'The Morning Show' EP Breaks Down S3's Biggest Storylines
Jennifer Aniston
The newsroom drama The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Aniston as Alex Levy and Reese Witherspoon as Bradley Jackson, returns for a 10-episode third season in which the stakes are high. UBA, the network that airs the titular show, is out of money and up for sale—and UBA CEO Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) thinks he's found the solution in billionaire Paul Marks (Jon Hamm).
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“Cory discovers it’s not that fun to be the CEO of UBA when he’s out of money, and in walks this billionaire savior who’s come to save the day,” executive producer/director Mimi Leder tells Parade. “Cory wants to bring him in and make the deal of the century and save UBA and himself. Paul, we find out, is perhaps not who we think he is, and there’s this super cool triangle of power between Alex, Cory, and Paul.”
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Leder is under a spoiler-alert warning, so she can’t reveal too much, but the relationship between the three is an intriguing one that keeps shifting with all the chess pieces constantly moving.
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But that battle for control is part of the overall arc for the season, which is about the state of the truth: the truths we live with and the truth and lies we tell ourselves. It's an especially big part of Bradley’s story this season. Even as she seems to be thriving—she's now heading the evening news and being taken seriously as a journalist (plus, she has a great place to live)—she’s carrying a secret that is revealed in episode five.
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“We look at her past and why she is the relentless truth teller, what is behind that?” Leder says. “How does it relate to her family and her father’s crime? It’s a very intense story that Reese is absolutely brilliant in.”
And then there’s Alex. Alex survived COVID-19; she survived being canceled when Maggie Brener’s (Marcia Gay Harden) exposé book came out; she survived her divorce and her daughter moving with her father to England; and she created a new show, Alex Unfiltered, which is a hit. Even so, like Bradley, Alex is lonely.
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“Baring her flaws on live television actually made her more appealing to the public,” Leder says. “It made her more real, but Alex feels that there’s still something missing in her life—intimacy, belonging. So, she’s focused on her work, and it’s a thing that she can rely on to make her feel good. She realizes she wants to be a leader, and she doesn’t trust Cory to change UBA for the better. She thinks of him as purely Machiavellian, and I think she’s right. And she wants a seat at the table, she wants a voice. And so, Alex’s arc is her stepping into her power.”
As part of Alex's stepping into her power, for Season 3, The Morning Show also examines women’s agency, and how women’s autonomy is being undermined, especially through reproductive and abortion rights. And even though The Morning Show takes place a few years behind current day, Leder feels that its stories are up-to-date.
“For example, Bradley’s storyline, abortion rights, the seed was planted in Season 1 when she blurts out that she had an abortion when she was 15,” Leder explains. “And that storyline was conceived before Roe v. Wade was overturned, and so we are very topical. It’s hard to do a series. You’d have to do a series live to stay current, but I think our storylines really do reflect what’s going on in the world today. I feel we’re very topical, we’re constantly questioning what is the truth and what are the lies? We see that every day on television these days.”
The Morning Show Season 3 is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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