It’s hard to imagine a smarter piece of casting than Aniston, America’s Sweetheart and one of the most famous women in the world, as Alex, America’s Sweetheart and one of the most famous women in the world. Which is why The Morning Show – a tonally confused and occasionally shaky series that is, nonetheless, so compulsively watchable it gives new meaning to the word ‘binge’ – is best when it focuses on Alex and, therefore, on Aniston.

What Aniston does is bring a meta-textual narrative to the character of Alex, infused with her own experiences as a woman in the very, very public eye. There’s a whole scene in which Alex and her estranged husband Jason (Jack Davenport, I told you this cast was stacked), roast the gossip rags for printing rumours about her. This scene feels like a personal request from Aniston, who has famously spent most of her career fighting back against toxic tabloids and the publications who constantly report on her dating life, or her status as a heartbroken woman, or the fact that she is a child-free woman, or her friendship feuds, or the fact that she’s apparently “flaunting” her “bikini body” with reckless abandon as if this is relevant, front page news.

“Page Six thinks I’m crazy,” Alex says, opening another bottle of wine.

“Page Six thought you were pregnant 10 times last year, who cares?” Jason responds.

The Morning Show: Jennifer Aniston’s performance is an evisceration of the pressure of being a woman in the public eye