PREMISE
A line is drawn as Alex and Bradley are forced to choose sides. Cory scrambles for stable ground.
EPISODE MVP
REESE WITHERSPOON- The real meat and potatoes of this season of The morning show has everything to do with the Paul Marks/Alex Levy romance and the Hindenburg-level disaster that Cory is having to withstand involving the network. And because this show has now split focuses between Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston to the point where they rarely have multiple scenes with each other in an episode, (something I’ve come to despise greatly btw) it does feel like I have to separately assess what I like to call the Bradley half of this show as whole. To Witherspoon’s credit, she is doing the absolute most with the most soap-operatic love story, and absolutely LUDICROUS storyline that this show has perhaps faced thus far involving her brother’s involvement in the JAN 6th insurrection.
Her final scene at the end of this episode is absolutely world-class. It does not feel as if there’s anywhere else for this character to go given the events of this season so at least that made a lot of sense.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
THE ALEX LEVY HEEL TURN?- I don’t really know if this show has the moxie to have Alex become a full-blown wrestling heel at this point, but she’s making all the moves as of right now to become a central antagonist of this show. There is a lovely combination of obliviousness self-destructive tendencies and a general delusion over what Paul’s tendencies are despite numerous warnings from perhaps every character on the show by this point.
This all is leading Jennifer Aniston to play the type of character that I don’t think anybody’s ever seen her play before… unlikeable. I’m not saying we’re there yet okay, but we’re flirting with it…and it’s really nice to see Aniston play something like that. That’s all I’m saying.
CORY GETTING SHOOK- Cory should have white hair by this point in the season given how many car crashes he has to deal with at once. As I sat down to write this review, I tried to conjure up a way that Cory could avoid a Julius Caesar-esque level fall from grace in the upcoming season finale, and I simply cannot deduce how that is possible.
The chipper demeanor that Billy Crudup his played Cory with throughout all of the titanic-ish kind of problems that the morning show has presented this character within these three seasons seems to have disappeared by the end of this episode and it’s a hell of a shift. Cory is quickly becoming my favorite character on this show. I may be on an island with that actually.
THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE
LAURA- Maybe I can only speak for myself, but I never really could figure out why Bradley and Laura were worth rooting for in the first place. They had an explosive fight to end their relationship, and the idea of rekindling that romance after that fight has always been lost on me. Julianna Margulies and Witherspoon are both very great at what they do, they have chemistry and all of that but the characters are just too mismatched, and a lot of the ongoing saga between them is going to be a bit tedious. It doesn’t seem as if there’s any use for Laura other than to thirst over Bradley at this point, and I for one am tired of seeing it.
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This is going to be the most interesting season finale that this show has had thus far. I’ll give credit to the show for creating a sense of unpredictability as it always does, but I do think it’s wrapping up to be a very good season of the show rather than living up to the potential that it had to be an absolutely great season.
THE MORNING SHOW is streaming on AppleTV+
