Image Source: Forbes, Apple

Apple’s "The Morning Show" returned with season two after the hardships of the global pandemic that forced the team to shut down, delay, and re-write the entire season. Season one starring Jennifer Aniston, Resse Witherspoon, and Steve Carell in the lead roles managed to garner a lot of positive responses from the audience and the critics, which pushed the makers to pursue making season two a significant one. 

Looking forward to a successful season two and during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the showrunner and executive producer of the show, Kerry Ehrin, shared that she is very content with the script for season two. She describes the script as "a story that she had been aiming to tell".

On asking about what major plotlines were re-written for season two, Kerry replied that no major plotlines were changed. She added, "I very much wanted the second season to be about identity and about people looking at themselves; looking at this very complicated, corporate structure and trying to change — but also, that some of that ‘trying to change’ is bullshit".

Kerry continues, "And then there are people who are really trying to change, and questioning who they are and if they are a good person. Do they fit in and are they saying the right thing? Everyone was walking on such true, tender ground."The second season’s four episodes of "The Morning Show", is streaming on Apple TV+ currently and in its fourth episode, which is titled, "Kill the Fatted Calf", both lead actresses, Reese Witherspoon, who plays Bradley Jackson, and Jennifer Aniston, who plays Alex Levy, are confronted with their own opportunities to take a look in the mirror. 

Season one ended with Alex Levy confessing her involvement in Mitch Kessler played by Steve Carrell’s downfall and states that she just wants to leave. Starting up with the second season, Alex has retired until Cory Ellison played by Billy Crudup asks her to return to the show.

The showrunner, Kerry Ehrin mentioned, “Now, Alex has a choice: Either I can ignore what happened and people probably won’t think about it, or I can step into it. And it seemed much more interesting to step into it. A lot of the season is about Alex being faced with things she did that in the moment didn’t seem destructive to her, because she was on a trajectory of self-preservation, which I think, probably, is when most thoughtless things happen.”

Talking about self-identity, the audience will witness Bradley sparking a romance with Juliana Margulies, who will play Laura Peterson. Bradley’s reluctance to embrace her identity as a queer leads to a conversation where Laura tells Bradley that she was fired from the network over being gay back in the 90s. They argue about labels and Bradley’s hesitance to accept her real self leads to them putting a pause on their romance, only to find Bradley at Laura’s door stating that ‘she is a pain in the ass’ and finally embracing their romance. Their hug signifies possibly a second chance.

"I had a conversation with Reese after the first season, and we were just talking about Bradley’s love life, and she said, ‘I think she’s queer,'" recalls Ehrin about the seed that was planted to explore Bradley’s sexual identity in season two. Revealing more about her characters, Ehrin mentioned that she never really thought of Bradley’s love life. She quoted, "Bradley came from this very small-town conservative background with a very emotionally judge-y mom who was an alcoholic. It was a very intense background, and I thought: Well, this could be a person who was never allowed to deal with anything that she was feeling. And so we wanted to look at that."

Source: Tom's Guide 

Talking about how Laura Peterson was born, Kerry shared that she wanted someone like Diane Sawyer's mentor for Bradley who could serve as a constant in her messy personal life. Kerry revealed that before she cast Juliana Margulies, she wanted to cast a gay actress, but the actress was finally chosen as she "brings the prestige and stature of someone who was actually the new icon of a network. Aside from being an incredibly gifted actress and really lovely to work with and smart, Juliana definitely brings that."

Kerry lastly added, "Seeing who she (Laura) was and what her value was; what her strengths were. Laura had lived a life where she did the work. She dealt with things that were painful. She had therapy. Not only that, but she had to walk away from some of her family. And, as a result, she had a very successful life. And I think for Bradley, who is someone who has such messy ties to her own past and her family, and who has such a caretaker-reflex and heart, it’s always going to be harder for a person like that to be ‘successful’ because they don’t always think of themselves first."

In talking to Juliana about portraying a gay character, the Emmy winner mentioned that she understands that there will be some trepidation regarding whether lesbian actresses will be angry about the fact that a straight woman is portraying a lesbian character on-screen, but she also clarified that she would never be angry if a lesbian actress portrays a straight woman on-screen. 

Talking further, the actress mentioned, "You’ve got Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon playing these two very strong characters, and in the second season, instead of bringing a man in to upset that balance, they brought in a woman. Hats off to that, because the truth is women are more afraid of women. They dress for women. We don’t dress for men. We dress for each other. Likewise, we want to impress each other much more. … It made so much sense, and I thought, ‘Ah, a show that gets women. 'This is fantastic.'

Juliana stated that when she came on board she was handed over a 20-year backstory for the character of Laura Peterson in detail. Juliana mentioned that she was so happy with the fact that the character is comfortable in their own skin and has no ulterior motives. There are no talks about Juliana's character for season three but the actress stated that if the makers want her, she will jump in quickly to portray Laura. 

Queer actor Kristen Stewart has said it’s fine for straight actors to take on queer roles – as long as they’re willing to put in the work. The showrunner believes that Laura Peterson can have such an interesting influence on Bradley’s life that it will be very interesting for the audience to watch. The first four episodes of ‘The Morning Show’ are streaming currently on Apple TV+.