It’s worth prefacing that The Morning Show Season 3 did not impress me at all. It was unfocused, messy, and too self-indulgent for its own good.
I suggested that Apple TV+ cancel it before its legacy is ruined, and while I still think that’s possible, this show holds a special place in my heart.
The Morning Show Season 4 is not just another season of a TV show I watch; it’s a milestone. It needs to recapture the magic of Season 1 while propelling the story forward.
After watching The Morning Show Season 4 Episode 1, I’m torn about what to make of it. On the one hand, there are traces of the old show, and on the other, the direction the writers have taken could be disappointing as we proceed.
Everything picks up two years after the events of the Season 3 finale that saw secrets exposed, sacrifices made, and a new babe born. We’re no longer at UBA, it’s UBN.
The story feels like it’s missing something, and rightly so. However, we catch small glimpses of the fallout, something I’m quite excited to see unfold throughout the season.
“My Roman Empire” is all about catching up. It spends most of its runtime catching the viewer up on what has been going on in the characters’ lives and where they stand currently. It also introduces the season’s main conflicts, which revolve around AI and the new network that also carries secrets.
The Current Monster: Artificial Intelligence
Oh, I see we’re striking where it hurts the most, The Morning Show.
I’ve seen a lot of technological development in my lifetime. I’ve witnessed world-changing technologies emerge that leave everyone shocked, but I thought they were overreacting.
Now I’m in that boat with AI. It has the potential to change every workflow that involves computation and cut people out entirely. While business is about making a profit, it’s also about people and relationships.
UBN is thinking of using generative AI to dub their live broadcast, especially during the Olympics. However, that seems short-sighted. It promises to bring more viewers to the network, but who said people around the world want to watch Alex Levy?
Entire broadcasting ecosystems exist in licensing live sports and bringing them to local viewers, which would be disrupted if one American journalist were to do all the work.
I’m not saying that AI should not be used to augment human input, but it can’t replace people en masse. That’s a recipe for disaster.
UBN: The Feminist Utopia
The episode makes a point of showcasing the network as female-led. And you know what, more power to women. However, we are quick to support women’s rights and not wrongs. And these women do commit a lot of wrongs.
It’s these wrongs that had Bradley banished to the middle of nowhere, West Virginia.
The Morning Show was sold to us viewers as a Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon package deal. One of the most significant flaws of The Morning Show Season 3 was that it didn’t feature them together that much.
This season aims to rectify and offers a glimpse into their relationship currently, and I love it! Bradley and Alex don’t work well when being all buddy-buddy.
Their relationship is a game of dominance, and I hope no one wins anytime soon.
Still, there are cracks in the feminist utopia. For one, Mia was promised keys to the kingdom, but those keys have gotten lost. The network has covered things up, and Alex would rather die than watch her experiment fail.
Finally, the network is playing both sides. Or at least trying to.
You Can’t Win If You Play Both Sides
I’ve never been a fan of partisan networks that, instead of spearheading the truth, just say what their viewers want to hear.
However, the alternative is not better. UBN is a perfect example of trying to play both sides, which is a recipe for disaster.
The fact is, both sides are not the same. One massages facts to push a narrative, while the other does not know what facts are. UBN has its own Joe Rogan, and that’s not a good idea.
The attempt to project impartiality has taken over American media, forcing people to cede ground for the sake of optics or ratings. But at some point, that becomes flying too close to the sun. [Editor’s note: News is supposed to be impartial. Entertainment is not. Therein lies the difference.]
Like any relationship, business is about values. And if UBN’s team has a mismatch of the same, watch this space closely. Conflicts will become the order of the day.
You cannot work with people who think less of you as a person or a reporter, and that applies to both parties.
Everyone Else Is Trying Their Best
In the ideal world, I would be okay with never seeing Cory again. He gets my blood boiling, but Apple TV+ is not about to lose Emmy winner Billy Crudup, so the streaming service is alive and kicking.
This is where, once again, The Morning Show feels too ambitious for its own good. Is it about the morning news? Podcasting? Streaming?
Trying to balance all these sides will be a challenge. Something like UBN+ should have gotten written or spun out. It feels odd.
However, everything might come together in the end; we’ll have to wait and see.
In the show’s timeline, the latest United States Presidential Election has not arrived yet, which might explain its absence from the trailer. I’m ready to apologize if the show delivers on that because, based on what we’ve seen thus far, it’s coming.
Bro dudes and their podcasts were a great motivator for young people voting for Trump, so maybe we’re building towards that? Otherwise, the show choosing to ignore this will be an egregious mistake.
Again, we’ll have to wait and see.
“My Roman Empire” strikes a good balance of reintroducing the characters after close to two years while setting up the rest of the season. It promises to be one for the books.
Over to you, The Morning Show fanatics. What did you think?
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