[This story contains spoilers from the sixth episode of The Morning Show season three, “The Stanford Student.”]
The stars of The Morning Show constantly make controversial choices. That’s what makes them relatable, according to the creative team behind the Apple TV+ series who had promised eyebrow-raising decisions to come from their starring protagonists played by Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon in the currently airing third season.
And following last week’s 2020 flashback reveal that Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson buried evidence around the Jan. 6 insurrection, the sixth episode in the media drama now placed Aniston’s Alex Levy in the hot seat as she decides to blur ethical lines — once again — when it comes to her personal relationships.
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Alex famously had an intimate relationship with her disgraced former morning show co-anchor, Mitch Kessler, played by Steve Carrell. Mitch, who was fired from the show within the show, also titled The Morning Show, over sexual assault, nearly cost Alex her career: She was labeled an enabler and nearly canceled when news of their affair went public. Following Mitch’s death, however, Alex emerged as a truth-speaker in the COVID era and the star entered the third season with enough backing behind her to be able to fight for a seat at the table at her corporate network UBA.
Then, however, in walks a new tech titan played by Jon Hamm and his character, Paul Marks, threatens to set her off her axis. Early episodes simmered with tension between the pair as they sparred over big tech’s growing role in legacy media companies, as he is pursuing a deal that would give him the keys to UBA. The sixth episode then saw Alex sitting down for a one-on-one interview with Marks that led to the pair hopping into bed together.
For director Mimi Leder, who helmed the sixth hour titled “The Stanford Student,” the chance to capture Aniston and Hamm’s chemistry — which begins with passionate kissing and ends with them lying, stark naked, on top of one another in bed — was, well, fun.
“Capturing that chemistry between Jon and Jen? I don’t know. Let me just say, I think it’s going to break the internet,” Leder told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview at the start of the season. “They had such great chemistry together and it was so fun bringing it to life on camera.”
Added Media Res executive producer Michael Ellenberg, “Mimi, Jen and Jon did beautiful work there. They’re fearless. Jen’s fearless. They all went for it. It’s two brilliant, iconic actors and I think Mimi is correct. It’s a highly viral episode and it’s a highly explosive one that we’re looking for audiences to see.”
As THR previously reported, the audition list for the Paul Marks character was that of one. Hamm was the only actor eyed for the part, suggested by co-star Aniston, as the friends had long wanted to work together. The character, though reminiscent of billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — as is evident by Marks’ passion for the space race and media combined — is an amalgam of different individuals, said the creative team. But his entrance was meant to shake up the entire season, which is not dissimilar to the evolving role of big tech and media at the current moment.
At one point in the show, the competing channel’s news anchor played by Julianna Margulies warns that a Paul Marks takeover represents a “billionaire with an outsized aversion to the press be[ing] handed the keys to a legacy media company at a time when truth matters more than ever.”
The episode, which is now airing amid the backdrop of the real-life news of the Israel-Hamas war and surging questions about how social media companies like X (formerly Twitter) and Meta are handling the spread of misinformation and violent videos, is yet another way The Morning Show, which has Charlotte Stoudt as its showrunner this season, continues to be a prescient piece of television.
“Everything on the show is researched very carefully,” said Lauren Neustadter, who produces the series with Witherspoon through Hello Sunshine, when chatting with THR ahead of the season. “You can tell by the authenticity of the way we peak behind the curtain of these morning news shows that there’s great attention to detail, so I think that Paul Marks is incredibly grounded and authentic in a way that feels very Charlotte Stoudt. He is obviously a divisive individual and a person who acts as a catalyst for so much of the drama and the conflict inside of the season, but he’s also a living, breathing human being who subverts expectation in really interesting ways.”
She added, “When thinking about UBA and the future of the network, and also just thinking about broadcast entities and media companies in general, there was a lot of looking into the future and imaging, but also a real determination to tell these stories and think about these things from very nuanced and varied perspectives.”
Neustadter also praised Hamm for his ease in joining the ensemble, which also consists of Billy Crudup, Greta Lee, Karen Pittman and Mark Duplass. “It’s like changing schools in your junior year, where you come in and everyone knows each other, and it was like he was always there; like he had belonged from the beginning. He was just a pro,” she said. “He was so fun and easy to work with. Jen and he have incredible chemistry. Very sizzly.”
At one point in the sitdown interview between Aniston and Hamm’s characters, Paul Marks seems to make his intentions publicly clear. “I think the news can be fixed and I’d like to give it a try before it’s too late,” he says, while also acknowledging that it’s “healthier to smoke a pack of cigarettes than log onto Twitter, but good luck keeping people from scrolling.”
His true intentions, said Kristin Hahn, Aniston’s producing partner with Echo Films, will be up for viewers to decipher as the back half of the season unfolds: “You’re always asking yourself: Is he on the right side of trying to save journalism? Or does he want to implode this world? You never really know, do you?”
The Morning Show releases new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
