We are back, finally! Back at The Morning Show, and back at uba, a made up network title that is for some reason branded in lowercase, like texts from a girl who has Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore on repeat and only drinks iced coffee. (I’m girl.)
I cannot bear waiting a second longer to dive into this season, not even the seconds it would take for me to write up a quick “previously on The Morning Show,” and as I am doing this for fun, I don’t have to! Here is a recap of season one, now let us waste no more time.
“Is Guy Fieri Still in The Greenroom?”
Bravely, boldly, incomprehensibly, The Morning Show picks up exactly where they left us—Alex and Bradley are locked in the former’s dressing room as the ramifications of what they’ve done set in. Alex’s team is huddled outside, trying to keep the panic out of their voices as they coo platitudes in a desperate attempt to get them to to unlock the door. (“What you did was amazing!”)
They argue about what they should do, about what might happen to them, but the first step is gonna have to be “leave this dressing room,” kind of no matter what, yeah? Alex finally opens the door and her two assistants, Sean the Homosexual and The Other One, skitter around, packing up her things before whisking her off. She manages to spare a backward glance at Bradley as she tells her to keep her phone on her. A stunned Bradley stands alone in the hall, looking shell shocked, a bad wig atop a depressing cranberry colored pantsuit.
Cory passes Fred in the hall on his way to get yelled at by HOLLAND TAYLOR, whose character probably has a name but who will be henceforth only known as HOLLAND TAYLOR. Fred says Cory is a dead man, Cory says Fred is a corpse, they keep it moving.
HOLLAND TAYLOR, however, has other plans. She is putting Fred on administrative leave and she is straight up firing Cory. It seems “locking the head of the network” out of his control room is providing her with the just cause she needs to fire him. (“which, by the way, is also a serious fire hazard.”) She also takes a moment to say that she believes all victims, “every last one of them, forever and ever, until the end of time.” It is proof of HOLLAND TAYLOR’S excellence that she delivers that line in a way that makes you almost believe that a human might ever speak in the manner. She can’t prove the allegations against Fred, so despite the fact that she suspects he’s full of shit, her hands are tied. HOLLAND TAYLOR can, however, prove that Cory locked Fred out and “took over uba’s airwaves.” This dressing down sets Cory up for an impassioned rant, one that starts with fiefdoms (????) touches on the fact that we’ve all moved to the cloud, and ends with “this is a battle for the soul of the universe!”
I am not a Woman of Film experience, so I cannot describe, exactly, the camera work in the next scene. Yes, I could google it— but I don’t want to.
Technically, it is Cory walking down the hall, presumably after HOLLAND TAYLOR rolled her eyes at his speech and fired him. It looks like this:
We fade to white and FINALLY, nearly ten minutes in, we get the credits, still an absolute banger of song, and you better believe I sing it every single time.
Dean Martin’s “Return To Me” plays over footage of empty New York streets. Ohooo, eerie. There are many crimes on this show: the dialogue, the pacing, the sixty three plots per minute, but whoever does the music needs to be sent directly to The Hague.
Time for a flash back! Three months earlier, New Year’s Eve, 2019. Ergo, the empty streets are March 2020, and Alex and Bradley’s truth telling broadcast was…sometime before NYE. As a dedicated scholar of this show, I still couldn’t tell you exactly what the timeline of S1 was—a month, maybe? Does it matter? Well, I couldn’t tell you that either. My gut says no.
It’s the day before New Year’s Eve, and Bradley is performing a song and dance number with Hasan Minhaj, to ask the viewers to come…hang out with them in Times Square as the ball drops, I think? There is a lot to take in here, the dancing, the Glee-esque auto tune, but most shockingly, Bradley is blonde now!
This is good, because all of the iterations of the brunette wig were various levels of tragic. I am a little concerned because Bradley Jackson was largely defined by having brown hair, loving the truth, and being annoying. Oh and being vaguely Southern and conservative when needed? Who even IS she as a blonde?
Introduced in this scene: Greta Lee as Stella, the new president of the news division, and her truly excellent business-cum-lounge wear.
Also introduced, A Youth™ who is talking to Yanko on set, he is presumably a new TMS cast member. I do not care; we shall not linger.
Meanwhile, news of another anchor at uba emotionally abusing his staff has been made public. Cory references said anchor’s “scheduled vacation” so it seems this has been brewing for some time. Stella and Mia look annoyed, and Bradley looks surprisingly shocked for someone who literally went on air and exposed the network for being terrible? Hasan is trying to convey that he knows something Bradley doesn’t, I think? Mostly he looks blank. Not having facial hair is not doing Hasan any favors, I gotta say!
Bradley has a new producer, Gayle, because Mia is the new Chip. In true Bradley form, she is annoyed that Mia wants her to do a segment on nutrition in the new year. In case you forgot, Bradley is a Truth Teller™ and wants to do a story on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day being two of the most deadly days of the year. I find it comforting that Bradley still refuses to accept the basic realities of hosting a morning show. Gayle tries to wave her off, but she is a (blonde) woman with a passion for journalism! She didn’t host the celebrity bowling show to be treated like this! She’s also eyeing the newly available evening news slot, and she will take it up with Cory!
Upstairs, Cory, Mia, Stella, and various Legal Men™ are arguing about how to break the news to Bradley that Hasan will be the new evening news anchor. I guess he was trying to convey he knew something Bradley didn’t!
They have to find a new TMS co-anchor, but it turns out people aren’t exactly clamoring to work with Bradley, probably because they are too terrified to discuss hard hitting news items. Apparently Bradley’s contract is up in a few months (what is time on this show??) and the room seems to feel that it would be easier to start with two new TMS anchors.
Stella is gunning to be done with Bradley in a way that suggests they’ve gone a couple of rounds over the last question mark period of months. One thing they all agree on is that Bradley needs someone seasoned next her. Cory doesn’t even hesitate before suggesting Alex, because…she is a feminist icon now? Because the month she and Bradley hosted together was so successful? Because Jennifer Aniston is getting paid an actual dump truck of money to be on this show? Stella snipes that she “doesn’t love the idea that she’s another white woman as co-anchor,” and I start to worry that We Will Be Tackling Race™ this season. Also, no one has heard from Alex for eight (8) months???
DRAMATIC cut to snowy establishing shots of a gorgeous “cabin” somewhere remote. (It’s Maine.) Alex is meditating on the nature of fame and success via voice over, using Hans Christian Anderson (incorrectly) to do so. She’s writing a memoir in between feeding her dog and meticulously rearranging magazines with her face on the cover.
She has a call with her agent, who has read the draft and wants her to dig deeper RE: Mitch. Alex doesn’t want to talk about Mitch, or the “movement” or defending herself, which makes me wonder why she wanted to write a memoir in the first place? Anyway, she already talked about her vulnerabilities—namely her divorce from Derek Wills from Smash AKA Commodore Norrington AKA Mr. Michelle Gomez.
When the subject of Maggie Brenner’s forthcoming book about TMS is brought up, she delivers many tortured whimpers, sighs, and groans as her agent points out—rather logically— that this memoir is her chance to get her version of events on the record. Instead of agreeing, Alex whimpers and I make myself a therapy appointment to deal with the fuckton of issues I have because I am so attracted to this absolute nightmare of woman.
Bradley meets with Cory to feel him out for the evening news job. He does not tell her that Hasan will be taking it, he obfuscates, he says he needs her holding down the fort at TMS, he blinks and grins at her. It’s an awkward little moment, presumably to demonstrate that Bradley and Cory’s relationship is not on soild ground. We learn Bradley was the one who got Cory un-fired, somehow? HOLLAND TAYLOR must have been furious.
In Maine, Alex is chopping wood—I cannot begin to express how much I love any role that asks Jen Aniston to do things with her hands, like she is human of any kind of normal experience. I assume this scene was included exclusively to turn me on because there is literally Z E R O way that this woman is chopping up enough wood to heat her palatial home. As ever, I am a sucker, and it works.
Cory shows up to beg her to return to TMS, he makes a typically impassioned speech about how good she is (citation needed) and offers her more…? Deals? Money? Power? Some combination of those elements. Alex is flattered but passes, she’s been in therapy, she’s writing her little memoir, oh and she thinks she would die if she came back. Dark! Cory leaves, presumably stopping along the way to do some antiquing. I just think he’s into like, vintage globes or something.
Back in New York, it’s Bradley and Hasan’s Moderately Fun New Year’s Eve! Hasan does have a character name, I think it’s Eric, but it simply does not matter. We are treated to a shot of throngs of CGI people filling the streets, in case viewers needed reminding that Times Square on New Year’s Eve is a popular event. Bradley and Hasan are palling around, sharing whiskey (Anderson Cooper found dead in a ditch!!!) and I get that his awkwardness here is intentional, but I still don’t care for it!
Cory is rushing to set to break the news to Bradley that the evening anchor job is going to Eric/Hasan (Happy New Year!!!) but he is baffled that he will be held up in traffic as he tries to get to…Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Sure. He leaves Alex a voicemail, a last ditch effort to convince her that she belongs at TMS. For some reason, Cory quoting Lycidas makes all the sense in the world?
Alas, Alex misses his call because she has popped over to her neighbor’s house for the evening, as if Alex Levy is in the habit of making friends or talking to people. I ponder this for a moment, and then all thoughts fly from my head, because Kathy Najimy is introduced as a psychic?? At a New Year’s Eve party??? Giving “readings?” You know these people are straight because no one asks “Tarot or Astrology?” as any right thinking queer person would.
Kathy Najimy: Psychic, is quite bad at being a psychic. It’s tough to say what the show is trying to convey here. (I wonder how many times I can say that per episode) She has a tarot deck, but she does not so much read the cards, instead she wildly guesses at some facts about Alex’s life, all of which she gets wrong.
It seems like…they are trying to make a point about Alex holding herself back? Which is true, Alex is not open or vulnerable, but I don’t know, her parents are not dead, and she doesn’t have a son! It does not feel to me that Kathy Najimy: Psychic is being super fair! She does, however, sense that Alex is “carrying around a paralyzing amount of guilt,” and asks if she is running away from it. Alex looks at her like this:
She insists she is not running away from anything, before leaping from the table and leaving. It’s incredibly subtle, as The Morning Show is wont to be.
Eric/Hasan finally cracked and told Bradley he’s got the anchor job and whoops, sorry, everyone knows. By the time Cory makes it through traffic and bounds from his SUV like an overeager puppy, Bradley is furious and they have a fight in front of a screen showing fireworks along the river. Cory makes some compelling points, namely that Bradley doesn’t take criticism well, and that his job is not to protect her feelings, it’s to make the network money. Bradley, shocking absolutely no one, does not take this well, and strides off in a huff.
Alex listens to Cory’s voicemail outside the party that she is actively running away from while crying and sighing and whimpering and I make peace with the fact that I am going to have to go to therapy twice a week for the rest of my life. Just as the ball drops, Alex calls Cory back, because she needs someone to tell her that she is not sad and guilty, she is better than everyone! She is not made from mortal soil!
Cory tells her she only has to come back to TMS for year, then she can have her own prime time show. She agrees to talk tomorrow, which is technically not a yes, but it’s not a no. For a brief, shimmering moment Cory is flush with success and triumph.
Until he sees the chyron flashing atop a building. Hannah’s family is suing uba for wrongful death. Yikes!
C/D/F Plots I Don’t Care About:
Yanko is not over breaking up with Claire, he is moping around, it sucks.
Daniel has not gotten over Alex telling him he was going to be co-anchor and then blowing up the show and then leaving. Yeah, that’s fair.
Mia seems to be enjoying being Chip as much as anyone can? She is clearly much better at it, though I am not sold on the highlights they have given her.
In other hair news, Rena has figured hers out, and she’s pregnant.
The Youth™ is Ty, their…social media…correspondent? He reads tweets on air. Nice work if you can get it!
Chip works at some upstate news station and has a girlfriend and seems to be doing well, I guess? I’ve never cared about a person less.
The Twist
Inexplicably Famous Guest Stars, Ranked:
HASAN MINHAJ: 4/10: Why waste such a handsome, charming guy on this nothing role! At least give him some scheming to do! Or facial hair!
HOLLAND TAYLOR: 8/10: Look, I always thrilled to see Holland. But in the realm of famous people playing random, wild roles, Holland as a corporate shill is pretty tame. Great suit though!
Kathy Najimy; Psychic: 10/10: This is the unhinged kind of casting I crave from The Morning Show. Why Kathy? Why a psychic? It doesn’t matter! We won’t see her again! Chef’s kiss!
Best Jennifer Aniston Sound of Distress
Most Baffling Line of Dialogue
“You become a powerful voice in the rebuilding and the rebranding of a—a toxic empire that, it—it’s gonna rise. It’s gonna rise from the ashes like Venus out of the clamshell. And you are Venus!”
Next week: It’s Like The Flu.