'The Morning Show': 5 things Apple TV's flagship show starring Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon can learn from 'The Newsroom'
On November 1, Apple TV+ releases ‘The Morning Show’, an hourlong drama starring Jennifer Anniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell. The show follows the lives of the people involved in an American morning news show. In an age where the news itself can be a controversial topic of conversation, the new show can learn from the mistakes of its predecessors, other news-related shows — most notably, Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Newsroom.’
‘The Newsroom’ debuted in 2012 and ran for three seasons. Critics were harsh on the series, and for good reasons. Here are five things that ‘The Morning Show’ could benefit from learning from the mistakes of ‘The Newsroom.’
1. Nobody enjoys a preachy protagonist
One of the biggest criticisms of ‘The Newsroom’ is how much of an air of moral superiority it held. Its main characters — William McAvoy in particular — seemed to believe that they were the only people intelligent enough to know right from wrong. People who disagreed with them were either wrong, ignorant, lying, or some combination of the above. It’s not fun for anyone to watch a show that repeatedly insults your beliefs and tries to bully you into agreeing with it — people get enough of that in real life, and it’s no fun there either.
2. A news show ought to show both sides fairly
Now, there are plenty of reasonable arguments against this point when it comes to the actual news. A news show that airs an opinion doesn’t always have to air inexpert, opposing opinions in order to be unbiased. ‘The Newsroom’ took those arguments, however, and ran too far with them. A show that covers the news shouldn’t take sides as strongly as ‘The Newsroom’ did, especially a fictional show that can twist facts and portrayals to better support that opinion.
News handles delicate subjects, and there is more to every news piece than who’s right, and who’s wrong — and if a fictional news outlet is taking sides, they need to be called out on it with some measure of self-awareness.
3. It's okay to be disagreed with
The characters of ‘The Newsroom’ — and, indeed, the show itself — seemed aghast at the very idea that their opinions and ways of telling the news were subject to criticism. It’s one of the things that alienated the show even further from its viewers, as the show rowed further towards their island of supposed moral authority.
A little humility, especially involving something that’s meant to be as charismatic as an American morning show, can go a long way towards endearing ‘The Morning Show’ towards audiences. Viewers want to see growth, and feel like if they were in the world of the show, they’d be heard.
4. Change is to be embraced, not derided
The very first episode of ‘The Newsroom’ contains its most famous scenes — the YouTube clip of it has garnered over eight million views — and includes the show’s protagonist calling the current generation “the worst, period, generation, period, ever, period.” He ridicules the idea of social media platforms like Twitter and the role it has to play in news reporting.
He’s not wrong that things are weird now. The internet has changed the world in ways nobody could have ever expected, but to out and out deny any of it has a place in modern journalism embodies a naive belief that old fashioned methods are the only ones that work. Any show that hopes to be relevant should embrace how different the world is now — especially a morning news show.
5. Don't let a major plotline derail the show
In the second season of ‘The Newsroom’, the show drifted away from covering different kinds topics each week and was pulled into a larger storyline involving a quote that was deliberately modified to support a huge story involving the US Military. The story was given enough weight for it to change the tone of the show entirely. It became discordant with the identity the show had set up in Season 1.
Such a drastic tonal shift is a risk, and it’s easy to see why ‘The Newsroom’ went for it — but having seen it in execution, it’s a stark warning for what NOT to do on the sets of ‘The Morning Show.’
‘The Morning Show’ releases November 1, on Apple TV+.