Four years after a wave of #MeToo revelations toppled entertainment giants who abused their power, American culture continues to grapple with the question of what to do with men toxic and what’s next for this movement.
The series’ second season, which begins September 17, 2021, follows a painful breakdown – both in the world of the show and, in a self-referential way, of the post-#MeToo entertainment world. While the show is at times disconcerting, it also responds to an urgent cultural need to tackle misbehavior and define a path toward healing, embodied in an all-too-comprehensive fictional reality. it is often women, not men, who work the hardest to change and invest in authentic second behaviors.
Bringing to the wider cultural concerns of the echoes of #MeToo, a major plot of season two follows Mitch’s pausing attempts to grapple with his actions. After being denounced by an angry American woman while he’s eating gelato in Italy, Mitch meets the documentary Paola Lambruschini (Valeria Golino), who summarizes the questionable nature of the second act after society cancels it. leaving a #MeToo abuser, said of the American accuser: “She doesn’t know what she wants from you. If you apologize, she says it’s insincere. If you try to do it, she will. good for the world, it’s self-serving. If you dare to live your life, it’s true and suffer. But you mustn’t do it in front of us and you mustn’t try to learn from it.”
Indeed, the series’ second season’s preoccupation with the question of what’s next for toxic men has no satisfactory answer. Mitch could make some progress in understanding the trauma his actions caused, and his mentoring Paola when she made a documentary on rape law in Italy demonstrates stopping steps towards good work for the world. But when new accusations emerged claiming his predatory behavior disproportionately targeted Black women, Mitch considered what Paola identified as a “coward’s exit” – he let His car raced over a cliff, raising the question of whether “The Morning Show” would easily approach the question of what to do with toxic men.
“The Morning Show” proves that secondhand acts against sexual predators continue to be unthinkable, but it’s not clear that “cancelling” them, not the hard act much more willing to hold them accountable, giving an opportunity to what #MeToo founder Tarana Burke has lied is at the heart of the movement: “radical community healing” (note also that the cancellations dropped here seems like hanging form in a million dollar mansion on Lake Como). Mitch died because he never took responsibility for his actions.
The show has denied us examples of men progressing, even though we see gestures towards maturity through Alex’s personality. Alex deals with the toxic men in her life by being a toxic force of her own, theoretically focused on not being self-destructive. For all her narcissism, though, audiences are treated to glimpses of what accountability might look like through Alex’s journey.
In the season two finale, Alex does a solo, hour-long live stream from her penthouse, talking about being diagnosed with Covid-19 and what it’s like to live under intense public scrutiny. Filmed with Aniston staring directly into the camera, the speech becomes increasingly uncomfortable to watch, an indictment of real-world fixation on human failure and error.
Zoomed out, all this concern with second acts echoes the real-life career trajectories of the show’s female leads, Aniston and Witherspoon. Expanding cultural approaches with the idea of ”America’s Lover,” both beloved actresses, along with season two’s standout Margulies, deliver fresh images of women successful television. It is revealing to see three powerful, middle-aged female actors, with wrinkles and reading glasses, take on a culture that allows toxic men to abuse power.
In her new memoir “Going There,” Katie Couric writes about the conditions that made Matt Lauer and others fall prey to women in the workplace. While her story is oversimplified, Couric deserves credit for writing about some of the tumultuous events associated with Lauer’s firing and grappling with her own accountability in the past. there.
This kind of investigation of the past and prediction of the future requires messy, emotional labor.
Perhaps the show’s third act will reveal glimpses of how a healthy workplace can work – and perhaps men will start doing the work.
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