The Apple TV original series The Morning Show just completed airing its fourth season and has a fifth season on the way. Now the first two seasons have been made available to own on Blu-ray thanks to physical media company Fifth Season, who also recently released the complete series of See, nother Apple TV show.

The Morning Show mixes in real events with the character drama surrounding those who work on a nationwide morning news program called The Morning Show (aka TMS), which is broadcast from a studio in Manhattan, on the fictitious UBA Network. Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) has been the co-anchor of TMS with partner Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) for the past 15 years, and both are beloved by their audience. However, in a shocking turn of events, Alex wakes up one morning to discover that Mitch has been fired over allegations of predatory sexual misconduct. Alex and Mitch were best of friends, and now she is like a grieving widow who must put on a happy face for the public. This also couldn’t have come at a worse time. Alex is currently in the process of renegotiating her contract, and network CEO Fred Micklen (Tom Irwin) and president of the news division Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) may use this opportunity to completely reinvent the morning news.

Meanwhile, feisty local West Virginian TV news station field reporter Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) goes viral while covering a coal mine protest. She is brought onto TMS as a guest, but her wild and unpredictable behavior catches Cory’s eye. Bradley still has those wide-eyed ideals of always uncovering the truth, and journalistic integrity above everything, while Alex has become more cynical of the realities of the business. There is great chemistry between Alex and Bradley, and soon Bradley becomes the new co-anchor of TMS. However, it turns out that Mitch was just one cog in a much bigger corrupt machine.

The first season of The Morning Show revolves around the investigation into whether there was a larger cultural problem at UBA that not only allowed Mitch’s behavior, but helped to cover it up. Recurring characters include TMS producers Charlie “Chip” Black (Mark Duplass) and Mia Jordan (Karen Pittman), TMS head talent booker Hannah Shoenfeld (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), TMS weatherman Yanko Flores (Néstor Carbonell), production assistant Claire Conway (Bel Powley), and weekend co-host Daniel Henderson (Desean Terry).

The Morning Show‘s second season picks up immediately where the first season leaves off, with everything completely blown up (metaphorically), before jumping ahead 8 months. Alex has left TMS and has moved to Maine where she is writing a book of her memoirs. Cory is now the new CEO of UBA, Stella Bak (Greta Lee) has been brought on as the new president of the news division, and Eric Nomani (Hasan Minhaj) is Bradley’s new TMS co-host. However, UBA’s problems are far from over as the family of one of Mitch’s victims has filed a wrongful death suit, Maggie Brener (Marcia Gay Harden) is releasing a tell-all book about the UBA sex scandal, and TMS ratings have been down since Alex left. Cory is also in the midst of launching a new UBA+ streaming service, and needs it to be a success. So he woos Alex to come back to TMS, but she is concerned about what Maggie may reveal about her in her book, and would prefer to be out of the public spotlight when that happens. Meanwhile, Mitch has moved to Italy where he’s trying to ride out this scandal in peace, and maybe finally do some self-reflecting on his actions. There, he befriends uninhibited documentarian Paola Lambruschini (Valeria Golino).

The second season of The Morning Show begins on New Year’s Eve of 2020, and plays out amidst the backdrop of an election, and a new global pandemic, as the world quickly becomes familiar with the concept of a novel coronavirus. The season also introduces new characters Laura Peterson (Julianna Margulies), a former UBA new anchor who was a friend of Alex’s before they has some sort of falling out; TMS on-air social media expert Ty Fitzgerald (Ruairi O’Connor); and Alex’s new agent Doug Klassen (Will Arnett).

I has never seen The Morning Show before binging the first two seasons on this Blu-ray release. I think it does a great job of blending the personal lives and drama of these characters as they try to keep their personal problems hidden from the viewers, putting on a fake smile and pretending everything is grand, while things are falling apart behind the scenes. Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon are great in these roles. Alex has been separated from her husband (Jack Davenport), and while they planned to try to work things out for their daughter, it seems like Alex is more concerned about Mitch than her own family. Is their relationship even salvageable at this point? Bradley also keeps her family life a secret. best family life growing up, with an unsupportive mother, an alcoholic father, and a brother, Hal (Joe Tippett), who is headed down the same path. There is also a lot of other drama going on with the TMS staff, whether it’s the people who feel like they are constantly getting skipped over for promotions, those who were secretly some of Mitch’s victims, or those working on their own power plays. I expected a character like Cory to be this ruthless network exec, but Billy Crudup brings this warmth and relatability to him, and there’s this great friendship that forms between Corey and Bradley. Another relationship I really enjoyed was that between Alex and producer Chip. Mark Duplass is another delightful character, who has been a long time friend of Alex, though yiu can sense early on he may have deeper, unrequited feelings for her.

Steve Carrell feels very underused in the first season. You often wonder why he is even still there as the majority of his earlier scenes are not with the rest of the cast, and in the second season, he’s almost entirely in a separate storyline in a different country. Mitch is just a horrible person. It initially appears that his relationships were consensual, but it becomes clear that he was definitely exerting his power dynamic, and he refuses to accept any ownership of his behavior, making himself out to be the victim, blaming the #MeToo for going after people like him after they ran out of the real bad guys like Weinstein. The writers do a better job with the character in the second season, giving his character a bit of growth.

The series mixes in real people and events, with guest stars like Kelly Clarkson or The Foo Fighters appearing on TMS, and things like the #MeToo movement, covering the California wildfires, Democratic primary, and the corona virus weaved into the story. While this may have felt very in-the-moment at the time the series originally aired, it sets the series in strict period of time watching 5 years after-the-fact.

I found that both seasons really hit their stride in the final 3 episodes of each season. Each season builds to a big, exciting conclusion. In the first season’s 8th episode, we finally jump back a year to see the events that led to Mitch’s exposure. There’s also a great cameo by Martin Short as Mitch’s friend/enabler Dick Lundry, a disgraced movie director who is even worse in regards to the womanizing ways. If you thought Mitch was bad, this guys is a 100 times worse. We also get to see him return in the second season, and he’s just as awful. Overall, I liked the journey these characters are taken on—though one direction they go with Bradley seems completely out of the blue. While Alex and Bradley aren’t best friends, and sometimes go behind one another’s backs, there is definitely the makings of a potential longtime friendship and mutual respect. I definitely plan to check out future seasons, to see how this develpps and plays out.

Fifth Season has released the first two seasons of The Morning Show on both Blu-ray and DVD. We were sent the Blu-ray edition for review, which consists of 8 discs placed on trays in a thick plastic HD keepcase, covered with a slipcover. Each season is split across 4 discs, with 3 episodes on the first 2 discs and 2 episodes on the second 2 discs. The video quality is excellent, with a crisp clean picture that has an excellent level of detail. This is especially noticeable in close-ups when every pore, tear or drop of sweat can be seen. The audio track makes excellent use of the surround channel to provide an immersive viewing experience. This is especially noticeable as there is chaos at the studio and you can hear things happening off camera, or when the reporters are in the field and dealing with natural elements. Unfortunately the set does not include any bonus material, nor a digital copy of the episodes.

My one gripe with this release is the same one I also had with Fifth Season’s Blu-ray release of See: The Complete Series—it’s that they don’t put chapter stops immediately following the opening title sequences. Instead, the first chapter is 9 minutes into the episode, so if you want to skip over the titles, you need to fast forward 100 seconds, instead of just pressing a single button. Even when watching these shows on Apple TV, it’s a single click to bypass the opening titles—I wish Fifth Season would offer this on their releases as well.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (19:05:28)

• The first 2 seasons of the series on 8 discs:
  • Season 1 (2019) – 10 episodes – 4 discs
    Disc 1 (2:52:58): “In the Dark Night of the Soul It’s Always 3:30 in the Morning”, “A Seat at the Table”, “Chaos Is the New Cocaine”
    Disc 2 (2:50:48): “That Woman”, “No One’s Gonna Harm You, Not While I’m Around”, “The Pendulum Swings”
    Disc 3 (1:59:26): “Open Waters”, “Lonely at the Top”
    Disc 4 (2:07:21): “Play the Queen”, “The Interview”
  • Season 2 (2021) – 10 episodes – 4 discs
    Disc 1 (2:39:16): “My Least Favorite Year”, “It’s Like the Flu”, “Laura”
    Disc 2 (2:47:39): “Kill the Fatted Calf”, “Ghosts”, “A Private Person”
    Disc 3 (1:48:04): “La Amara Vita”, “Confirmations”
    Disc 4 (1:59:56): “Testimony”, “Fever”
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.00:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English LPCM 2.0
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

There is no bonus material on this release.

Final Thoughts:

I never got around to watching The Morning Show as it aired on Apple TV, so I was excited to receive this Blu-ray release as it finally gave me the excuse to check it out. I spent the weekend binging through these first two seasons, and was quite pleased. The series features an amazing cast, and each season builds to an exciting conclusion that makes you want to see where things head next. Fifth Season’s Blu-ray release has excellent picture and sound, but doesn’t include any bonus material. It’s great to see more original streaming shows get a physical release for those who don’t have access to or don’t want to subscribe to a streaming service. Fans of the series should be pleased with this release, and those who have been wanting to check out the show, should definitely pick this up!