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A18 OTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2019

J

ennifer Aniston and Reese
Witherspoon were onCBS This
Morningthe other day talking
to host Gayle King aboutThe
Morning Show, the flagship drama
for the new Apple TV+ platform
that launched on Friday.
The conversation had an odd
self-referential, meta-quality, giv-
en that the new series is about a
morning TV show and it was hap-
pening on morning TV with a fe-
male host, and The Morning
Show’s core plot is about a female
host. Or two female hosts, actual-
ly. In the interview, King, Aniston
and Witherspoon talked about
the new drama as though it were
an urgent social document.
Well, it isn’t.The Morning Show
is fascinating but flawed, a high-
end soap opera about the internal
machinations of television, fe-
male empowerment and the ef-
fect of the #MeToo movement. It
is well crafted, if plodding at
times, and while it’s entertaining,
it has no urgency to it.
The best of TV drama in the
current period has a curious kind
of cultural power. It’s about a
time and place, about the ideol-
ogy of that time and place and it

offers scrutiny of personal life in

the context of that ideology. Es-

sentially, a lot of great TV drama

is about identity crisis. From the

gravity ofMad Mento the un-

hinged personal violence in the

prestige-popcornKilling Eve, the

issue of identity is crucial. Anoth-

er important point about the best

of recent TV is that few great se-

ries were driven by star power.

The Morning Showhas three

major stars in Aniston, Wither-

spoon and Steve Carell, who play

the central characters. It touches

on identity, and attempts psycho-

logical and social relevancy, but

in the most superficial manner.

It’s entertainment, not art.

It opens with gusto. Alex (An-

iston), co-anchor of a major net-

work morning show, is on her

way to work very early in the

morning. She looks tired and is ir-

ritated by numerous calls from

the show’s executive producer,

Charlie (Chip) Black (Mark Du-

plass). She ignores the calls. Then

Chip is standing right there when

her car arrives at the studio. He

tells her that her co-host Mitch

(Carell), her on-air partner for

years, has been under investiga-

tion for sexual misconduct, The

New York Times just reported

this fact and Mitch is out. It’s crisis

time. What ensues for ages is very

much focused on Aniston as Alex.

The series makes a near-fetish of

her face and lingers long on the

solitary quality of her existence

as someone who must arise at 3

a.m. and go to work looking pol-

ished, calm and cheerful. There’s

something unnerving about this

near-fetish because it’s linked to

Aniston’s public persona, not the

character.

There is also an exasperating

obviousness to the introduction

of Bradley Jackson (Wither-

spoon), a TV reporter at a small

station who becomes instantly fa-

mous when footage of her, yelling

at a protester outside a coal mine,

goes viral. So many people tell

Bradley that she’s pushy, difficult

and brash. The character is so sas-

sy that she practically has a sign

saying “Sassy” around her neck.

Witherspoon can do this type of

role with aplomb. It’s her trade-

mark. And Aniston can do the

suffering-woman routine in her

sleep. As a viewer, you do feel

you’re watching something very

calculated here, and originality is

absent.

Carell brings considerable

verve to the role of Mitch. He’s

playing the alleged sexual preda-

tor, but you’re pleased when he

turns up. His rage is physical and

at times electrifying. He claims all

his escapades were consensual

and there’s a great moment near

the end of the first episode where

Mitch roars, “This is all Wein-

stein’s fault!”

In the three episodes that have

arrived (the rest will appear

weekly on Apple TV+) there’s

much melodrama, scenes of sen-

timentality and some speechify-

ing. It’s not great TV, but good TV.

So far, it only touches lightly on

sexual harassment and empha-

sizes the necessary empower-

ment of the Alex and Bradley

characters with a heavy hand.

There is a twist at the end of each

episode and, well, that’s certainly

entertaining. But if Apple set out

to make a huge impression with

its flagship series, it sort of suc-

ceeded. It’s making old-fashioned

TV with a high-gloss sheen, not

art or anything urgent.

ALSO AIRING THIS WEEKEND

A new season of the wonderful

Atypicalstreams on Netflix. The

show’s central character Sam

(Keir Gilchrist), an 18-year-old

who is on the autism spectrum, is

now beginning life as a college

student. The series will have Sara

Gilbert and Eric McCormack as

university professors.Inside Chi-

na’s Digital Gulag(Saturday, Sun-

day, 10 p.m. CBC NN onThe Pas-

sionate Eye) is a British doc that

goes undercover inside to high-

light China’s incarceration of an

estimated one million Uyghur

Muslims in detention camps

without trial. And, specifically, it

looks at the extensive surveil-

lance used bythe government

there, monitoring every aspect of

life.

TheMorningShowisafascinatingbutflawedsoapopera

Flagshipdramafor

AppleTV+confronts

femaleempowerment,

sexualharassment

butwithoutany

realurgency

JOHN
DOYLE

OPINION

The first episode of The Morning Show begins with gusto as Alex (Jennifer Aniston) learns her co-host Mitch

(Steve Carell) is under investigation for sexual misconduct.

TELEVISION

M

ozart’sDon Giovanniis an
opera about grey areas.
The piece itself lies some-
where along the spectrum be-
tween drama and comedy, not
wholly one nor the other. The
music, rightly placed up on that
pedestal we reserve for Mozart, is
malleable; a single aria can dance
as easily as it can sulk.
More interestingly – and this is
whyDon Giovanniis as much a
monumental joy as much as an
artistic challenge – it is an opera
that forces its listeners to have
complicated, ambiguous feelings
about its characters. Without be-
ing annoyingly blunt about it,
Giovanni plants in our heads
some questions: Does postsex re-
gret amount to non-consent?
Does love have to be long-lasting

in order for it to be true? Are there

permissible lies between spous-

es? Are women allowed to admit

that they like being pursued? Are

men beholden to every precoital

promise they make? Is a woman-

izer less offensive if he’s honest

about it?

These are the questions that

pour from the pages ofDon Gio-

vanni’s score, no matter how it’s

presented. Opera Atelier, Cana-

da’s leader in baroque opera and

ballet, has revived its 2011 produc-

tion, making a strong case for a

Giovannithat is more comedy

than psycho-sexual drama. Direc-

tor Marshall Pynkoski adds in his

programme notes, “I think it is

particularly important to note

that Mozart himself enteredDon

Giovanniin his catalogue of works

as an opera buffa!”

Fine. My disputes aren’t with

the balance of comedy and dra-

ma; it’s clear that there are indeed

both in the score. But in all their

respect for “giocoso” and the op-

era’s nod to theCommedia del-

l’arte, Opera Atelier reduces these

characters to something cartoon-

ish, a mile across and an inch

deep. At times it’s misogynistic,

elsewhere it’s lazy; the great cost,

though, is to dramatic tension.

There’s no tension in Don Gio-

vanni’s seduction of the new

bride-to-be, Zerlina, if she takes

zero convincing. This should be

our best chance at seeing the Don

in action, to understand the skill

it takes to lure a young woman

away from her fiancé on her wed-

ding day.

There’s no tension in the story

of fiancés Donna Anna and Don

Ottavio. Rather than a compell-

ing push-pull between gaslight-

ing and false rape claims, we get

the rather banal arc of Anna’s

(consensual) tryst with Giovanni,

and her ability to lie to Ottavio,

easily and like a sociopath. It’s all

much easier to do when you cut

Anna’s Act II aria,Nonmidir.

It was particularly depressing

to see Pynkoski’s take on Donna

Elvira, the woman who fell hard

for Giovanni after a night of great

sex and romantic promises. Elvi-

ra is an amazing character; she’s

angry because it smarts to be re-

jected, and she clumsily seeks

some sort of closure from Giovan-

ni, either by revenge or by re-

union. Yet, in a tension-free belit-

tling of the “woman scorned,”

this Elvira is a haughty meddler

with a shopping problem. “Look

at the stupid woman who fell for

Don Juan,” the production ap-

pears to say. “What a psycho clin-

ger.” It also helps that Elvira’s fi-

nal, character-deepening aria,Mi

tradi quell’alma ingrata, was cut.

Distracting stuff. Almost

enough to overshadow the excel-

lent performances from the cast.

Meghan Lindsay is a gorgeous

Donna Anna, a refined foil to the

steel in Carla Huhtanen’s thrilling

Donna Elvira. As Zerlina, Mireille

Asselin makes even spousal dis-

respect look cute. Stephen Hege-

dus is a whip-smart Leporello

with perhaps Canada’s fastest

patter. And Douglas Williams

seems as if he is Giovanni incar-

nate, dashing and fun-loving and

young enough to fear nothing.

It’s true that some productions

ofDon Giovanniwander too far in-

to the realm of sexual predation,

often in pursuit of shock value.

Opera Atelier’s production sits

elsewhere on the spectrum, dated

in a way that is not a cheeky refer-

ence to the company’s baroque

specialty. It’s a bold move to de-

fend Don Juan – particularly so in

2019, a far cry from 2011 – and the

company should be commended

for leaning into what is the

greyest of grey areas in this opera.

I just wish it didn’t come with so

many heaving bosoms.

SpecialtoTheGlobeandMail

OperaAtelierdesaturatesDonGiovanni’sdramatictensionwithcartoonishcharacters

JENNA SIMEONOV

OPERAREVIEW

ARTS