• 1 Horace M. Newcomb et Paul M. Hirsch, “Television as a Cultural Forum: Implications for Research”, Q (...)
• 2 Ien Ang, “Television Fictions around the World: Melodrama and Irony in Global Perspective,” Critica (...)
• 3 Brandy Monk-Payton, “‘How to Save a Life’: On Grey’s Anatomy and the Logics of Televisual Alleviati (...)
• 4 Lynne Joyrich, “Going through the E/Motions: Gender, Postmodernism, and Affect in Television Studie (...)

2During this period and its continuing consequences, fictional series, much like newscasts, served as platforms for accessing portrayals of a collective trauma. Television fulfilled several interrelated roles: reflecting an uncertain world, offering a space for debate1, providing emotional language for interpreting reality2, and acting as a reassuring, almost therapeutic companion in difficult times3. This article will tackle such entanglement of roles by analyzing the representation of the pandemic through a case study, hoping to contribute to a deeper understanding emotion, affect, and sentimentality in television discourse4.

• 5 Lynne Joyrich, “Watching Television in a Pandemic,” Los Angeles Review of Books, April 08, 2020, ht (...)
• 6 Lynne Joyrich, “‘Regression/Progression: Two Cases of Covid Television,’” Television & New Media 25 (...)

3As Lynne Joyrich suggests, during the pandemic and in its wake, fictional series, along with the news, became vital resources for processing shared trauma5. Television shows accompanied and shaped the experience of the pandemic by filtering information, fueling anxiety, and offering comfort. They made viewers feel part of a community and created new connections, working through and bending traditional boundaries – inside and outside, sameness and difference, closeness and distance6. As the fictional character Cory Ellison points out, televisual representations of a crisis must also continuously blur the lines between information and sentimentality, lifelikeness and melodrama. They do so, for example, by depicting verisimilar spaces, objects, and actions while at the same time making a clear distinction between heroes and villains, or in revealing individual trajectories and personal struggles as the community at large faces catastrophe.

• 7 The show is “a glossy experiment in prestige melodrama”, according to Inkoo Kang, “Why Can’t We Qui (...)

4The Morning Show uses these strategies in its narrative and emotional framing of the pandemic, beginning in Season 2. Combining elements of workplace drama and prestige television, The Morning Show’s blend of realism and melodramatic excess7 provides viewers with tools to navigate the complex emotions and uncertainties engendered by the health crisis, while simultaneously offering a commentary on the media landscape itself. To begin, we will introduce two key concepts, realism and melodrama, to better understand how they combine to depict the Covid crisis.

• 8 Jane Feuer, “The Concept of Live Television: Ontology as Ideology,” in Regarding Television, ed. E. (...)

5First, indexicality – the inclusion of tangible references to lived experiences – is crucial for a show’s credibility. Accurate depictions of the pandemic require recognizable markers like face masks, social distancing, empty city streets, disbelief giving way to panic, and political tensions. This realism fosters audience identification and narrative clarity, creating a sense of “liveness8”, or the perception of television as a dynamic, spontaneous flow. Through techniques such as direct address and real-time broadcasting, it strengthens viewers’ intimate connection with television. According to Jane Feuer, TV is perceived as intimate and ever-present in viewers’ lives. This sense of liveness helps build a feeling of authenticity and develops a strong connection between audiences and the medium.

• 9 Ang, op.cit.
• 10 Monk-Payton, op.cit.

6However, realism alone is not enough. Television series also use what Ien Ang calls “emotional realism9”. The idea is that a series captures genuine feelings and subjective experiences rather than apply strict factual accuracy. This resonates with viewers through emotions, conflicts, and personal struggles, enabling them to engage deeply with the emotional landscape of traumatic events without needing to recall exact scenarios. They sense a closeness to a certain “structure of feeling”. Discussing medical series like Grey’s Anatomy (ABC 2005-) and its Covid seasons, Brandy Monk-Payton mentions its therapeutic potential: “Such programming does not cure Covid but instead creates the emotional and psychic capacity to live in a prolonged pandemic through intimate attachment to fictional physicians and identification with their plight10”. Television is comforting, as it allows viewers to abandon the world’s imperative to react or resist. It also provides an imaginary realm which offers up entertainment and, maybe, solutions.

• 11 “a powerful physical response we cannot control”, Tongson, op.cit., p. 126.
• 12 Or annoy viewers: “But man oh man is this show absolutely melodramatic as**. I have no issue with s (...)
• 13 Thomas Elsaesser, “Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama,” in Film Genre Re (...)

7Karen Tongson argues that in series like This Is Us (NBC, 2016-2022), the strong interplay of emotions can trigger uncontrollable physical responses11, ultimately soothing viewers and yielding cathartic relief12. Indeed, television fiction, through its repetitive and therapy-like mechanisms, helps audiences process the experience of a societal upheaval through conventions of melodrama: “Melodrama suggests that the world can be viewed and acted upon through an affective response13”. Balancing factual accuracy with dramatic structure is therefore essential when portraying a crisis, the full existential extent of which is hard to quantify.

• 14 Peter Brooks, The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess, (...)

8Accentuating the feeling of victimization and heroism, representing suffering, and drawing a general atmosphere of a global disaster, pandemic-themed series operate through a melodramatic mode of expression where feelings, instead of rational thinking, are highlighted. For Peter Brooks, “melodramatic imagination” can be characterized by moral struggle, dramatic action, and emotional intensity14. Defined as “failed tragedy,” melodrama serves as the mode of expression for a world in crisis:

• 15 Brooks, idem, p. 206.

9Melodrama cannot figure the birth of a new society – the role of comedy – but only the old society reformed. And it cannot, in distinction to tragedy, offer reconciliation under a sacred mantle, or in terms of a higher synthesis. A form typical of secularized times, it offers the nearest approach to sacred and cosmic values in a world where they no longer have any certain ontology or epistemology15.

• 16 Linda Williams, “Melodrama Revised,” in Refiguring American Film Genres: Theory and History, ed. Ni (...)

10Melodrama portrays profound societal upheaval without resolving tensions, highlighting secular uncertainty rather than appeasement. And yet, its clear-cut values and signs, as well as its potential to build an idea of community around certain emotions or events, help viewers discover specific pleasures. The “fundamental mode” in classical cinema16, melodrama’s cultural significance in the history of television emerges in soap operas and serialized family dramas. As Lynne Joyrich underlines:

• 17 Joyrich, op.cit, “Going through the E/Motions,” p. 27.

11In an age in which consumer images seemingly threaten to destroy reality itself, melodrama allows us to find firm stakes of meaning, employing signs which may seem overdetermined and excessive in order to mark out values left cloudy by what many experience as a disintegrating social and representational order17.

• 18 Christine Gledhill, “Speculations on the Relationship between Soap Opera and Melodrama,” Quarterly (...)

13Television fictions have the capacity to turn widespread suffering into relatable, human-scale stories. In this sense, Christine Gledhill critically noted melodrama’s focus on personal moral identities rather than broader social forces18. As such, it is important to observe how such a mode might oversimplify complex issues into binary opposition. Some subjects or emotions may be excluded. Shortcuts or ways of easing suffering may cancel critical thinking.

• 19 Alexis Soloski, “Billions, Succession and the Making of Wealth Porn,” The New York Times, March 14, (...)

15A star-studded, high-value production, The Morning Show set the tone for the launch of the Apple TV+ platform in 2019. The series features two journalists: veteran anchor Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) and ambitious rising hero Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon), both fiercely dedicated to their careers. Initially, their relationship is marked by competition as they vie for influence on the UBA morning show. The series also presents a lively ensemble of characters who must navigate the challenge of reporting the news in an increasingly turbulent world. Similar to The Newsroom (HBO, 2012–2014), The Morning Show aligns with real-time news cycles while crafting narratives driven by individual emotions and experiences. Intricately depicting behind-the-scenes television dynamics, the show allows viewers to witness intense routines – waking at 3 a.m., reviewing notes, broadcasting live – illustrating the industry’s demanding pace. This immersive portrayal binds viewers closely with characters as they navigate through their lofty professional ambitions, echoing other successful workplace dramas like Mad Men (AMC 2007-2015), House of Cards (Netflix 2013-2018), or Succession (HBO 2018-2023). Like such shows, there is an undeniable aura of gloss and luxury that teeters on “wealth porn19”, making the eventual fall into a broader crisis even more striking.

• 20 Isabelle Paré, « 2020 et “La déflagration complète” de nos repères », December 19, 2020, Le Devoir.
• 21 Zach Seemayer, “Jennifer Aniston Says Harvey Weinstein Once Tried to ‘Bully’ Her,” Entertainment To (...)

17Across the episodes, contemporary Western societal issues appear, such as streaming wars, media crises, fake news, systemic racism, and the #MeToo movement, reflecting the “complete deflagration of our reference points20” both for the fictional characters and the series. In fact, the first season of The Morning Show underwent significant rewrites following #MeToo and the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Within the diegetic world, the character of Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) is accused of sexual misconduct and subsequently canceled from the show. Jennifer Aniston, who stars in and co-produces the series, revealed that after selling the show to Apple, they had to essentially start from scratch due to the unfolding events21.

• 22 Elizabeth Blair, “The Morning Show Season 2 Was Written and in Production. Then Covid Hit,” NPR, Se (...)
• 23 Danielle Turchiano, “The Morning Show EP Mimi Leder on Season 2’s Covid Pivot and Alex’s Journey of (...)

19As for the Weinstein scandal, the production of The Morning Show endured significant disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, the second season was fully written and had already begun filming when the pandemic was declared in March 2020. Production halted, and a major rewrite ensued in order to incorporate the real-world pandemic into the narrative22. Showrunner Kerry Ehrin adapted the storyline to reflect the months leading up to the global crisis, integrating pandemic-related experiences directly into character arcs and workplace dynamics. Filming resumed in October 2020, during confinement, with strict adherence to distancing that marked all American film sets at that time. Safety protocols, remote filming, and new health guidelines significantly reconfigured practical and creative processes behind the scenes. These challenges resulted in a story deeply intertwined with pandemic reality, enhancing the series’ realism and immediacy23.

• 24 Christine Gledhill, “Speculations on the Relationship between Soap Opera and Melodrama”, Quarterly (...)

20The onset of Covid-19 in the series introduces profound narrative ambiguity. The characters’ ability to adapt or succumb to crisis take center stage. It’s worth noting that the effect of realism depends on the context and conventions in the moment it appears24. Therefore, the synchrony of diegetic events and the audience’s world has resonating effects, somewhere between tragic irony – the viewers are aware of the fate awaiting the characters – and the need for anxiety relief, as viewers themselves remain uncertain about what the future holds. The second season, released in September 2021, came at a time when the World Health Organization had not yet declared the end of peak alert. By the third season, released in September 2023, the portrayal of shocking moments coinciding with the lifting of maximum alert allows the viewers to relive those emotions with a critical eye, though not without complex and painful memories.

• 25 Lesley Goldberg, “Media Res CEO Michael Ellenberg on The Morning Show, Its Covid Pivot and Going To (...)

22With The Morning Show, it would have been insane to plow forward and not speak to the world we’re in. That’s the language of the show. The pandemic had just begun, and we quickly rallied around an approach that [showrunner] Kerry Ehrin came up with, which was, “Let’s look at the months leading right up to it. What were we all so busy with that we couldn’t pay attention to the tsunami that was about to take over our lives?” There’s this bomb under the table and, over the season, more of the characters are aware that something really big with the pandemic is coming25.

• 26 Turchiano, op. cit.

24The first images of season 2 are shots of empty New York streets in March 2020. Then the sequence goes back to the end of 2019, to New Year’s Eve. The season gradually integrates information coming from China in early 2020, and then Europe, with the co-occurrence of Mitch Kessler’s exile to a villa on Lake Como in Italy. The virus follows its unstoppable progression, while the narrative tension is constructed around the storylines of certain characters who drive the program day-to-day and do not seem, at first, to care about what is happening. In fact, news media start by minimizing it or even ignoring it altogether. Director Mimi Leder said: “It was important for us to do the story of the beginning of Covid as we saw it. To look into a crystal ball and say, ‘Where is it going to land?’ We didn’t want to presume and here we are, still in it. It was really interesting because the media missed it by a long shot26.”

• 27 The headlines are indeed real news as it was broadcast at the time, and the staging doesn’t spare a (...)

27At the end of the episode (46:07), while Bradley Jackson broadcasts information about the Democratic caucus for the elections, other disturbing news appears in the headlines: “China coronavirus deaths exceed 1,000.” The series itself becomes a device that reflects a precise vision of the television industry: a desire for accuracy (employing real headlines27 and footage for timeline truthfulness and an increased feeling of liveness) and dramatization.

• 28 Gledhill, op.cit.
• 29 Elsaesser, p. 27.

29Mitch Kessler’s direct immersion in the Italian reality as an exile confirms that the situation has become extremely serious. The virus is now a personal fact28. After being laid off for allegations of sexual misconduct, Mitch retreated to Italy, seeking solace and redemption. In the seventh episode, “La Amara Vita”, Italian filmmaker and friend Paola Lambruschini (Valeria Golino) calls Mitch to tell him that she has been in contact with someone who has caught coronavirus: “It’s totally crazy. It’s bad. There are many cases. And it’s everywhere.” By the time they realize it, it’s very late. She suggests they quarantine together. The camera plunges down onto the bed where Mitch lies sulking, in the dark, as he talks to Paola on the phone. Inside the home, the virus is shown as part of a mechanism that makes Mitch sink into himself, surrendering to a state of depression. Overwhelmed, disheartened, and still incredulous, he plays a victim of circumstance and in classic melodramatic fashion29, he curls up in bed and says: “We’re all going to die… It’s the end of the world.”

• 30 “Why The Morning Show Killed Off [SPOILER] in That Way,” E! Online, October 29, 2021.
• 31 starkofwinterfell, “Mitch,” Reddit Post, R/TheMorningShow, October 29, 2021, www.reddit.com/r/TheMo (...)
• 32 Lindsay Kusiak, “Why The Morning Show Killed Off Mitch & What It Means for the Future,” ScreenRant, (...)

34Mitch Kessler, slowly recovering from Covid, is still distraught over losing his career in show business. In Italy, he meets his tragic demise in the tenth and final episode of the season, entitled “Fever.” During a late-night drive, haunted by his past actions and the public’s perception, he lets go of the steering wheel, and his car veers off a cliff, resulting in his death30. Such an ending belongs to the rhetoric of narrative excess, which is an integral characteristic of melodrama: Mimi Leder explained that Mitch’s death was intended to explore themes of identity and consequence, portraying him as a man trapped by the repercussions of his actions. On Reddit, some viewers felt the ending was too abrupt and undeserved, expressing sadness over Mitch’s passing. Others believed the character’s arc concluded appropriately, reflecting the complexities of redemption and accountability31. Mitch Kessler’s death indeed serves as a pivotal moment in The Morning Show, forcing both characters and viewers to reflect on themes of guilt, redemption32, and its far-reaching consequences. Beyond its emotional weight, this event also serves as a catalyst for the deeper drama surrounding Alex Levy in the following season. Indeed, in Season 3, The Morning Show leans further into sentimentality and drama by complexifying and delving deeper into relationship dynamics, and looking more closely into the characters’ experience of Covid.

• 33 Thomas Elsaesser, “From Dysfunctional Families to Productive Pathologies: Melodrama Trauma Mind-Gam (...)

35The concept of afterwardsness (Freud’s Nachträglichkeit) in psychoanalysis refers to how a traumatic experience is not fully understood or emotionally processed the moment it occurs, but gains significance retrospectively, through later experiences. Trauma resists a linear narrative, and can erupt afterwards without notice. Thomas Elsaesser explicitly links Freud’s Nachträglichkeit to the open-ended temporality of melodrama in film and TV, and the use of buried secrets that unexpectedly resurface. Trauma-based melodramas follow a “deferred action” structure: they “can exemplify a more ‘distributive’ relation between cause and effect, to the point where the effects retroactively create or imagine or find their causes33.” In such narratives, the story often unfolds out of chronological order. Effects (emotional outcomes, symptoms, crises) are presented early, while their causes (traumatic events or secrets) are revealed later on, as if the narrative itself were working through a repressed past. Past events assume significance only through the emotional aftershock on characters in the present.

• 34 Jason Mittell, Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling, New York, New York (...)

36Flashbacks in televisual narratives can be used to revisit a past event with more details, or from a different perspective. Narrative structure in complex television34 allows viewers to reconsider and emotionally reinterpret past traumas in heightened, dramatic form. For example, the NBC series This Is Us is well known for its intricate flashback structure, revealing over time the formative tragedies and secrets in the Pearson family’s past. By postponing key revelations – such as a father’s death or a traumatic incident – and circling back to them through flashbacks, This Is Us engages viewers in a continuous process of retrospective meaning-making, embodying a true afterwardsness dynamic. More recently, the medical drama The Pitt (HBO 2025-) similarly uses flashbacks to the Covid era and shows its lasting impact on the main character’s psyche.

• 35 There are almost too many themes, in fact, for a single message to be decisive: “[. . .] too many c (...)

38The flailing Fourth Estate, the cannibalism of networks, the peak of streaming services and fake news, social media and social justice, Black Lives Matter, abortion rights, cyber security and the right to privacy, the January 6 insurrection, the war in Ukraine, and the rise of billionaires are just some of the topical issues crammed into the 10-episode season35.

• 36 Nelly Strehlau, “Grievable Lives during the Covid-19 Pandemic: US-American Television, Melodrama an (...)

48Representations deliberately choose which aspects of the pandemic reality to show or to omit, crafting collective trauma into a form that is more digestible to viewers. In reshaping the Covid pandemic, The Morning Show weaves real-world situations and incidents into its fictional narrative, drawing on a variety of character emotions and developments while using classic storytelling devices like tragic irony and flashbacks. By using retrospective narration – jumping forward in time and then looking back – the series defers the initial shock of the pandemic, allowing its impact to be processed in hindsight. Simultaneously depicting both the pandemic and the media’s response to it, it blurs the boundaries between inside and outside, or closeness and distance, as well as information and entertainment. In doing so, the series identifies the processes of social inclusion and exclusion that shape our understanding of significant events and collective trauma. As society continues to grapple with the long-term effects of the pandemic and future crises, a critical lens must be applied to the role of sentimentality, melodrama, and even the very notion of “collective trauma”. Who is the “collective” that such narratives defend and protect? Who is excluded from them? What is deemed grievable and what is not? Who gets a ventilator? How to honor the dead36 ? Which emotions are considered “correct” or appropriate within the framework of melodrama, and which are not? The cultural role of television as a storytelling medium in times of crisis needs to be studied closely, because of its dense, multiple and heterogeneous features, and its ability to constantly blur boundaries between rigid categories.