A dark fact pattern underlies this week’s otherwise irreverent and inspirational “Be Reel” category: the female protagonists of “Late Night” (2019), “Morning Glory” (2010), and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” (2004) were hired to fail.
But these women’s crass industry designations as diversity hires and scapegoats don’t stick, and the TV newcomers played by Mindy Kaling, Rachel McAdams, and Christina Applegate quickly shake up a white, apolitical late show, salvage a “Good Morning America” knock-off, and send an absurdist ’70s boys club reeling.
READ MORE: Emma Thompson Shines In Commercially Friendly ‘Late Night’ [Sundance Review]
Our topical hook this week is “Late Night,” the new Amazon Studios workplace comedy in the mold of “The Devil Wears Prada” but with an extremely 2019 commentary on identity politics and millennial idealism. Molly Patel (Kaling) is an aspiring comedy writer walking into a stale and homogenous writers room. Surrounded by white dudes fresh off the Harvard Lampoon, Molly tries to evolve the tired comedic voice of late-night queen Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson). Injecting change into a TV icon spinning their wheels is central to today’s show.
Other key questions include:
- What’s the ceiling on workplace comedies that don’t seem to understand their chosen fields? Follow-up: are these movies set in the Nancy Meyers-verse?
- Has Harrison Ford (“Morning Glory”) ever watched the news? And who’s the real-world analog for Emma Thompson’s “Late Night” character?
- What specific piece of Noah’s funnybone is missing that he doesn’t enjoy “Anchorman”?
- What can urtexts “Broadcast News” and “Network” tell us about the staging of these sillier (and worse) investigations of the people who make TV?
Listen to the latest “Be Reel” below:
