Season 3 Of ‘The Morning Show’ Tackles Post-Pandemic Issues And More Media Drama

What is overall compelling but also hauntingly daunting about Hello Sunshine’s “The Morning Show“is its ability to emulate real-life events. Each episode is an inside look into the secrets that exist within the world of media, yet it’s not really a secret at all — it’s a series trying to tell a version of the truth.

As the award-winning and widely acclaimed hit series the show returns for season three, the audience is thrust into the ramifications and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a rarity of global collective trauma, season three looks at a more nuanced tale that examines the media’s role and responsibility to deliver the news and journalistic accountability to protect democracy. Starring and executive producers Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, their characters, Bradley Jackson and Alex Levi, contain storylines that press a more serious question: Can news truly be unbiased by the person delivering it? 

The first two episodes premiered on Wednesday, September 13th, 2023, and there will be new episodes every week through Wednesday, November 8th, 2023, on Apple TV+. ​​The Emmy, SAG, and Critics Choice Award-winning drama has already been renewed for season four. 

As season three starts in March 2022, Alex is more beloved than ever in her new show, “Alex Unfiltered,” while Bradley is receiving nationwide acclaim for her reporting on the January 6th insurrection on the evening news desk. But nothing stays calm forever in a newsroom. The entirety of the show has high stakes as the future of the network, UBA, sways with staying in business. This motivates Cory Ellison, played by Billy Crudup, to seek to save the network with the trust in a tech billionaire, Paul Marks (Jon Hamm). The CEO of a space exploration company ironically emulates Elon Musk as many of the show’s characters grow suspicious of Mark’s plan and past.

The show follows many storylines — romance, toxic family dynamics, corrupt business deals — but one theme rings true. Its success in echoing current events makes its viewers face the trauma of the last few years head-on. Whether we want to or not, we have lived in a time period where each waking day feels like a historical event. While Bradley grapples with an alarming truth about her conservative family, and the new Morning Show host, Chris (Nicole Beharie), navigates the delivery of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that so many aspects, our rights, in American society have teetered in the balance.

Billionaires have a hand in the legacy of media and news, problematic company board members fight for their stagnant place, and employees rebel against their work conditions; all point to the eerie resonance of how the show began — the #MeToo movement. To negate how the #MeToo movement relates to the power and control we see in these historical reckonings is the essence of the show, the drama that puts the definition of genre to the test, challenging it as a reality.