The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘The Morning Show’ Season 3, Episodes 1 and 2 Recap

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

Bill and Amanda get together to talk about the first two episodes of the new season of Apple TV+'s ‘The Morning Show.’ They begin their conversation by commenting on the heavenly lighting, special effects, and camerawork of the Season 3 premiere and catching up on all the story lines from the end of Season 2. They then discuss all of their favorite moments and scenes so far while shining a light on the acting performances of the star players, particularly Reese Witherspoon, Jon Hamm, and Billy Crudup (4:55). Finally, Bill and Amanda make their predictions on how the season will end (40:28). Hosts: Bill Simmons and Amanda Dobbins Associate Producer: Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You can listen to This Blue Up on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the Prestige TV Podcasts. My name is Bill Simmons. I'm here with Amanda Dobbins. I apologize for the quality of my audio. My recorder is not working, so we are using Riverside. Hopefully it sounds good. More importantly, Amanda, season three, the morning show, the best bad show of the last 10 years. I thought you were about to apologize for this podcast. I'm calling it a prestige TV podcast. I feel like we're stretching the limits every time we do this. But at the same time, this is a show with Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston and Billy Cruttup and John Hamm.

They spend a lot of money on on movie stars or former movie stars, on some of our great theater actors and on close and on good lighting. Let me just say right now, the lighting is beautiful and I would like one of the morning show light people to follow me around on a day-to-day basis. We grew up with the Barbara Walters Vaseline camera that would always every time they cut away from Denzel Washington to her. She was just in this murky. Morning shows created some other new version of just everybody looks like they're about to go to

heaven. And it's like it is HD, but also there is that gauze. And then it does seem like everyone has like a slightly different light depending on what they're looking for and the effect and really what age they want to be on the show. I also think it's conceivable that at least a couple of actors on this show. male or female, might have some say about which angles they're being filmed from, whether it's like right side, straight on a little to the left, or then left side, and that's it. Those are your three options, cameraman.

I would also venture that the some actors, and again, we may or may not names, have opinions on how other actors or actresses are being filmed and how they are willing to be filmed in relation to the other person. on the show and really how much time they're willing to be on the same screen together, Bill. I don't know if you noticed that. Well, there's two stars on the show and they did not spend a lot of time, the two episodes, together. This show is just fat shit, bonkers, insane.

I mean, it comes out of the gate. We're going to do the first two episodes. It doesn't, we don't really need to stagger them. We could just lump them all together. Episode one comes out of the gate with John Ham playing an Elon Musk character with a an abortion clinic subplot with the spaceship rocket, whatever the hell is going on and about nine other subplots. But they come out with rockets, abortions, and Elon Musk to start.

The delusions of grandeur of this show to think that they can do a space set piece in the season premiere. They're like, you know what? We're actually going to send three of our actors to space and make them do. you like a vomit rocket or whatever. Were they floating? They were maybe floating. Listen, with the amount of money Apple spends in the show,

you could tell me that they actually rocketed them in a space and filmed it. At the very least, it was dead even with gravity with the Sandra Bullock movie. Like it was like, whatever the special effects were, were like right there. It was like 80%. The special effects within the little rocket ship where they're all in one room, I do think that John Hamm, Billy Crudeup and Reese, Suther Spoon did one of those zero gravity things where you like go in the plane.

They looked like they were floating. That was actually good. Everything else that had to do with like the rocket launch was just absolute CGI nonsense. And it didn't look as bad as it could. I would say that like my standard for this as far as Apple shows go are the Ted Lasso crowd scenes, you know, which are just kind of the worst things you've ever seen in your trial. Better than the Ted Lassow crowd scenes. fair.

Not to the level of Apollo 13 or Oppenheimer. We have other examples this year of filmmakers with some craft doing launches. And I just don't know why the morning show felt they need to do it as well. One of those great, spectacular, unbelievable things about this show is I think they genuinely feel like they have the pulse, their pulse on what people are talking about, what they care about, where media is going all these things. So in the first episode of the third season, the plot revolves around, it's supposed to be Jennifer Anderson's character, going on a rocket ship with the Elon Musk Silicon Valley guy. Right.

And this is presented as this great thing for a show. It ends up being they switch a route with Reese Witherspoon who takes no physicals. They don't make sure about her circulation, anything. They're just like, hey, Reese, go into the rocket. They don't test her at all. I don't even do any basic, like, audience service plot explanation. In the span of 30 seconds, they're just like, well... She's in a car.

They're just switching. It's like if you couldn't do the podcast last minute, I'm like, I'll grab Chris. That's how they're treating Reese's rocket trip shit. So they have that. And then Billy Crotup, who's running this fake NBC or whatever the network is, and then the Elon Musk, John Hamm character. Yeah. And the three of them are in a rocket.

And at no point does anybody involved with the show go, oh, wait, America would hate this. People would go nuts. They would talk about what a waste of money this is, how pathetic this is. Why is the head of the network in there? Why is this such a waste of money? It's bad for the environment. This would have been a three-week cycle, right? Yes.

Also, the premise is that the Elon Musk character is launching his space rocket live on the morning show. And it's just like that is not going to be. be the vehicle for like the billionaire to do his space exploration. Like no one cares about morning shows anymore. That's another problem with this show is that it still thinks that like the morning broadcast hour is the single most important thing in America. And it is it is not. That is not where you would launch into space.

Yeah. They think it's like 1981. Yeah. With Brian Gumbo and Jane Polly together or something. Yeah, first of all, if you're trying to get attention for your rocket, I'm positive that a morning show is not the place to do it. You're just getting like a bunch of housewives and old people. Like that's your audience.

Second, he's also trying to buy the network, and nobody's putting the two and two together with the chest pieces of that. And then again, we should mention the head of the network is one of the three people they're showing. They don't even mention it. It's like, oh, that's the head of the network. He's in there. It is one of the dumbest scenes. But what was fun about it is it really seemed like they were zero gravity and we got to watch those three people to do zero gravity.

It's like the one example on the show where it was a really stupid idea, but that moment of execution was like, well, they are floating in space, you know? Like that's for once they at least pulled off this bad idea. But yeah, they're trying to do succession, sort of. Yeah. But, you know, two years too late and without the finesse and, you know, capabilities of Jesse Armstrong in his writer's room, which again, And maybe that's not fair because that's one of the best TV shows ever. But also, the writing is not on the level. You mentioned that they have an abortion subplot where they consistently keep trying to do these, like, social issues.

Did you even understand the abortion subplot? So it was like there were clinics and some of them were fake and Reese Witherspoon knew somebody and they was trapped in the building. And I didn't even, I could barely follow it. I think, like, I guess it's like Reese Witherspoon's character, Bradley Jackson. Bradley Jackson. The host of the evening news, the highest rated evening news telecast. She wants to do a story on this young woman who is driving in abortion pills from Mexico to Texas because they're not available in Texas. But it seems like the network is like not, it doesn't want to let her do it.

And so she's very frustrated. But somehow this whole convoluted plot is just then focused on how Reese Witherspoon's character is sad that she can't. can't do what she wants to, you know, that she can't be like a crusading journalist. But somehow switches places with Jennifer Aniston's character where they basically, hey, can you get down or the camera girl? I'll do you one better. I'll come down there myself. Right. But Jennifer Aniston ditches out on her spaceflight. Yeah, which has been promoted for a month and a half. She literally has to make her own obituary, which I thought was a very clever start to the season. Yeah, I like that. When they do something right, we're going to give them credit. They start with her

and you're like, wait, but it's, she's prepping it. Okay, no, so she decides to ditch out on her spaceflight with like five hours to spare because she's mad that Billy Krodib's character, the head of, is he the head of the network or is he the head of like the whole media conglomerate? What is his job? Well, they don't really make that clear and they also assume we remember everything that happened two years ago, thanks to their 90-second trailer at the top that just ripped through a hundred and 30 stories. Can I be very honest? Can I be very honest? And spoilers for season two of the morning show.

I had forgotten the Italy episode and how Steve Krell's character died. I had completely erased that from my mind. And then I remembered that they just filmed on location and had him drive Havocliff. Incredible stuff. I forgot it for a different reason. Remember in the mainstering candidate when they plant the stuff in the back of their heads? I went to one of those places to remove my memory of that episode. And then he came back and there was Steve Corral just sadly driving off the road to be replaced by John Hamm as Elon Musk. When Van was telling us on another podcast recently that he was like catching up on the morning show and he was in, he was like early season two. And I was so excited for him to get to Jennifer like Aniston's COVID monologue. You know,

that allegedly saved broadcast television at the network, which and streaming. It's like the future of streaming television is here because she just like live blogged her COVID. But I had totally forgotten to prepare a man for the Italy episode. So we, okay, Billy Crutt up. They didn't, they don't explain what he does. Well, he's definitely at least in charge of the network, but it also seems like he might be in charge of the company that owns all of the media holdings for that.

Because ultimately, and he's reporting to somebody, the lady from Buzz and Buddies, who seems like she ultimately, his final call. She's like a board. She's the head of the board or something. Yeah. Okay. I guess it doesn't really matter whether Jennifer Aniston's character, Alex, who is the

morning show anchor, is asking for profit participation in the network or in the giant media conglomerate. But like, is that a reasonable request? It's not. I actually have her complete request here. she said she wants a board seat she wants double my development slate what the hell is she developing she's a morning news anchor profit participation in a seat on the board and he says that would be unprecedented and she goes i am unprecedented because that's how they do this show everybody's got to talk in the biggest platitudes possible it's insane nobody nobody on network tv has ever been

this important to demand all of those things ever right but it's but it's like if dian sawyer with all respected dian sawyer by the way good career asking to be like one of the profit participants at like disney right i it's complete insanity it would never happen that it would be diane soire could have goals diet soire could have been twice as successful and it still never would have happened and she's probably the most successful version of this and so because she doesn't get it she's just just like, cool, I'm just going to go do a pickup outside an abortion clinic in Texas where I have no reporting connections whatsoever. She just like goes and films outside and she sends Bradley into space. I just, I don't understand. The whole point of this show, at least for the first two years,

at least from what I could perceive, was that Bradley Jackson had the reporting chops and kind of was a throwback to the old school boots on the floor reporter. And Aniston's character, Alex, was supposed to be the typical kind of TV, you know, the machinations of keeping your spot on TV and just caring about the celebrity of it. Yeah. Yeah. But had no interest in any of the other stuff. And that was supposed to be a little bit of a culture clash between the two.

And ended up in season three, she just suddenly starts caring about stuff, which I don't know. I don't feel like they earned that one after 20 episodes. Maybe it's just, maybe they had to do the switcheroo because there was a limit on the number of scenes or days that the two women would be together on set. I'm just, I'm just floating it. So they're like, well, we can't have them do it together. So maybe they'll just switch places. Well, another piece of this show that they really, really care about is the concept of men with power and men abusing their power. And they even say it in this first episode,

like Reese gives that speech. She accepts the award and just gives the worst award speech ever. Bill, when will you get the First Amendment award? I think you're due. Thank you. She's up for a Peabody. And she says there will always be someone who tries to silence you. So don't let them.

And it's like record scratch and she just leaves. But there's this men with power. Is she really drunk? She just seemed to unnecessarily. angry, you're getting an award, people are there to be happy for you. But men with power, men with power, men with power. Right. So they bring John Hammond to play Elon Musk, who's just handsome and eye candy. And it's like, you can't have it both ways. If you're going to have the Elon Musk character, make him like creepy and weird like Elon Musk is. You can't have Don Draper.

That can't be Elon Musk. And not only do they just bring in a charming John Ham, but they definitely seed the Jennifer Aniston, John Ham chemistry, and they have them go on like some sort of four. They tried really hard. And by the way, that is some of the worst green screen landscape that I've ever seen. That's Ted Lassow crowd level bad. I loved it. And I mean, it looked beautiful.

I would like to go to the real version of that place. And they try to seed the chemistry. And I found myself almost being like, oh, okay. So if you're going to have Jennifer Aniston and Jenner. John Ham, like, sleeping together while these corporate machinations are going on, you know, and it can be a little weird and a little charming. And maybe Jennifer Aniston can even be a little funny, which is what she's good at. Not getting out on this show.

And then they just completely ditch it. So not only are they unimaginative, but then they just give up and they put Reese Witherspoon on the spaceship instead. I don't understand. Why can't we follow through on our bad ideas? That scene you're talking about, this is a show, as we've discussed, as a, I'm also doing text and looking at Twitter and catching up on my fantasy teams as I'm watching a show, which is probably why neither of us know what Billy Krook's actual job is.

But when Ham and Aniston were on the screen together there for three, four minutes, I was like, I'm actually in. I want to see where this goes. Yeah, absolutely. It's also interesting when you have two famous actors who both have been around for a while and probably know each other, right? They have some sort of background. Like, I know, like, in the case of those two,

like they run in a lot of the same friend circles. So just to then see them be like, oh, now we're acting and we have to pretend like we're just discovering each other. It's just really interesting as a viewer. And then it was gone. We never saw them in the same room again. It was like, this is the one interesting thing

you guys have done in the show. I still got to say, Amanda, I know we've been criticizing it. I still had a good time for two hours in the wee hours last night in Boston, Massachusetts. I absolutely did too, especially once we got to episode two. Can we talk about what they do in episode two? Yeah, we'll rip.

We just got to rip through a couple of things from episode one quick. Okay, all right, okay. Was the competitor that Julia and Margueris is on the competitive morning show? It's called like your day. Right. Your day anywhere, something like that? Sure, with Mindy Kailing. Was that from last year with Mindy Kaling?

Did that start last year because I had no recollection to that either? Mindy Kaling was very briefly on the show last year because do you remember like... But then she left, right? Yeah. Basically, the very original idea for this show was that it was going to be about competition between morning shows and Mindy Kaling was going to be the other anchor. And then Me Too and all of the Lauer stuff. And, you know, so they decided to totally redo the show.

So they had her on as like a, you know, courtesy. in season two. And then I think that the Juliana Marguerleese character left the network at some point because of her

covert relationship with Bradley Jackson. Yes. But I don't remember They rushed through it. I remember they rushed through it. Yeah, I don't remember all of the career stuff.

I remember that she was really disappointed in Bradley's unwillingness to go public. And Bradley was like, I don't want my private life public. And so then they split. And then I guess she left the network. I don't, that part I don't remember.

So are you, if I, on a scale one to ten, how interested were you in just a brief glimpse of a Julianne Marguerly's Mindy Kaling morning show? I could have gone three minutes just to see what was going on there. You see that? Bringing the wacky pizza chef and just like, let's go. Let's explore the studio. space with this crazy idea.

You say that, but then it's like the longest three minutes of your life. We at least could have made part of it. So then we have John Hamm playing a non-creepy Elon Musk. That was another ad. We have the Duplas, Mark Duplas saying, what's Alex's secret? She's a survivor. I wrote that one down. And then the incredible revelation that Bradley Jackson was trapped

in the Capitol on January 6th. Oh my God. And got separated from her crew just with her cell phone. Oh, yeah. And that's it. I totally blocked it out. Documenting the Capitol. I'm like, okay, so they're definitely flashbacking to this episode, right?

This will be like episode six will be the, let's go back. Oh, no. Oh, it's happening. I was so uninvested in that or, you know, blocking. it out that I I come it didn't occur to me but yes you're right you don't just plant that one and be like oh and by the way she was at the capital show you do yeah on this show they could also be like well we'll give her award an award and we'll sort of like vaguely reference jan 6 but we don't actually want to deal with it so we'll just keep things moving but uh no you're you're totally right

that's a it's a great prediction you know what's a better show than the show is the show just a reality show of the morning show writer's room when they're like, we need something for Bradley and they're like, well, what if she was a kid during 9-11?

I'm like, no, no, that's too crazy. That would have made sense. Why would she be in New York? And they're just going through all different terrible things. They're like, the Capitol. Oh, yeah.

We were filming season two in the Capitol. Yeah, she's in the Capitol and she gets separated from her crew. And people are like, yeah, yeah, write that down. Write that down. And then the end of season special is when they present the ideas to Aniston and Withers,

individually and get their feedback. Because they won't be in the same room. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And she's like, go back to that capital idea. So could we go backwards in time and I'm in the capital and I'm fighting the proud boys? We're going to see her fight the proud boys at some point. Oh, my God.

I can't believe this is going to happen. We also have the trust, truth, UBA slogan, the big on trust and truth post-pendemic. I mean, it is like that's obviously a succession level. we hear for you. That's what it was, right? But do you think that it's intentionally dumb on the part of the morning show people? Or is it supposed to be like an earnest morning show slogan? Like that's them trying to do a good job representing the morning show or that's them

trying to satire it. It goes back to what you said earlier. This show operates in a world where these shows matter in some way. Yeah. You could have gotten away with Trust Truth in like 1988 because the evening news did matter and the morning shows did matter. But nowadays, nobody's going to those two vehicles for trust and truth. I bet if you asked 100 people who are the hosts of all the evening news shows. If you asked me right now, the only one I can tell you is Lester Holtz still hosting one of them?

I think he is. David Muir? Don't know. And then there's one other one that neither of us know. So that's how important these shows are. Anyway, we got to talk about the crew to, he gets his big speech. I think that was in his contract for season three. He's like, I'll come back.

Yeah. But I need one speech in episode. It's got to be 40, 45 seconds. I need to stand up and sit down during the speech. And I need to say stuff like, the world, as we know, it is over, Alex. We are literally in the thunder dome. 3D and living room in 10 years. I want to play.

want to win. He does this whole thing. It's good. It's incredible. My question to you, does he write these himself? Or is he just such a good actor and so experienced with working with with dialogue specifically because he has like theater training? Yeah. Yeah. That he can just sell stuff that no one else can because the show comes alive for those 45 seconds. And you're like, oh, this is the right mix of mania and absurdity and conviction and a handsome guy and good lighting. Like, I'm into it. Well, I think he probably doesn't write them himself because I'm not sure he would write. We are literally in the Thunderdome.

I don't even know what that means. I can't see him, like, giving notes and like, can you put this in there? But this is what we said the last two seasons. He's the most interesting character on the show. he's the best actor on the show. And what was cool is Ham came in, who has all his pedigree. And the scenes with those two, I thought, were really good. I thought that was some of the best acting that's been on the show.

I really liked the sauna scene. Is that a sauna when it's crystals? Yeah, it's like a high-end, high-end, high-end, new wave song. That was great. Enjoyed it. Also, like, funny, which the show so rarely is, even though it tries to be, I guess. I like the John Hamm edition. Well, I'm all on board with him.

He's basically Don Draper is Elon Musk. His hair has never looked better. He just looks good. He's aging nicely because Don Draper was kind of an old character. And he almost felt like a younger guy playing this old character. But now he's like the right Don Draper age. There's one other piece from this. Crutups like with Reese with Bradley Jackson.

He's like, you're going to need to return the favor. They plant the seeds for that in episode one. And then we get this weird brief flashback of there's like a bathtub and a hand, clearly some sort of dead body in a bathtub. Right. And that, I guess, is going to be one of the cliffhangers of the season along with, well, John Hamm, first of all, why is a Silicon Valley guy taking an interest in legacy media is just absurd, but whatever.

But is it going to land this company? What secret is she hiding? What happened on January 6th? and how can we keep Aniston's character interesting, which they just have not been able to do for two years plus this episode. This one was like,

by the time we get to the second episode, she's been suspended. You're going to be on morning show five days. She's like, oh, I'm not going to stand for that. It's like, this is your plot for season three. Reese is already foiling abortion clinics and has a dead body and was in the capital.

This is where you have. You got suspended for a week? So maybe that's why they're not in the same room, Amanda. Yeah, well, I was also going to say it seems like maybe one person took her notes feedback session more seriously than the other. It's very possible. Well, and then the last thing for episode one is just Ham, I'll call him Elon Ham. Elon Ham discloses the deal to Alex, which having been through deals with publicly owned companies, like you literally can't talk to anybody about them for any reason.

He's just like whipping it out there. I thought that was just a complete ridiculous. So anyway, the cliffhanger for episode one is they lose connection with the rocket. And then it's like, oh, oh, and it's like, did something bad happen? It's like, I know something bad didn't happen. I just watched a trailer of the first seven episodes. Everybody's going to be fine. One of the least effective cliffhangers that I have ever seen.

And they milk it at the beginning of the next episode. It's like a full two minutes of, oh, my God, like we lost connection. Did something happen? Can you believe it? No, they're fine. They're fine. We knew they were fine because you released a very splashy three-minute trailer that had a whole bunch of shit we hadn't seen in episode one.

Anyway, episode two, they have a cyber attack. This plot I liked. I loved it. It is absurd. And I was laughing so hard. But it's also just soap opera-e enough the way that they are like all of the plot threads that they're teasing from it that like I'm on board. I mean, it's absurd, but it's funny and I'm on board.

I'm more than on board. I actually think this is the best idea the show's ever had. I actually can't believe nobody's done this idea before because it's been, what, nine years since the Sony hacks, eight or nine years, something like that. And the possibility of just, it can go in a million directions now. We can get videos, which they tease that there's an unseemly Bradley Jackson video. There's emails, there's HR reviews, there's all kinds of development stuff that can get

stolen so they can go in a hundred directions. All right, a plus for me on this one. Did you notice what are the Hollywood things that they got lost, like a couple pilots? And then it's a Chris Pine movie. But they say Chris Pine. And I was like, why did poor Chris Pine have to take a random hit on the morning show? So this is really unfair. The ways this could go.

So Bradley's like, her career's going great, right? So clearly they're setting her up for some sort of. But she's unhappy. Right. She's unhappy because apparently just success is going to make it unhappy. And they teased, what was in the first episode, that she's getting after a little bit in her private life. Yeah. She's like, you know, it's still in the one-nighter stage, even though she's pretty famous.

Yeah. Well, she's exploring her sexuality and, you know, and tasting what it is to be famous in New York. She's having a good time. she's not having a good time by the end of this episode because it's clear that they have targeted her because of the January 6th. Right. We think. We think.

But also because as they kind of hinted in the first episode, but there's one very intense scene with her and Billy Crudup, there's other stuff that hasn't been leaked yet, but that is the real problem that she and Billy Crudup are really. nervous about, which seems like it's a dead body. So what do we think happen? Do we think she killed somebody in the Capitol? Because if they do that, this show is officially on bath salts. Yeah, I don't. I don't.

Do you remember her brother who was in the second season, who wound up, the drug brother, who then was like a major part of mayor of Easttown? Do you remember that? Also, that was, the actor was. That was really disorienting. I wonder what's up with the brother. Good call. That's who it is.

That's kind of what I think it is. But maybe they didn't, their shame, I don't know. Maybe he killed himself in her bathroom or something. Right, and they covered it off. Yeah, it was an OD. You know, that happens. But she had to have had some involvement where she wanted to get rid of them or maybe it was her fault. The, crot up says if they're singling out, maybe it's because of our January 6th coverage.

We said that it was great. We also just randomly get her and DuPlaz trapped in an elevator. which they decide to go into as the entire building is shutting down from the cyber attack and they're like, let's go into this elevator. Good idea.

There's a weird number of elevator or doorway or, you know, outside of a meeting solo scenes between two people. And that's really the only time that Aniston and Witherspoon interact is either like on the phone or coming in and out of rooms.

But I was wondering whether there was still a little COVID production, whatever here, because there are a lot of times where two people just kind of get siloed off, like unnecessarily. To be fair, there might have been some schedule stuff too. Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And Anniston was filming a movie or something in Monte Carlo. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

So they want $50 million in 48 hours, but then we find out that they can, they can hear everything they're saying in the office. Yeah. That part was cool. That part was cool. I enjoyed that. I like, do you fuck a predator? No, you didn't.

You're going to be fine. Or did you fuck a predator? No, you didn't. You're going to be fine. UBA refuses to negotiate with terrorists. I mean, they threw in a subplot because they, apparently, Aniston is like, can I just have scenes where I just lose my mind that I didn't know about something? So she finds out about DuPas and his girlfriend from work.

Okay. Thanks so much for bringing that up. So were those two people having some? sex at their boss's apartment? It sure seemed like it. Yeah. They'd been dated for a year, which was the weird part. This is like a first six weeks of the relationship.

I can't keep my hands off the booth. They disclosed it to HR. So apparently now it's supposed to be okay in the morning show universe, except then they were just like that wasn't the office, right? That was her apartment because then they go into her kitchen. I have a lot of questions just about those choices. We did get to see him break through a window in good morning show fashion when they couldn't, they were locked in the studio.

He picked up the fire extinguisher and it was like his big throw through the window scene. The big kind of other than the what's Bradley Jackson hiding was Stella, a character that they just can't get to work. And I don't know if it's the performance or the writing or their decision. So it's not the performance. And I wrote down, is this. going to lose Greta Lee her Oscar because Greta Lee, the actor is in past lives, which is a movie that came out earlier this year. Excuse me. I've seen past lives. She was fucking awesome.

She's incredible. She's a great actress. She's so wonderful. And as soon as I saw it, I was like, this is best actress material. Like, it starts now. And I just don't want this character, which I don't blame her. I blame the writing. They don't give her anything to do. Except, except for the very end of this episode. Well, but that's, so that was the big, the big, whoa. Yeah. Yeah. So for people, the, well, everyone listening probably saw the show, but it, she has some sort of history with Elon Ham.

Right. We don't know what it is. She's going through her. She, like, somehow gets her phone back. Yeah. And scrolls through the, the old photos. And it's like, it's a photo of young her with, with John Ham. And is that supposed to suggest that John, that Elon Ham is behind the cyber attack?

So I think we can, there's like four possible choices, right? She doesn't want to know, want people to know that she's dated them. She's working in cohorts with him, in cahoots with him to buy the thing and push out Billy Crud up. Or she's actually involved in the whole cyber part of it. But that would just make her like a villain, which I found that one hard to believe. Yeah. I have more questions about, because we know she's a good actress, right? This is like watching a basketball player on a different team just being used incorrectly.

Exactly. It seems like they wanted this character to be this kind of inscrutable, hard to read. She's kind of blank slate that plays up the other characters and you have to figure out. But I just don't think it works. I don't think the character is interesting at all. I agree with you and her sense of motivations. you don't know why she's doing anything or why she cares. And maybe that's just because we don't believe in the power of morning shows or even news.

But maybe they were setting us up long term where it's like, oh, this kind of under the radar when she's actually the mastermind and all this stuff, that's the only thing I can think of because we know she's a good actress. Right. Well, you know what? We know that Reese Souther Spoon is a great actress and we know that Jennifer Anderson is a great comedic actress. and I just, this show does not have a great history of using its talents well. That's all I would say. So I agree that Reese Witherspoon was once a great actress. Okay. Come on.

So if you were ever became a great actor or actress, do you just get to keep that for eternity? Or can there be a point where maybe you weren't as great as it used to be? Because I would argue Reese might be in that zone. And here's my, here's, I'm going to present my case to the jury. That Ashton Coucher rom-com, I don't know if you could be a great actor and be in that movie, because that's one of the worst movies the last five years. I completely agree with you, but I do not think that that was her fault entirely. I didn't think that the writing was very good.

Also, you didn't think the writing was very good in that movie? That was your expert opinion? But also, like, they, you know, they tried to. to do a when Harry met Sally. They don't meet. It's the worst thing. And they have no chemistry. It just like it doesn't work.

Also, they just put her in some truly terrible clogs and dresses. And that's not her fault. You know? I mean, I guess. Do you think she was good in Big Little Eyes? Season one. Yes. She was great.

Season two? Well, again, nobody was really doing their best work on season two. I just think her work's been pretty spotty here for 10, 12 years. And I agree with you on Aniston. She's a great comic actress. What I don't want is this version of her where she's just like whiny and over the top and demonstrative and just making weird faces. No. It's really, it's not a good choice.

Whoever is making these character choices and wanting to branch out, whether it's them or whether it's the writers and showrunners, it's not working. So somehow the ones who are playing the closest to their wheelhouse are crud up in him. Yeah. It's just how it plays out. Because we've seen him and stuff where he hasn't, you know, been incredible either. But it's, it's almost like this show is so demonstrously caring about women characters and trying to give everyone a plot line with meaning and that speaks to some piece of being a woman in the world and in the workplace. That they've ruined all the women characters and the two men that they haven't given any thought to are just like having a good time.

It's like, I think it was a giant overthink. Because I'll tell you another one, Julianne and Margalese's character. I don't like that character either. I don't think that character works. She doesn't get to do anything. She just... Describe her in three sentences. You can't.

It's like, okay, she wants Bradley to come out. Yeah. Well, I think just sort of reassuring, you know, lesbian icon is the role that she's being played. And I was looking on social media, and it does seem like that in the lesbian community, the Laura Peterson character has been embraced. Oh, interesting. Which is nice. I mean, like, I think as a joke, I don't think anyone is like, this is a great representation of what it means to, you know, be a gay woman in the news media. I think they're just like, this is really funny and we like Juliana Margulis. But it's like a running joke. So, but yeah, they don't give her anything to do. Can we talk about- The producers, another one that I can't get a feel for either. Karen Pittman. Oh, my God. Okay. So you get, you gave up on a just like that, right? Oh, oh, yeah. Okay. So not only is Karen Pittman, Ben,

carrying the morning show on her shoulders, but she's one of the additions to and just like that. And she is very good and just and got saddled with some all, as always, really lame character stuff in season two. At the end it works out. She at least gets to have sex with a handsome man at the end of season two and just like that. So that's like that they're finally doing right by her,

but they are not doing right. She also has to on this show, she has to bring in Russia and Ukraine somehow because of course, course they can't not comment on, you know, the Ukraine invasion. So she's like FaceTiming with a Russian war course, or not a Russian, but a war correspondent who's in Ukraine right now. Who she seems like she has a little history with. Yeah, they have like something going on. And that's how they're going to explain, you know, investigate this. It's really not good. It's not what you want. But the best female character they've had on this show is season one. Who is the one that got

involved with Steve Correll and then ended up dying. Gugu. It was Gugu and Batharra. Yeah, I don't remember her characters. Hannah was her characters named Hannah. That character was unbelievable. So it's not like they can't do it. She was great.

But they've completely overthought Alex and Bradley. They just have. I am worried that they're going to steer the Greta Lee character that way. You know, like another, I guess she's not that junior because somehow, somehow she's like the number two at the company now is she's like head of news. I don't know why she's in all the meetings with Billy Crudup and the head of the board. Well, so what did Nestor Carborda, his character, The Weatherman, what did he say to her? They called her CBS.

It's going to come out in the email as we call you CBS. Right. Child Bride of Satan. Yeah. And then she's just like does her inscrutable reaction to it. But it was like, this could have actually been a really fun scene. Well, she laughs as she walks away. They didn't give her the edit on that one because she like thought it was funny and it was a moment of triumph.

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worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99-79 or visit Zepbounds.combeau. All right, let's make predictions. I think we're getting a January 6th flashback episode. I think Greta Lee's character, Stella, is working in concert with Elon Hamm, but because she wants to overthrow Billy Crud up. Yep. I think they're going to try to steal the Twitter thing

of he overpays for it and then tries to get out of it. I think we'll have that. Like maybe episode six, episode seven range. he buys it, but then decides he doesn't want it, and that becomes the thing. I can't wait for their explication of, like, the Delaware court system. It's going to be amazing. You know, that they're just going to do it excruciating and incorrect detail. It's a two-hour episode.

And then the only other prediction I have would be they have to figure out something crazy with Alex, because she just, it's like something has to happen with her, right? Does she get and to have some sort of accident? Like, what would happen to her? I do think that she and Elon Ham still are going to have a thing. Okay. I think they just completely abandon it in episode one because their story choices can be hit and miss from a moment to moment basis.

But I do think that'll come back. Could we have the possible she gets involved with him and Greta Lee still has a torch for Elon Ham and we get a little love triumphal action with her like punishing her at work and blocking her from opportunities to get back at her? Because that always works. I have to think that it'll be more that the Greta Lee character will find out about the relationship and use it as a way to try to get punish Alex and get her out of the newsroom and or stop the deal.

But then crude up will be like, no, Alex is what news and America means. And so we have to have her. and then they'll fend it off. And it'll be Alex and Crudup saving the day. And I don't know what Bradley will be doing. Alex is the most important person in America. We're getting a 0.1 in the 18 to 49 demo. She's massively important.

What other predictions do you have? So we talked about Bradley and the Billy Crudup character and the dead body. I think it's the brother. And that's really only just because the brother was in the 90 second recap. And I was like, oh, yeah, him. I remember that. Yeah, they wouldn't have put him in there if he wasn't coming back. It would have been fun if she killed one of the January 6 people and they had to hide the body in Nancy's office or something.

Like that Nancy Pelosi's office saying, you helped me cover it up. We'd agree never talk about this again. Can't be rolled out in the morning show. They did send a rocket into space in the first episode. Right. And then I think the Duplass character is going to dump his. work girlfriend in a fit of jealousy

and self meltdown when Aniston and Elon Ham become involved because he's always been in love with the Aniston character, you know? Followed by the HR complaint against him? Exactly, yes, of course. And it shall start again.

Did we need more new characters than just Elon Ham? No, we didn't. Well, are you sure we're not going to get more? Well, there's that kind of felt newish co-host on the morning show, who I was intrigued by, but then, of course,

they just gave her nothing to do. I don't even know what her name is, but maybe she, maybe she gets a little frisky. Nicole Bihari is the actor. I don't know the name of the former Olympian anchor who she plays. Yeah, I was like, all right,

can you get a little more, like 45 seconds on her Olympic career or what happened? Right. I liked the scene where she's like, I'm not going to space. No. Yeah. That was good.

That was fun. That was punchy. Yeah. So then are we one episode at a time now? I think so. What do we do? Do we keep recapping it? Do we leave it over?

How many people watch the show? Is it just us? Do we get a van for the next one? We got to get Nora on one too. What do we do? Do we just keep doing this? Yes. Make sure that they're caught up.

I mean, maybe we don't have to do every episode. Maybe we do a mid-season and we get Nora or van? Yes, but also as soon as they do, the Jan 6 flashback, we'll have to reconvene. So that'll be an emergency episode. Yeah, that'll be an emergency episode. We'll watch and we'll just immediately start taping. We'll do a mid-season check-in.

A lot of people don't realize. The Capitol almost went down, but Bradley Jackson was there with their cell phone. Thank God. American history could have been rewritten that day. Oh, my God. I can't believe they're doing this. I can, but I can't. What else?

So that was. Oh, oh, final prediction. Who's behind the cyber attack? What's your theory? Oh, I think it's Elon Ham. Oh, I think it's the Russians. The Russians? Yeah, because they want to incorporate some modern geopolitics,

but they have no idea how to do it. That's because that's the dumbest answer. That's why it won't be a good reason. It will not make any sense, but they need to tie in the modern world in some random way. So I think it will be a Russian cyber attack. And there will be some sort of plot about an email that pops up. And maybe we get like, could we get like a Ronan Farrell?

type character who's doing an investigation on all the cyber stuff? How about just Lauren Ferro? That's what I'm saying. Let's do it. I like that call. So maybe that, I would like to see that character added. And I got to be honest, I'd like to spend a couple of minutes with the Mindy Caitlin and Julian Marguerlea's boarding show.

Let's find out what's going on over there. Let's just do a bottle episode. We'll do the Jan 6 flashback and then a bottle episode, which is just them trying to make a morning show. 50 minutes. Maybe it goes south. Maybe they don't like each other. They can break the story that it's the Russians who cyber attacked UBA. Oh, and UBA doesn't even get their, yeah, that's good.

I like that. No, and then Mandy Kaling can explain to us, you know, like the implications. You know, my daughter's favorite show, sex lives of college girls. Sure. The main girl left because she became like a famous singer. Is that why? I saw that she was, she's going to be like less on the show. No, she's like, she left.

Like she's going to be out a little bit, but she's out because her music career took off. So my daughter's very upset about this. It's the kind of stuff you don't hear in the prestige podcast. How is her music? Have you listened? Good. Oh, okay. Well, then.

On a scale of one to Olivia Rodriguez, probably like an ear. Yeah. Listen, Bill, if the morning show has taught me anything, it's that you have to follow your career passions, you know? It is true. It's work that makes you alive. So good for her. If I was, if you were Anniston, would you want to be on this show for a fourth

year? Like, how much money do you need? Do you think she gets to take home her wardrobe? Because it's really good. And I mean, I, you know, I am not as in shape as Jennifer Aniston, nor any of us, but I would love all of it. They are spending a lot of money. And if she got to keep all of it, it would be an incentive for me. I know she's really rich and she probably doesn't need it, but still. Yeah, but you know what? It's the little victories. Like, I also get to keep the wardrobe and I get to veto all the plots you gave me for season three. A plus on that. I like this show, even though it's terrible.

And I'm not going to apologize for it. I really enjoyed watching two in a row last night. I didn't understand half of it. Cyber attacks promising. I'm really glad it's back. I'm glad it's back. All right. Two embarrassed thumbs up for a moment that I.

We don't know when we'll see you again on the prestige pod. We're losing all of our prestige shows because of the things are getting pushed around because of the writer's strike. We're supposed to get true detective, curb your enthusiasm, both of those got push. God only knows there's there's an FX show that seems promising in the November range. And unfortunately, winning time is just, is not eligible to be in the prestige show. If you want to do like a back catalog on and just like that season two, I will do every episode.

Do you want to do that with CR? Because he called Sarah Jessica Parker, one of the great comic actresses of our time on the watch. She's wonderful. Yeah. She's wonderful on this show that is one of the worst things I've ever. seen on TV that I am deeply committed to. That's where my train gets off. I am off for like the morning show.

This is ridiculous. I can't believe they did that. And just like that, cross the line for me. Chris did a favor for me because episode four of season two was really tough. And he was like just skipped to season five and episode five and it becomes bad sex in the city. But it does. So maybe you can hop back on at the end of the season and just. see what's up.

To me, it's like, no. First of all, to do this show without Kim Contraal, and I know why they didn't, but she was too important to the original show

and they're trying to, and then they just kind of did this bullpen by committee of these characters. I don't care about to replace her. Now, apparently it sounds like one of them you actually ended up liking, the one is on the morning show.

Yeah, well, I was just happy that Karen Pittman got to do something other than like take a face time from the made-up correspondent on the morning show and look, and look at spreadsheets. But it's not the best.

I had a great time. I don't know what I to tell you. You know, before we go, from a prediction standpoint, if we're basically in like February 2020 now on the show. March, yeah, March 20. So the Russian Ukraine conflict's already happening. What else is like Elon Twitter? Would they cross the beams and have Elon Twitter be a piece of this?

Or you can't do that because you? I'm trying to think of when they were writing the show. show because that's the other thing. It's not like there's like originality. Right. You know, they're just taking things from the headlines and kind of mashing them together. So when did, Elon Twitter didn't happen to last fall. Is that right? It was like last summer, last fall, yeah. Yeah. So maybe it didn't get there in time. The Russia, Ukraine is the big one. So maybe they'll use that. The cyber attack's going to care us. All right, this podcast was produced by our friend Chris Sutton. Thanks for hopping on on short notice. Sorry about my audience.

Amanda, it was a true pleasure and an honor. Bill, I'm thrilled to be back here with you. You know, just you just let me know, and I'm here. All right. Thank you.