Reese Witherspoon is honestly the best part of The Morning Show

The first season of AppleTV+’s The Morning Show garnered eight Emmy nominations, including for most of its lead actors. Save one, and she was the best part of the show.

Reese Witherspoon deserves justice this Emmy season. The award-winning actress, who turned in not one, not two, but three powerhouse performances over the past year (on HBO’s Big Little Lies, Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere, and AppleTV+’sThe Morning Show) earned a grand total of zero nominations this year.

This is an outrage for many reasons, but mostly because Witherspoon was practically the only lead performer on the  AppleTV+ drama who didn’t receive an Emmy nomination – and she is hands-down the best part of the show!

The Morning Show tells the story of a popular morning news program that faces a crisis when one of its co-hosts – Steve Carrell’s Mitch Kessler –  is accused of sexual misconduct and fired. Jennifer Aniston plays his on-air hosting partner of 15 years, Alex Levy, who must pick up the pieces of her life and her show’s reputation. (As well as eventually confront her own complicity in turning a blind eye to Mitch’s behavior.)

Witherspoon plays reporter Bradley Jackson, a dedicated truthteller whose impulsive behavior and aggressive tone often gets her into uncomfortable – or viral – situations. It’s also what brings her to the attention of those in charge of The Morning Show and ultimately gets her into the co-anchor’s chair.

The Morning Show, as a series, takes a while to get going. Its episodes are too long, and it seems to think we’re a lot more interested in a raft of secondary characters than we are. (No viewer is watching this show to find out whether a junior PA’s relationship with the weatherman is going to work out.)

But it’s also smart and funny, and willing to tackle the complex issue of life in the #MeToo era with delicacy and nuance. By the time the credits roll on the season finale, the series has coalesced into a thrumming drama, and though it’s not clear if there’s another year’s worth of story to be mined here, it should be plenty fun to watch them try.

Witherspoon’s performance is the connective tissue that holds the show together. (Aniston is great, as well, but Witherspoon’s Bradley is just next level good.) From her hardscrabble background to her constant need to push boundaries, she’s doing her best to make morning news programming something for America to take seriously, rather than for families to have on in the background with their coffee each day.

Her dislike of fluffy feel-good segments and pointless shallow reporting is deeply relatable, as is her dogged desire to expose the culture that helped make The Morning Show so toxic. Yet, as a character, she’s still deeply human, and one of the season’s most compelling arcs is her slow realization that her desire to chase the truth comes with real consequences for everyone involved.

It’s a bright, varied performance that requires Witherspoon to constantly carry a ball of simmering emotional rage on her back, even as she smiles and does all the proper things her big-deal network news job requires of her. Her anger about the good old boys’ system that dominates the news industry and the insidious way it silences women is both palpable and cathartic.

The Morning Show deserves a lot of credit for the deft way it uses two powerful female characters to tell a complex and difficult story, where even the supposed “good guys” make uncomfortable compromises. In this, the bright clarity of Witherspoon’s Bradley is both a comfort and a beacon, a call to action and a reminder. And it’s a performance that deserves more praise than it gets. (And maybe some Emmy gold, to boot.)

Have you seen The Morning Show? What did you think of Witherspoon’s performance?