Does the Title Even Matter Any More? - The Morning Show s04e10: "Knowing Violation"

It’s hard to look at this season of The Morning Show and not think that they came up with the ending and worked their way backwards to get there. Now that we’re finally here, it makes more sense why the season was so wonky getting to this point.

Doesn’t really make it better though.

True to form, Celine proves to be a one-season character arc, turning into an insane mustache twirly villain for these last two episodes. After the malign turn once the writers tipped their hand about the character, Marion Cotillard properly squeezed out a blast of cheese, giving one of the biggest laughs of the episode when she figures out she’s on speaker phone on every major news network. It’s not surprising, but the manner of it happening was exactly the sort of nonsense this show pulls on the regular.

Also continuing on from last episode is Bradley Jackson spending 95% of the finale’s runtime locked in a Belarusian prison cell and undergoing the sort of torture that makes gulags infamous. Again, it’s weird that the show fully shunted Reese Witherspoon off to the side for the season’s final three episodes. It feels like a scheduling conflict or the show making some grand point about how awful the world can be when it embraces lawlessness. Maybe she’s fine with it because it’s some weird acting exercise, where she looks so strung out and completely unpretty as she undergoes sleep deprivation via bright flourescents and max decibel death metal.

Whatever the case, that means this is fully Alex Levy’s episode. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Jennifer Aniston absolutely brings it. After three years, it feels like The Morning Show has finally reached a point where it feels comfortable deploying Aniston to do what she does best. She’s funny, emotional, and utterly badass. Despite the weirdness of the show itself, she stands out.

Now if only the rest of the show could work so well. No reason to start holding our breaths though…

Aniston unleashed

Thinking about all the things Alex Levy has to go through in this episode, it’s remarkable watching Jennifer Aniston run the full gamut of what is possible. And no it’s not just the “I’m resigning from UBN” moment on the air, it’s also the emotional pathos of finally reconciling with her father (in a minimalist scene far better than the loud monologues of episode eight) and her multiple confrontations with Cory. The best of these is the first she has with him, where she figures out Cory is sleeping with Celine and walks out after a perfunctory “okay”. Legitimately great comedy, that. The sort of joke that only works when the scene itself is working.

It’s not that she is doing Emmy worthy work, but it stands out because all of this show’s performances modulate so wildly from each other. It mostly stands out because this is why we watch things with Jennifer Aniston. Much like in previous seasons Billy Crudup was in the best version of the show as it existed, Aniston is currently playing her role in the space of the show as it imagines it to be. The plotting sweats all over the screen, but… sure. And her finally getting Bradley back does feel worth it somehow.

And yet, the show has become so unwieldy that “a really good Alex” episode isn’t enough to save it. Maybe if it still had its refined focus that would work. Instead, it’s trying to rely on its shambolic ensemble. And that’s… not a great choice.

So are we going back to UBN?

There are many things that have hurt The Morning Show over the past few years, but one of the major ones is the show trying for big moves it hasn’t really earned. The showrunner change between seasons two and three has shifted the show from what it was when it went off the rails. It’s not like it’s somehow made the show good, but it also hasn’t reached the levels of insanity at its height (which was really Smash level bad). The “bad” move is mostly lateral.

With this season, current events played almost fully in the background. While everyone talks about season one as “the good season”, it’s season two that has so firmly defined what the “best” possible version of this show is. That batshit insane and level of completely unhinged and deranged madness means I’m not gonna ever stop watching this show. Wouldn’t miss it. But it seems like the show has moved on from the format collapsed under Aaron Sorkin in The Newsroom.

Every episode of season four mentioned the Olympics, constantly reminding the audience that UBN is in trouble and this is their big Hail Mary pass. But that plot thread only mattered because of the network itself. It has nothing to do with Celine’s machinations or Bradley’s investigation or Alex’s whatever. It’s all window dressing. Hell, it’s not even the reason Stella got fired. Even here, this episode features a time jump, taking place over the course of at least a week, while the most connection to the “real” world is background footage talking about Trump going on the record about the assassination attempt against him.

At this point (assuming there’s not another showrunner change), I’d be surprised if next season featured any “real world” connections at all. For starters, it will most likely take place in 2026 with the occasional marker to make it feel like it’s in the real world. Assuming that happens, the new problem that will happen is doubling down on The Morning Show as being in the world rather than of the world. Belarus was not a major player in 2024 (or at least, not in a way that should matter to a weekday morning news/talk show). A CEO having massive influence overseas to keep a journalist in a gulag doesn’t have a real-world analogue. Nor did 2024 feature some grand defection like what happened at the beginning of the season. This isn’t so bad. Shows like this should feel free to create their own news and allow the characters/world to react to it. But hearing “hey the Olympics are gonna happen under our watch” in nearly every episode served mostly as an excuse to kill time.

So this season ended up being about… what exactly? Telling truth to power? Journalistic freedom? The truth winning out? That’s all well and good, but the show serves up these platitudes in their most unrefined form. No one is going to look at these episodes and think that they’re making some grand statement. It makes sense that they want to stay out of politics, but the biteless messaging here really does raise questions about what is the point of all this.

Not only that, but… Alex resigned from UBN. Bradley was (supposed to be) only there temporarily. There’s the implication that Mia will be the new CEO (though she has basically no qualifications). Cory is still off making movies. And the problem of the eponymous Morning Show feeling less and less relevant is worse than ever. What exactly is the show moving forward?

It’s not that The Morning Show needs its namesake, but without that home base it makes the premise feel like it’s present only when convenient. There doesn’t seem to be a care for it otherwise.

But now… what? We’re just not gonna be at UBN anymore? That’s also fine, except for the part where the show hasn’t shifted its energies into anything more interesting. It’s not like these characters can all go work at a law firm or a hospital, and in a series where the larger world doesn’t really seem to matter, it’s not clear that there’s a compelling place to otherwise go once we’ve pulled TMS from The Morning Show’s core.

What are they going to do? Build off character drama?

Catatonic Cory

To really emphasize how far the show is from one of its strengths, Billy Crudup was all over the place this season. Especially in the back half. There he had opportunity for good pathos with his mother dying, but these last two episodes featured him in a near catatonic and muted state. I’m sure Crudup did his best here, but he mostly feels adrift and lost at sea within the character, like he doesn’t know what to play. The reason Cory was such a strong character in the first two seasons is because of that smarmy prick energy who refused to take no for an answer. That, in turn, allowed him to do backstrokes in the river of ham.

As this season has ended, it’s almost like the show has no idea what to do with him. He starts the season as this “hot shot” movie producer who’s struggling to get his film made and then spends the rest of the season flitting back to that job whenever the show needs to prove that his character isn’t just sitting around waiting for the next scene to begin. At the end, it’s clear that all of that was marking time while the show waited for Cory’s mom to die so he could start banging Celine, which (in turn) would lead him to the Wolf River evidence. This dead inside thing might be interesting for Crudup to play, but it was no fun to watch.

Again, the show has every right to do this and give Crudup things to play, but not taking advantage of one of the series’ day-one strengths is a wasted opportunity.

Bradley Jackson paying for her sins

It feels weird to talk about Bradley Jackson considering she’s such a nonentity here. And yet, I keep trying to figure out what the point is. Surely it’s some point about journalism in states that are not beholden to the rule of law. The art design of the prison is particularly striking, where the rust has drip-stained the walls just enough to look completely ridiculous.

Though… all of this is for what, exactly? Sure, it makes sense that Celine would learn about Bradley’s involvement in the Wolf River investigation and move to shut it down. And taking it a step further to pull some strings with a foreign government to lock her up fits in with the Machiavellian Celine the show executes on in the season’s final episodes. And… there’s even a case here that Bradley’s betrayal of the 4th Estate’s ideals last season is something she has to atone for. She’s spent two years under functional house arrest in West Virginia, but by locking her in a gulag for five weeks they can accelerate her punishment. A little of what we saw and it’ll help anyone appreciate just how valuable America’s journalistic protections are and also how fragile the entire system is.

Still, though, is this the best use of The Morning Show’s time?

Vision of the Future

If The Morning Show is to continue in this direction, it’s worth considering the world that the series has created. Because of the show’s birth in exploring a scandal, there is an aspect of the show that has always valorized the individual over corrupt institutions. This wasn’t as huge a problem in season two, where the big plot question of Cory’s season was about launching UBN’s new streaming service perfectly on schedule (which, coincidentally ended syncing up with the COVID lockdowns).

For this season, though, there is a point at which it’s clear that the corruption at play is all-encompassing. The Wolf River scandal is needlessly complex. All that matters is “UBN poisoned a river and they covered it up,” but that is wholly insufficient for a Bradley Jackson storyline that covers eight full episodes. Everything until the proof shows up is just shoeleather. The key ingredient, then, comes with the revelation that the doctored EPA report came from Cory’s mother, who paid off the EPA to doctor the report.

As though this is easy.

Nowadays, most people assume the government is corrupt. Part of that is a byproduct of Donald Trump as one of the most greedy, corrupt, and bribable presidents in the history of this country. But it’s also the idea that the government itself is rotted to its core. Not just people in Congress, but aides and even institutions. Bureaucrats.

I’m sure the EPA has had its fair share of small scandals just like every organization entrusted with public funds. Even I’m not immune from acknowledging that. But the casualness with which the show presents this revelation is jaw-dropping. Like… of course Cory’s mom paid for a doctored EPA report so that her kid could get this cushy executive job. Of course it tore her up that she had done it. What else could it possilby be?

But all of this evokes such a naive vision of corruption. What makes corruption so pernicious is the subtle ways it works. Bags of cash dragged down Spiro Agnew’s Vice Presidency, but that’s not how almost all of governmental corruption works nowadays. It’s much smarter, more under the table. It certainly happens, but not in the way that most people imagine. That’s why the current state of corruption is so much more pernicious and dangerous and why it has gotten so bad.

To be honest, few things in this season of The Morning Show angered me more than this. The American populace writ large understand the general inequities of our society. They understand that politicians’ actions don’t reflect their constituents’ best interests just like they understand that the big movers of governmental policy come from special interests rather than the will of the general populace. Because we all know this, it’s easy to assume such flagrancy is as simple as bags of cash or what have you.

But that’s not how any of this works.

Frankly, it’s irresponsible to casually argue without justification that the EPA (or any governmental agency for that matter) is so wantonly corrupt. It creates boogeymen where none exist and unfairly demonizes government agencies (the civil servants who work for them) when those agencies need the public trust to function. Again, this isn’t to say that all agencies need blind loyalty (ICE is a perfect example of this), but it does vilify a bureaucratic state that needs reforms rather than demolition.

The show can absolutely build itself around this. But The Morning Show is a series that exists to talk about big current issues even if it’s not directly commenting on pulled-from-the-headlines events. Shows (especially popular ones) should feel an ethical responsibility to accurately inform the public about civics. By all means tell stories about corruption, but the casualness with which they presents “oh she bought off the EPA” is wreckless. Acting this way while presenting itself as smart, prestigey, and well-read has the trickle down effect of reinforcing society’s most cynical concerns.

And doing it all in the name of weak ass drama makes it just insulting.

Creating more stakes

If The Morning Show wants to be about journalism, it does invite questions about what the hell this show is even about. Does anyone have an answer for this? Is it anti-corporation? Anti-corruption? Anti-oligarch? Pro-journalism? And how does this fit between the cooking segments and silly games that come with the setting of TMS?

While the show presents all of this episode’s plot developments like they’re a big deal, the most kinetic the show gets is during the live feed of Alex’s press conference. Electricity flits across the screen as producers in the control room work in real time to figure out what’s happening and if/how to cover it. This sort of discussion is not sustainable if the entire show is operating at this level, but seeing it work here is impossibly exciting.

Also, what a surprise that Ben defies Celine’s direct orders and airs the press conference live on TMS. Turns out the weak-ass Head of News guy really had the chops when the chips were down. Who could have seen that coming?

If there is a best version of The Morning Show, it’s the one that manages to balance the behind the scenes functions of live television with the personal dramas and strife that comes from being in that world. This, though, requires the writers to recognize that making such a show is way lower stakes than befits prestige television drama, especially one that AppleTV still treats like a flagship show. It’s why many would agree that the show peaked in season one, where the scandal surrounding Mitch Kessler was inseparable from the day-to-day goings on of the show as it struggled to continue existing.

But moving away from TMS doesn’t solve what the show is going to look like moving forward. There’ll probably be some more bullshit to conspire bringing Alex and Bradley back together, but the characters are in such radically different places and with such radically different goals and interests that it’s hard to imagine what this show will look like when we come back and all of these characters have found themselves scattered to the four winds. At that point, wrangling everyone back to TMS will make it feel like everyone is regressing back to something sad and retro.

But I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Stray Observations…

• There is a shot that the show does, where it smash cuts from Bradley screaming about the death metal music to a fast pan-up over NYC. It’s a massive video screen, sure. But nothing in this entire season has made me madder than that moment, where it uses the power of editing and a slick camera move to keep the spirit and emotion going as we rejoin the plot to get her out of that hellhole. Totally cynical transition.
• Making Cory trade the Wolf River report in exchange for Bradley Jackson would have been extremely reasonable when he was mentoring her or slightly crushing on her. They had a really good relationship through the first three seasons. Now, though, after they boned and shared this level of sexual intimacy/relationship, turning him into a simpering pining mess has gutted one of the great characters of the show and made him much less than he was. Huge loss.
• The reveal of the producer who deepfaked Alex is hilarious. Massive “wait who is this guy?” energy, which… is the point. Except he exists purely so Mia can solve the mystery and put Alex in the room where Celine blackmails her.
• Seems like part of the seasonal format now is a finale scene wherein Alex barges into a room with the Big Bad and confronts them about the season’s plot and how they’ve disrespected the institution of journalism.
• If that’s true and Paul Marks came back only to be a quasi-love interest this season, does that mean Celine will be back next season? Now if only there were a main cast member who definitely sleeps with women…
• To be less subtle, Bradley Jackson forgiving Celine for keeping her detained/tortured in a Belurasian gulag would be only marginally more unbelievable than Alex’s heel turn on Paul Marks in this season.
• Like forgiving Jon Hamm because he’s so effortlessly hot, you could say the same for Marion Cotillard.
• So Miles existed purely to get Greta Lee off the show and then to be the one who incentivizes Cory into doing the right thing? Talk about a character who exists purely to be a plot device. Also, did the show seriously not come up with a better way for how to break Cory out of his “I’m just fucking Celine now” stupor?
• Only on The Morning Show: thank God Channing Tatum was suck in traffic. Made it really easy for TMS to broadcast Alex’s press conference.
• Also, with them playing the press conference at full volume in the control room… who the hell is watching the live broadcast they all should be making? Is there an extended period of time where those on the air don’t need information pumped into their earpieces?
• Line of the week: “I think I maybe killed my mom.”

Anyways. I can’t wait for next season to see how they top “Celine blows up her little kingdom by screaming on a speaker phone and it getting broadcast live on television.”

God this show is bad. I’ll never stop watching.