Morning Wars review: Does Apple TV+’s big gamble pay off?

Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon’s expensive TV show is the centrepiece of Apple’s streaming service. Is it worth watching?

Apple doesn’t do things by halves, and it’s certainly going to swing big when it comes to its foray into streaming TV.

So it should surprise no one that Morning Wars (called The Morning Show elsewhere), the centrepiece of Apple TV+’s launch slate, is a showy, expensive series headlined by three A-listers: Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell.

When you have Apple money (reportedly more than $US150 million per season), you can call in the big guns.

Set in the dog-eat-dog world of breakfast TV, the 10-episode Morning Wars is a heightened drama that taps into the rage of the #metoo era by crafting a story about power and control — who has it, who thinks they have it and, most significantly, who gets to have it.

And really, there are few settings more conducive to exploring these dynamics than the dirty, abrasive world of TV.

There are few industries more cutthroat than morning TV. Picture: Hilary B. Gayle/Apple TV Plus via AP

The series starts with the sudden call to the male star of the fictional-show-within-the-show, Mitch Kessler (Carell). It’s 3am and his executive producer Charlie Black (Mark Duplass) has had to deliver the news he’s been sacked by the network for numerous complaints of sexual misconduct — and the story is all over the news.

His co-host of 15 years, Alex Levy (Aniston), doesn’t take the news well, swamped by feelings of betrayal and hurt. Alex thinks this puts her in a prime position for her contract renegotiations, but this is when we find out that the network bosses were already planning to sack her (or in Eddie McGuire parlance, “bone her”) soon.

The show’s ratings are on a downward spiral and their rivals have almost caught up.

When the newish news division boss Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) jets in from California, it becomes a game of wits, power plays and who dares to make the boldest move first.

Into this volatile mix comes Bradley Jackson (Witherspoon), a tempestuous field reporter for a local TV network in Virginia who becomes a viral sensation after she blows up at a protester and it’s caught on video.

Reese Witherspoon’s character is an uncompromising spitfire

Morning Wars’ first season spans 10 episodes

Bradley is brought in first as a guest but then becomes someone that both Alex and Cory think they can use for their own ends. But Bradley is no one’s pawn, unless pawns are now unfiltered and impulsive reporters you can’t put in a box.

Meanwhile, Mitch is reeling from being branded a sexual predator when, in his view, the affairs with his subordinates were consensual. Mitch is clearly being positioned as a Matt Lauer-type and even has that infamous button in his room that automatically closes the door.

But he also stands in for all the men who think #metoo is an “overcorrection”, who claims no one told them the rules had changed. There’s a scene in the third episode in which he tries to commiserate with another accused figure (played by Martin Short) before deciding that person was a real predator, unlike him.

That there is a really interesting dynamic Morning Wars is trying to explore — the degrees of culpability and how people relate or don’t relate their own actions to the wider movement.

But Aniston gets the chewiest role of the trio as a veteran media personality who’s been cruising on automatic until this rude awakening. Alex is fired up and she’s pissed at being manipulated.

Alex is, one imagines, every senior female in a high-powered position who’s been mistreated and patronised by men with less vim and less smarts.

Billy Crudup plays a manipulative TV executive

There’s nothing subtle about Morning Wars, it declares its arrival early and quickly. It’s like what one of Bradley’s bosses says to her — “You come in too hot, too fast.”

The pilot borders on melodramatic and it seems like everyone is keen to get their Emmy reels locked and loaded ASAP because there’s some overplayed speechifying. But by the latter half of the second episode, it starts to settle into its paces.

Only three episodes were made available in advance for review and while it has its flaws, Morning Wars is an alluring series, and not only because of its irresistible A-list cast and a supporting crew that includes Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman and Janina Gavankar.

It’s a passionate drama with a lot of heightened emotion trying to tackle some big issues, but without the cloying earnestness of something like The Newsroom. Even when its execution is sometimes wobbly, you never mistake its ambition.

It’s pacy, brash and compulsive — which all adds up to something worth sticking around for.

Morning Wars is available to stream on Apple TV+ from November 2

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