Season 1

The Morning Show is extremely inconsistent, but its highs are worth sticking around for and the season ends on an absolute tear with its final three episodes. It's at its best when characters get to display the nuances of their conflicting interests and loyalties. Everything is political, and seeing the layers of an interaction make the show sing. For all of these moments we get, we also get plenty of unrealistically simplistic or combative dialogue. The writers seem to think that everyone in the world slowly builds up frustration until they reach a tipping point and then will yell incessantly no matter who is talking to them (and that this breakdown happens every couple episodes for each character). The music is sometimes good but often pushes the atmosphere to a trite and transparent sentiment, which undercuts the work the good scenes do in building up ambiguity. Episode 8 stands out as a bold and fantastic decision to showcase the culture before the scandal, as this context makes the final two episodes explosive. I still wish for a bit more realistic, nuanced character portrayals rather than a character only displaying one side of themselves at any given moment, but the tension and excitement as the season progresses was palpable. I'm excited to see what's next.