Weekend Watch: The Morning Show, Sex Education
The news crew returns and the student bodies are back
Image Credit: Apple
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon return for more Morning Show scandals and the pupils of Moordale Academy further explore love, lust and identity. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
The Morning Show was the first show out of the gate for Apple, one of its first big selling points as the tech giant entered the streaming wars. While it took a while for the series to find its feet, once it did, it sang. And that was despite being retooled during development to focus more on the #MeToo movement.
Set in the bustling, cutthroat corporate broadcasting world of UBA and its jewel, The Morning Show, the series mixed a look behind the scenes at the show and the various conflicting egos. Kicking off as long-time co-anchor Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) is accused of misconduct and fired, it followed the scramble to find a replacement to work alongside fellow established presenter Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston). The search lands on Reese Witherspoon’s ambitious younger reporter Bradley Jackson, who causes waves when she arrives, particularly in the season finale, when she and Alex break more of the story behind Mitch’s actions, imploding their own working relationship in the process.
As Season 2 kicks off, it’s the end of 2019, and Alex is living in a swanky country house in Maine, while Bradley continues to hold the fort at the show, all as ratings slip in the wake of her co-host’s departure. But though the show continues to focus its attention on Aniston and Witherspoon, the ensemble is still solid around them. Billy Crudup slinks and sneaks as smooth executive Cory Ellison (newly promoted and, as usual more concerned about the machinations than how it affects anyone else involved. Karen Pittman’s Mia Jordan, the senior producer at the show, has more to do this year, while Mitch is effectively in hiding in a swanky Italian mansion.
The first episode keeps the story bubbling, though it’s perhaps not quite as compelling. We’re promised, though, that The Morning Show will be tackling the big story of last year – yes, Harry and Meghan. Oh, and COVID. Can it match the first season’s brio and energy? That remains to be seen, though the compelling pieces remain in place.
The first episode of The Morning Show Season 2 is on Apple TV+ now. Future episodes will debut weekly.
Image Credit: Netflix
It’s perhaps not all that surprising that a show requiring its cast to do some very heavy breathing at times (and be in close physical proximity, occasionally without clothing, let alone a mask) saw its shooting delayed during the pandemic. It’s with a huge sigh of relief, then, that I welcome the Sex Education team back.
Of course, to boil the show down to its frank exploration of sex and desire is far too reductive. This is a series with a lot more on its mind than simple body humour (though it can still deploy that to winning effect). Even more than last season’s slightly tortured love triangles, Season 3 finds Sex Education back at the height of its powers, able to fit both jolly japes and real emotional depth into the space of single episodes. The season picks up after as classes resume at Moordale Academy after a summer that saw Otis (Asa Butterfield) dabble in casual sex, while his therapist mother Jean (Gillian Anderson) is pregnant with her ex-boyfriend’s child. Otis’ former object of affection Maeve (Emma Mackey), meanwhile, is dealing with the fallout of reporting her mother to the police and her own complicated feelings. Otis’ bestie Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) Is navigating a cautious new relationship with former bully Adam Groff (Connor Swindells), and Maeve’s friend Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) is suffering from body issues and PTSD after being sexually assaulted last season.
Around the core group is an equally fun gang of fellow students, one or two teachers and new principal Hope Haddon (Jemima Kirke), who starts the season looking like she’ll be the new cool headmistress here to help the students, yet who turns out have a plan to enforce medieval shame techniques to root out and prevent the sort of shenanigans that occurred at the end of the last season (you know, with a phallic sci-fi musical).
It’s a tribute to creator/show-runner Laurie Nunn and her team that there isn’t a weak link in the cast – while there are stand-outs including Gatwa and, of course, Anderson (how great a career is she having?) – everyone involved is able to juggle the silly and the serious, the puerile and the poetic. Only one regret lingers after having watched the 10 new episodes: the show manages to waste the outstanding Jason Isaacs, brought on to play the boorish, rich brother of former school head Michael Groff (Alistair Petrie), who only gets a couple of scenes. He does great work, naturally, but it’s far too featherweight a role to require a veteran.
Still, Season 3 shows a marked improvement over the second run, finding space for more characters to have fleshed-out storylines and addressing issues in a way that never feels like the writers, directors and cast reaching for a sledgehammer. Hopefully we won’t now have to wait as long for the next season.
Sex Education Season 3 is on Netflix now. I’ve seen the whole season. Seasons 1 and 2 are also available.