For months and months, we’ve been hearing bits and pieces about this Apple TV+ series, The Morning Show. Apple’s big move into streaming is like every other company’s move into streaming: well-financed, with marquee names lining up to collect some big checks. I don’t know how much money Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell and Jennifer Aniston are getting paid for The Morning Show, but my guess is that Reese and Jennifer wouldn’t be doing this without a solid $500K-per episode, or maybe just a bulk salary for the first season. Of course, my guess about this series was that it was going to be a lot lighter, like a mockumentary about morning shows or something. I didn’t know it was going to be… so dramatic. The first trailer has come out and this actually looks like something I would watch:
It looks okay, right? Aniston’s strength has always been as a comedic actress and character actress, but they’re so obviously playing into her celebrity persona as “America’s sweetheart” here – sort of like Katie Couric with better hair. Reese is not who I would have chosen for a “real journalist” turned morning show anchor, but whatever – Reese is producing this, so of course she cast herself as the relative-ingenue. Steve Carell is… what, the disgraced co-anchor? Let’s hope they’re not making a mockery of the actual crimes Matt Lauer committed which were covered up by NBC brass. The rest of the cast is great too – Billy Crudup, etc. Oh, that IS Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Yeah. I’m interested in this.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Yeah, this will get me to subscribe to Apple streaming. I definitely want to see this.
I’ll be watching!
Yeah, this looks interesting. And Billy Crudup can play a cad like nobodies business.
Crudup is so underrated as an actor.
Damn this DOES look good.
RIGHT ???!!!!
I almost want to say ‘Take My Money’ to Apple and then I remembered they were Apple.
Um. I feel dumb for saying this, but when they said Apple was going to have a show called “the morning show” I thought it was going to be an ACTUAL morning show. Like, Today or something. LOLOLOL. whoops.
LOL I’m sure a LOT of people made that mistake, Becks!
Same,I thought the three of them were going to be interviewing other celebrities or something.
I like the career choices Aniston has been making lately. She seems to be stretching her acting a bit more than she has in the past and I like it when she goes outside of her wheelhouse, even if she’s not always successful at it. I’ll be watching this.
I totally agree. I was never a Friends fan, but I think her performance looks really layered and interesting here. I do think she has a lot of talent, but it shines better in some projects than others.
I’m really digging the feel of this show. As a woman, it looks more compelling than what we usually get served.
I agree. I was prepared to not like this but the trailer looks really good. I used to love Aniston on Friends, but then got turned off by the “poor me” PR strategy. Acting wise the only good thing she’s done post-TV is that movie with Jake Gyllenhaal, forget the name. But this trailer looks convincing and peaked my interest.
Was that “The Good Girl”? That was a decent movie, she did a good job in the role IMHO, and I’m not an Aniston fan.
I refuse to cough up ticket money for films that do not cast a person of colour in a relevant speaking role. Based on the trailer for the Morning Show, it looks like my fiscal-protest approach will be applied to Apple’s streaming site.
I am very surprised Reese managed to sell herself as the scrappy upstart to Jen’s past sell-by date female anchor. I suppose that Apple money takes the sting out of any agist insult…
Tired of the direction streaming has gone. So many different services to pay for now, it ends up costing as much as cable did.
We won’t be subscribing.
Same. I really like Amazon Prime, I watch that the most. My daughter likes Hulu. I want to dump Netflix, I never watch it. It’s just all getting too pricey.
Exactly. I’ve got Hulu live, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Acorn, Sundance and just got CBS all access so I can watch the third season of the Good Fight. You can cancel and start back up again with a few of the apps, but it’s a full time job keeping track. Very disappointed when I saw this was another subscription service I have to get.
Outside of Big Little Lies, Reese doesn’t always have the best instincts when casting herself. I mean, if it wasn’t for Fincher stepping in, she would’ve been Amazing Amy in Gone Girl.
I think it was a wise move to listen to him on that, Rosamund was great in the role. I think Reese was also good in Wild though, and I think she’ll be good in Little Fires Everywhere too, from what I remember of her character. She’s definitely producing interesting projects.
I’m excited for this show – I was already anticipating it, thinking it was a great cast for a comedy, but now seeing that it’s more serious, I’m intrigued.
It was reported that both Aniston and Witherspoon are being paid a bit over $1 million per episode and that they were co-producing the series.