.

Given all the money that went into this, the first rate production values and cast, it could have been a great show with a more sophisticated, nuanced script. Instead it comes across as a freshman womens studies comic book that develops into an ideological sledge hammer. I'm sorry I wasted so much time on it. There's a lot to be said for skimming.

 

[HMI]

The Morning Show is “a woman’s show.”……. Allow me to explain.

The writers have tried hard to create a media world that reflects the thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that most women would love to live and work in. To do this, they put women in most of the positions of power. The show anchors are mostly women (6 women/2 men (only 1 man after Steve Carell’s character dies). The News Director and her assistant are both women. Most of the staff are women, and even the owner of the company and Head of the Boardroom is a woman. She literally inherited the company from her father. And yet, somehow, all of these women in positions of power believe they are “oppressed” by virtue of being born female.

Only women’s issues from a woman’s perspective are celebrated. All other ideas or perspectives are vilified as evil, bad, immoral, unethical, etc. There is only one opinion allowed to be considered in this show - those of women alone. If you disagree, then you’re wrong, and the writers are happy to escort you from the building.

Of course, no show about news (I mean women) would be complete without a few men to complain about:

Enter one male anchor that is vilified as a sexual assault perpetrator though he never lied to or tricked anyone. And vilified not just at work, but on the national news. He’s fired, cancelled, and later dies in a car crash. (But when Jennifer Aniston‘s character sleeps with her boss/owner of the news network/and owner of its parent company (and right before a major shareholder vote), then that’s just her personal life. That doesn’t belong on the news.)

Enter one male CEO who is vilified (for being a male CEO) for trying to protect the company from sexual misconduct legalities (unethical, sure, but arguably part of his job as CEO) and is ousted from the company for doing so, and of course is roasted on the news for it. (If the CEO were a woman she wouldn’t have been fired or roasted in the news for doing the same thing.)

Enter one new male CEO. He’s corrupt and manipulative, but it’s okay because he is a fun, likable, showman, who panders to all the women around him, and helps them succeed, so that the company can succeed.

Enter one male news producer/editor who is always being disrespected and treated poorly. He is a nice guy who is good at his job, and helps the people around him, but being good at your job is not enough to be treated respectfully at work if women think you’re just a nice guy they can abuse verbally/emotionally (at work!) (If a man did that he would be fired immediately!)

Enter the other male anchor who tries hard to succeed, but can’t move forward in his career because his female bosses need to make sure to leave opportunities open for other women.

Enter a female Anchor‘s brother. He is a very troubled, problematic thinking, poor decision making man. ok, sure. The problem though is that he is far, far more so those things, than any very troubled, problematic, poor decision making man I have seen on any movie, TV show, or real life ever in my entire lifetime. He’s not as much a troubled man and brother as he is a contradicting set of unattached ideas. He isn’t even as much of a flesh and blood human in a male body as he is a coerced, convoluted set of story points designed to advance his sister’s storyline, but then written and cast as a male character because the writers wanted him to be “problematic.” Admittedly, I haven’t watched “reality TV” in a long time, but I don’t think the writers like men too much! D*mn!

We have a solitary, middle-aged career man, surrounded by several women in positions of power (even higher power than him), espousing to believe everything that women say that they believe, and himself bemoaning ”the Patriarchal Cesspool that we all live in,” as if that is something any man would ever say. (As if that “Patriarchal Cesspool” bears any resemblance to the reality of how we all live life for at least the last decade if not longer.) And this is what the writers of The Morning Show believe constitutes “equality!” (Male subservience to women)

These writers seem to have forgotten, or more likely don’t even care, that half the world is not female, and more importantly that those non-female “others” are legitimately allowed to think, believe, and behave differently than the women in this show would want them to.

I have seen many, many movies and TV shows that approach difficult subject matter with multiple different perspectives and opinions. Most attempt to remain respectful and balanced on their stances, even while leaning partially to one side or the other. This show literally writes its opinions in lipstick, holds up its middle finger to those that disagree, and then posts it to social media (then plays the victim when the “others” react to them) - just like women!

For those who think this is TL;DR, and are curious about Apple AI, I have included the new Apple AI Summary of this post above for comparison below:

Apple AI Summary:
"The Morning Show is criticized for its portrayal of a female-dominated media world where women in power perceive themselves as oppressed, while men are vilified for their actions or even their gender. The show is accused of promoting a one-sided perspective, dismissing opposing viewpoints, and perpetuating negative stereotypes about men. The author argues that this approach is not only unrealistic but also disrespectful to the diverse thoughts and behaviors of both men and women."

To me this seems mostly accurate, though a few small changes could be made.

Anyway, that's it!
Thanks.

 

[Admiral]

My issue with this show is there isn't a single likable character. They're all horrible.