For Apple, it’s a double-triumph day

In baseball terms, this is like having Ruth and Gehrig together in the batting order. Or Mantle and Martis. Or Matthews and Aaron.
It’s going from strength to strength. Today (Wednesday, Nov. 8), Apple TV+ has:
— The season-finale of “The Morning Show,” filled with schemes and obstacles.
— The debut of “Buccaneers” (shown here) filled with giddy possibilities.
In some ways, these might seem like opposites. In “Morning Show,” the talk is about money and power; in “Buccaneers,” it’s about beauty and love.
“Buccaneers” is set in the 1870s, when young women were supposed to have only two choices – find a rich guy who’s nice or find a rich guy who’s tolerable. “Morning Show” is set a couple years ago; Alex (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) wield sharp power.
But both shows have the key things in common — brilliant dialog, deep characters and gifted actors.
In “Morning Show,” Cory (Billy Crudup) has been working all season on a mega-deal to save the network by selling it to Marks (Jon Hamm), a tech billionaire. But last week, word spread that Marks planned to break up the network and sell it for parts.
Bradley organized a revolt … then, inexplicably, resigned on the air. Alex, who’s been in bed with Marks (literally) of late, hesitated. In the finale, all of that explodes in a series of bursts, most of it involving intense dialog between different combinations of the four people.
It’s a great finish … and “Buccaneers” has an equally great start.
This all begins with young New Yorkers. Conchitta is about to marry a British lord and her friends get to go with her.
For Jinny (right), it’s a chance to enter London’s social scene, where she’s determined to fit in. One Londoner describes her as the pretty one who has nothing to say. Replies another: “That could be any of them.”
Well, not all of them. Conchitta is secretly fun, but hides American tendencies from her future in-laws.
Then there’s Nan (center). Jinny, her older sister, orders her not to “be interesting,” but she can’t help it; Nan is so interesting, in her speed-talking way, that she distracts from her sister … who retaliates with a
verbal bombshell that transforms the story.
I do object to Nan’s overreaction to that news, but the character is beautifully written and played.
Kristine Froseth is an American native, but spent her childhood shuffling between New Jersey and her parents’ home country, Norway. She starred in “Looking For Alaska” and played the young Betty Ford in “The First Lady”; now, at 28, she makes Nan one of TV’s most fascinating characters.
“Buccaneers” occupies the semi-fantasy world of “Bridgerton”: It has all the glamour (and many of the restrictions) of long-ago society, but lets its people express modern values. Also, race is a non-factor; Conchitta (left) and Guy Thwarte are apparently bi-racial, but that’s never mentioned.
Edith Wharton, who wrote the novel, introduced Nan to two guys and then … well, died. The unfinished story was published in 1938, a year after her death. Attempts to finish it – in a 1993 book and a 1995 mini-series – drew mixed reactions.
And this version? I found the finish to be fresh and intriguing, almost in a “Tale of Two Cities” way. You may not agree, but that will unfold slowly. Three episodes are ready today (Nov. 8), with the others
arriving weekly, on Wednesdays. While waiting, you can also relive the first three seasons of “The Morning Show” and savor Apple in its Ruth-Gehrig, Mantle-Maris prime.