#hannah shoenfeld

[femaledaily]

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Hannah Shoenfeld THE MORNING SHOW (2019 - )

[bloodstained-ballgowns]

‘The Morning Show’ rewatch thoughts: Part 2

Oh, boy. Things really pick up in the second half of the season. Spoilers for eps 6-10. 

It really struck me, specifically during the wildfires episode, how certain Alex is that Bradley will jump at any chance too judge her and tear her down if she shows the slightest bit of vulnerability. Especially if we're considering whether that’s something she’s come to expect, AKA is that something Mitch would do? I wouldn’t be surprised if picking at each others’ flaws, like pressing on bruises, was a large part of how their relationship functioned. We see in the flashback episode that Mitch makes a comment about the clothes they pick for her on-air and how she should wear something sexier, and though they laugh together, it never seemed to me like they ever truly liked or trusted each other. Did she build up that defence system unconsciously? I can totally see Alex having to play into all these angles in order to fit in with the ‘Boy’s Club’. It's something a lot of women do to gain male validation as the result of internalised misogyny, so I’m inclined to believe that yes, Mitch is absolutely the type of person to hold her hair back as she throws up, and then make a disarming joke about it later, which she obviously expects Bradley to do (or something along those lines).

Following on from that, as much as I do believe Alex is Not A Good Person, that feeling of waking up and looking at yourself and realising just how much you’ve been programmed to hate other women, hate yourself, in order to succeed (or even survive) in a patriarchal society can be like being hit by a truck. I think most women can sympathise with that, and it's a really positive step for Alex in the last episode when she is the one to start condemning the network on air, and completely confronts and admits to how many people she hurt with her complicity. She realises that self-preservation has to come second to truth, and starts to redeem herself. I’m so proud. 

Charlie fucking Black. This guy... He has none of the redemption Alex does when it comes to self-preservation. The way he just assumes everyone has selfish intentions just because he does is so funny to me. He’s really like ‘yeah I'm only in this so I can get my job back but oh bradley don’t you only care about bringing down fred because it will write you into history? ha!’ and she's just like ‘??? nO?!? bro wtf’. And the way Bradley starts getting really overwhelmed like a pan about to boil over about how shit everything is and Chip honest to god thinks the right thing to do is try to forcibly hug her?? Huh?? Bastard. (I did appreciate it when he punched Mitch though, even if it was for his own manpain).

The weirdest revelation I had this time around was ‘wait…is Chip in love with Alex???’. I looked it up, and yeah, apparently they were trying to convey that the reason Chip will do anything for her, the reason he leaked the story and always fights in her corner, isn't actually due to a long friendship and loyalty to a fault (like I figured), but because he’s in love with her and still holding a torch after fifteen years. Maybe I’m just dumb but damn. They did that. Weird.

Hannah is the catalyst, the lynchpin, the Wake-Up Call for so many people and I love that they woke up but GODDAMMIT she shouldn’t have had to kill herself for them to do it. What happened to her is devastating, particularly because her part in the series isn’t properly clear until episode 8, so until then she’s just as insignificant to the audience as she was to Mitch. “When Mitch Kessler decides he's having sex with you you feel pretty fucking powerless”. “To see people lose their jobs and things fall apart because I didn’t have the strength to say no”. Those lines broke me. Through Hannah, Mitch is finally shown to be the monster he truly is. (Gugu Mbatha-Raw is one of my favourite actresses right now because this performance coupled with Loki? Lady has got some acting chops). 

Mia’s mistake in the first half of the season when they’re at the bar and she says she “feels sorry” for Mitch, is that she assumes that those women had the same experience with him as her. Mia and Mitch had a consensual affair, so in her mind it was just a bit of fucking around with an unethical power dynamic. But the man she cheated with raped Hannah. Of course, she doesn’t know that, but her assumption irritates me.

“You know this wasn’t you’re fault, right? You know that?” Bradley I love you but what the fuck girl. Hannah just had a whole monologue about how she blames herself and Mitch assaulting her ruined her life and your response is just ‘don’t blame yourself’ like pls in what world does that help.

“The world isn’t ready to hold women accountable for their complicity” Mitch you need to sit the fuck down, because when he says this, he doesn’t mean ‘accountable’ as in ‘the word isn’t ready to realise that living in a patriarchal society has meant that women who want to succeed have had to twist their oppression to their own advantage/ignore the oppression of others and initiate change in the system so that that doesn’t have to happen if women want to break the glass ceiling’, he means ‘the world needs to hold complicit women to the same level of responsibility and contempt as they hold me because even though they were equally suffering from the system and I was the one who assaulted these women, the bystander is as bad as the bully, right?’. Because he’s burning, Mitch wants Alex to burn with him.

Honestly it was a moment when Cory unlocks Bradley’s entire character with the line “you can’t keep yourself pure just by moving on every time someone disappoints you”. What an asshole I love him and I love how they understand each other. 

I love that when Yanko gets drunk he rants about obscure weather phenomena to anyone near him.

The entire last five minutes of episode 10 is some of the most suspenseful, hair-raising, explosive, satisfying TV I've ever seen. Cory cheerfully waving at Fred as he’s locked out and the blind goes down - I love one☝️man. Rena’s face when she realises where Fred’s going and then sprints to lock the doors is iconic.

‘The Morning Show’ rewatch thoughts: Part 1

season 2 trailer thoughts ⬇️

There better be a good reason for Bradley suddenly having blonde hair because I liked the brown, it fit her character. I guess it could be symbolic, as blonde hair (particularly in the entertainment-y famous-people-y scene) has been treated as an ideal, more feminine, more attractive, more pure, whereas brown hair has been commonly associated with being grounded, mousy, or mature, so it could show that Bradley’s moving further away from her old hometown-news-anchor charm and now integrating more into this world that she was so outside of in season 1. She’s definitely wearing fancier clothing (I want that blue coat). Is that a reach? Maybe.

I’m looking forward to this storyline about racism in the workplace with Daniel and Mia, I’m glad he’s getting something substantial to do. Alex promised him that promotion and then blew up the network her own way, and he turned down YDA after all that. He deserves a network that appreciates him.

Maggie’s exposé is going to cause a tsunami.

Who’s the new EP and what the fuck is Chip doing these days.

“This is a battle for the soul of the universe!” Cory in a leadership position at UBA, having toppled Fred, will be interesting. The chaotic king is vibrating at the head of the table but is he better off as vice-president, where he can slyly manipulate from below without all the power right in front of him? He’s begging Alex to come back so obviously things aren’t going exceptionally, but we already know that’s where he thrives, on the knife edge. I hope his relationship with Bradley doesn’t deteriorate too badly, their dynamic is so great. They should go for that carriage ride!

Ummm they’re covering COVID. If you must, I guess.

I see a Yanko but I don’t see a Claire and that doesn’t sit right with me.

[hailesteinfeld]

"I'm not gonna give you some tearful 'I'm so broken' reveal for your fucking interview. How am I? I'm fucking fine. Fucked-up shit happens to people all day, every day that they don't know how to deal with. Why dwell on it? You got what you needed." The Morning Show | S01E10 | "The Interview"

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

So, so this is how it happens? Absolutely. People do fantastic work, and they get promoted. That is absolutely how it happens.

[love-music-fashion-flawless]

[theblvckvenus]

okay why is no one talking about gugu? what an absolutely incredible performance- she was so raw and she just changed so quickly - you can literally see her carving out the levels of this character.

[iamdatfilmbitch]

The Morning Show

Just finished watching the pilot episode of The Morning Show and wow, I can’t wait to watch the rest of the series. I definitely think I cried way too much for a pilot, but I also think that’s a good thing. This is not one of those shows where I’m like, “lemme keep watching and give it a chance.” No. They pulled me in with the first episode and I’m anxious to see where this goes.

I first teared up when Hannah told Bradley the story of how her boss Mitch forced himself on her. Hannah reported it to Mitch’s higher up Fred, but Fred just offered Hannah a promotion to keep her quiet and cover up this incident. I’ve never been in Hannah’s situation before but I felt for her. I mean, of course, what sane, moral, human being with a heart wouldn’t. But it could also be a testament to Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s acting. It almost felt like I wasn’t watching a TV series; like I was actually in the room listening to this story. The trauma and heartache was evident in her reliving this horror. But she tried to remain strong and convince Bradley that she’s fine. But Bradley was right to worry.

I teared up again to discover Hannah had committed suicide. It’s disgusting that there are tons of people like Mitch who can just violate someone and go on with their lives like nothing happened. Meanwhile victims are sometimes the ones terrified of what’ll happen if the truth comes out. It broke my heart to know this has happened too many times in reality, where victims will go to such lengths as Hannah to avoid dealing with the aftermath.

Lastly, I shed some more tears when Bradley and Alex went from being rivals to becoming a team. Live on air, they took down the network and exposed them for constantly covering up sexual misconduct in the workplace. Hannah’s death was the last straw, and I was proud of them for doing what was right. 

I assume in the rest of the series, it’ll be a war between those with basic human decency who are on the victims’ side, and the offenders who run the network. I’m hoping that there will be a happy ending where Fred and Mitch lose their jobs and are thrown in jail. But even in the real world, the happy ending we hope for isn’t always what we get...

•

•

•

Update... turns out I watched the season finale first and not the pilot episode 🤣 I’m still gonna go back and watch from the beginning but damn I’m just upset I know how it ends now 🤦🏾‍♀️

[cinematv]

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Hannah Shoenfeld in The Morning Show (season 1)

[thick-skulls]

GUGU MBATHA-RAW AS HANNAH SHOENFELD The Morning Show

[kwebtv]

The Morning Show  -  Apple TV+  -  November 1, 2019 - Present

Drama (20 episodes to date)

Running Time:  60 minutes

Stars:

Jennifer Aniston as Alex Levy

Reese Witherspoon as Bradley Jackson

Billy Crudup as Cory Ellison,

Mark Duplass as Charlie "Chip" Black,

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Hannah Shoenfeld (season 1)

Néstor Carbonell as Yanko Flores

Karen Pittman as Mia Jordan

Bel Powley as Claire Conway

Desean Terry as Daniel Henderson

Janina Gavankar as Alison Namazi

Jack Davenport as Jason Craig

Steve Carell as Mitch Kessler

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

i so badly need hannah to have SOMEBODY. give hannah shoenfeld a support system 2k19

[love-music-fashion-flawless]

[theblvckvenus]

listen Gugu Mbatha-Raw ATE that role and dear god i want to give hannah a hug and murder every man person that took advantage of her

[i-can-sea-asciena]

Séries TV La série du moment : The Morning Show

Série Américaine Première diffusion : 1er novembre 2019 Créateurs : Michael Ellenberg, Kerry Ehrin Acteurs : Jennifer Aniston : Alex Levy Reese Witherspoon : Bradley Jackson Billy Crudup : Cory Ellison Mark Duplass : Chip Black Gugu Mbatha-Raw : Hannah Shoenfeld Nestor Carbonell : Yanko Flores Chaîne : Apple TV+ Année de production : 2019 Durée : 51/65 min/episode Genre : Comédie dramatique Ma note :  ★★…

[ericdeggans]

How a Few Crucial Mistakes Hobbled the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show

(WARNING: spoilers abound here)

One of the biggest disappointments of the streaming wars so far has been what’s happened to the highest-profile release on Apple TV+, The Morning Show.

On the surface, it was a project which could not miss. Jennifer Aniston tackles her first TV role in a long while; using all the goodwill she amassed as an alum of Friends to humanize Alex Levy, a morning show anchor given to exhausting levels of self-absorption.

Levy is forced to wrest control of her show from the clueless men who run it when her male co-anchor, played by another super-likable celeb, Steve Carrell, is fired for sexual misconduct, accused of coercing subordinates into sleeping with him.

Yeah, it’s a fictionalized take on the real-life scandal that took down Today show anchor Matt Lauer. Apple was kind enough to let me see the pilot of the show back in August at their offices in Culver City, as they were gathering opinions from TV critics, and I told them back then that the focus on a Lauer-like situation made the show seem a little dated.

But Apple lucked out in a way, when Ronan Farrow’s book Catch and Kill raised questions about whether NBC News buried his reporting on allegations of sexual misconduct against film mogul Harvey Weinstein for fear that similar claims about Lauer would be made public. Suddenly, themes The Morning Show explores — taking a long, painful look at who knows what and the cost of willful blindness when a top dog in the office abuses his position — was front-page news again.

So why did so many critics rake this series over the coals?

I think Apple made a few crucial mistakes. First, they only allowed critics to see three of the show’s 10 episodes well in advance of the launch.

Those three episodes spend a lot of time humanizing Carrell’s character, Mitch Kessler. We see him screaming at underlings that he never forced anyone into sex. Kessler spends time with another celebrity accused of sexual assault — Martin Short, playing a director who may or may not be a human mashup of Woody Allen and Louis C.K. — and winds up drawing a clear distinction between the predation Short’s character committed and his actions. And we have a scene with Aniston’s Levy, where the two admit they had a secret affair, showing that she has a few skeletons in her closet, as well.

Apple didn’t release all the episodes to critics until right before the launch — after an avalanche of bad reviews — and viewing those remaining episodes reveals a lot.

The show asks persistent questions about the nature of consent. When a woman who is in a junior position has an affair with a man at the top of the workplace hierarchy, can that relationship truly be free from coercion?

Where is the space between what people assume about such relationships and the reality? Why are women so often insulted and punished for such relationships when the male often is not? What happens when the male assumes an affair is one thing — a consensual transaction — and the woman does not, but she’s too scared and ashamed to admit otherwise?

And how does turning a blind eye to such affairs by co-workers and superiors foster an environment where such behavior is more possible?

These are exciting, compelling questions. But it takes the series WAY too long to delve deeply into asking them. And the manner in which it resolves the story is so hokey, it almost overwhelms the more interesting elements of the plot.

(Okay, I’m adding this paragraph the day the final episode of The Morning Show is released on Apple TV+, so I’m going to reveal the spoiler: turns out, Kessler had an affair with a producer played by Gugu Mbatha Raw. And when she is reeling over the pressure to go public with her story, she dies of a drug overdose. This leads to a lot of maudlin scenes of grief and transforms her role from a woefully underutilized character of color to a noble victim whose sacrifice exposes the hypocrisy of all the white characters. Like I said: Ugh.)

The Morning Show also commits the cardinal sin of streaming TV; its episodes are too long. When I watched the pilot, I asked Apple’s PR people if they had connected the first two episodes into one long presentation — that’s how long it felt.

The series has troubling racial issues. It depicts a network morning show where non-white anchors are stuck working the weekends, raging against a network that won’t give them opportunities. But anyone who watches these shows in real life knows that non-white anchors like Robin Roberts, Michael Strahan, Gayle King, and Al Roker have been an important part of these programs for many, many years. When Charlie Rose was fired from CBS amid allegations of sexual misconduct, King became the show’s most powerful anchor, in the same way Hoda Kotb stepped up when Lauer was forced off Today.

Depicting a morning show newsroom where the top anchor ranks are devoid of diversity is seriously unrealistic and relegates actors of color to supporting roles. (I guess they couldn’t figure any other way to get Jennifer Aniston AND Reese Witherspoon in the same story?) And there’s the storylines given to the women of color on the show.

Women of color are depicted as tragic victims here in a way that disappointed me, with Mbatha-Raw’s character (a black woman who is named, curiously, Hannah Shoenfeld) as Exhibit A. Given how much crap non-white women have to absorb in the workplace — and how adeptly so many women navigate these issues — it was sad to see these characters weren’t allowed to transcend their pain.

It sounds like there’s a lot to dislike about The Morning Show. But watching the entire run of episodes, I felt like there was an interesting, revealing drama buried inside a clutter of missteps. When the series was on its game, it explored the ramifications of the #metoo movement in media in a way I hadn’t seen before on a big deal TV show.

Here’s hoping Apple wises up for the show’s second season, and cleans up its rookie mistakes. Because television could use a series that takes an unflinching, nuanced look at a movement that has reshaped the face of morning TV.