Season 1 Was Great, Season 2 Is Even Better

When The Morning Show first premiered on Apple TV+ in 2019 some of the initial reviews were less than kind. Those negative takes were a bit presumptuous at the time as critics were only given the first three episodes to binge. The 10-episode season would go on to nab 23 Emmy award nominations and seven wins. As superb as the first season was, season two is even better.

“The first season was about the Me Too movement and the repercussions of that,” said executive producer and director Mimi Leder in a phone interview. “We used last season to turn over the rocks and see all the worms.”

Leder, who is well known for the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex, has directed seven of the show’s 20 episodes including both season finales. We briefly talked about the latest and stunning statistic that one in every 500 U.S. residents has died of Covid-19 which brings to mind another of her hits, The Leftovers. That series was about life after 2% of the global population disappeared following a tragic and unexplained event.

Life was very different during the filming of season one which left fans with quite the cliffhanger. Jennifer Aniston’s Alex Levy and Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson are co-anchors of the top morning show and they start a revolution when they go live on the air to expose the toxic culture and sexual misconduct on their own show. The result is that many of their colleagues are left jobless and the network is hanging by a thread.

It was early 2020 when production began for the 10-episode second season and then the pandemic hit. “We had been shooting for 13 days. It was mid-February through early March,” recalls Leder. “It was very frightening to be filming at the time. We were all just learning about social distancing. No one knew what was happening. We were the first production to shut down. We felt a real responsibility to keep the crew and cast safe.”

And, adds Leder, the scripts for the second season had already been written. “We threw them all away and we had to really reevaluate the stories we wanted to tell.”

The pandemic was incorporated into the new scripts and like real life back then, the characters would have to learn how to live in this new normal.

“This season is all about identity and asking the tough questions,” she explains. “There was this tidal wave of Covid coming upon us and no one knew how to handle it at first. This season, our characters are just learning what is happening around them.”

But the new episodes are not solely about the pandemic. “This season is also about cancel culture, sexuality and race,” adds Leder.

Production resumed at the end of October 2020 and filming went through May 15 of this year. “Our experience figuring things out is mirrored in the show. As the new season begins, Alex and Bradley and the team are just seeing the early headlines.”

As in real life, the characters on the show are about to be deeply impacted by Covid-19. “One thing the pandemic did was force us to ask ourselves a lot of tough questions. Who are we? Every one of these characters this season has to ask themselves who they are and if they’re a good person. There’s a lot of self-examination and self-preservation this season with all of our characters and they’re going on this journey together and Covid lingers in the background like a storm cloud.”

Leder does see a silver lining. “We also learned that what we do as individuals impacts those around us. The pandemic taught us a lot. It’s been a real time of reflection.”

This new season also sees some new characters arrive including Julianna Margulies’ Laura Peterson, a famous TV journalist in her own right who really comes in and shakes things up.

There has been a lot of speculation around Steve Carell’s character, Mitch Kessler, who was Alex’s original co-anchor. It was his inappropriate workplace behavior that set everything in motion. When asked if Mitch is based on Matt Lauer, Leder confirms he is not. “Let’s just say he’s an amalgamation of many people. His character represents a particular kind of man. I should probably stop there.”

Leder, like Aniston and Witherspoon, went behind-the-scenes at Good Morning America and The Today Show to study what goes into reporting the day’s news. “It’s really fascinating to see what it takes to get in front of the camera day in and day out to report the news and to have to do so even if your personal life is shattered.”

And Alex and Bradley’s lives are certainly in turmoil this season. “Life for our characters is very complicated and in many ways, each is completely broken. Alex, for example, has done some things that cannot be undone. She’s hit rock bottom and she has to find a way to survive.”

Season two of ‘The Morning Show’ premieres on Apple TV+ Friday, September 17.