The Morning Show tackles MeToo

IN THE THIRD episode of The Morning Show, a TV station's new anchorwoman Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) is forced to go shopping for clothes that would make her look more feminine and glamorous. Instead of enjoying it Pretty Woman-style, she rages and rants about society's expectations of women: "I've only been contending with the misogynistic world of journalism for 15 years. I've only been told about 1,000 different ways that I'm too liberal, too conservative, too in-between. 'You have too much chin.' 'You don't smile enough.' 'You're too brunette. Do you want to go blonde?' 'Where are your boobs?' "

The Morning Show, Apple's biggest title on its newly-launched streaming site Apple TV+, is nothing if not determined to tackle the raging debates in the age of MeToo. Its arena of choice is the TV newsroom where a perfect storm of contradictions has long been brewing. Here the women presenters are expected to look fresher and perkier than the men, while also pursuing news stories on workplace discrimination, gender pay gaps, MeToo, campus assault and other issues showing how women are disadvantaged.

Things come to a head when Mitch Kessler (Steve Carrell), the host of The Morning Show, is sacked amid allegations of sexual misconduct by former employees, in a storyline that eerily echoes the real-life termination of NBC's news anchor Matt Lauer. Mitch's fate has implications on the career of his co-host Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) who must keep the show afloat amid declining viewership and threats from upper management to replace her.