The Morning Show was a runaway hit in 2019, and it was easy to see why. It had star power, cultural urgency, and a newsroom pulse that felt electric.
Three seasons later, it features some of those initial appeals, but many of them have faded.
The Morning Show Season 4 is a shell of what the show used to be. The series has become overcrowded with characters, yet the runtime and episode count have remained the same.
The show has proven that taking longer to make a season does not necessarily guarantee improved quality.
The current season has meandered a lot, almost entirely moving away from the newsroom, which is where all the magic happened. We are stuck with an international soap opera that does not understand itself.
Is it about journalism, politics, culture, or personal conflict? I can’t tell you, and neither can it. Season 4 tries to be all of them and ends up being none of them.
I write all this because The Morning Show Season 4 Episode 9, “Un Bel Di,” reminds me of what this should be about. Personal drama should not obstruct the larger picture; it should elevate it.
The episode deals with the fallout from Bradley’s impromptu trip to Belarus as the worst happens, and she is immediately arrested. It plays out like a political thriller, and for this reason, it’s engaging.
It’s frustrating that it took this long for the show to deliver a decent episode. Since this is the penultimate episode, the season’s fate is sealed, as it can only be judged by the majority of its episodes — frankly, they have missed the mark for a second consecutive season.
House of Cards Meets Succession Meets Days of Our Lives
The network scrambles to secure Bradley’s release from the Belarusian authorities, and that’s an uphill task if I’ve seen one.
It requires calling in old favors, leveraging existing relationships, no matter how they ended, and some business deals.
Unfortunately, it does not bear the intended fruits, as matters deteriorate, and Bradley is taken into custody to be formally charged.
However, everyone puts up a fight, and it is a good fight. Chip goes into defense mode when he senses something is off about Celine, Alex puts her emotional well-being at risk by reaching out to Paul Marks, and even Mia puts her villainous era on pause for a cause.
Moments like these, when people put their differences aside to rally for one of their own, get to me. They warm my cold, hard heart and make me a big ol’ softie. With how everyone joins hands, I was convinced that they would succeed.
However, this is Belarus, which is effectively part of Russia and a de facto part of the former Soviet Union. They all have the same playbook — crush dissent with whatever means necessary.
This entire affair leaves UBN and the US government at a huge disadvantage. They have an American citizen — and a reporter — in the hands of a hostile regime, and an important technological development is in the hands of an aggressive competitor.
It’s a complexly bad situation made worse by people trying to make it better.
Cory and Celine After Cocaine
Speaking of bad situations, Cory and Celine link up in the aftermath of their massive losses. After the harmful effects of binging cocaine all night wash out from the system, they bond over shared trauma.
Cory lost the only person whom he loves selflessly, and so does Celine. I’d feel so bad for them if they weren’t genuinely awful people.
Hearing Celine describe her feelings for Miles proves my thesis from The Morning Show Season 4 Episode 8 review: she loves him selflessly precisely because there is nothing he can offer her except his love.
With everyone else, the relationships are transactional. And why would she know anything different, given that it’s all she’s known, being in the Dumont family? They use each other.
She has learned so well from them that she’s become as ruthless as they are. She buries Bradley in Belarus and makes sure it all falls on Cory.
I sensed the danger in that woman’s eyes when I first saw her speak, devoid of emotional attachment. Do you know how difficult it is for a normal person to speak without betraying their emotions and still appear composed?
She delivers every line with icy precision, her Anglo-French accent adding to the sense of calculated detachment that spooks Chip.
Between this development with Celine and Cory and the Bradley versus Belarus fiasco, the episode strikes a nice balance.
Gut Check
Yet even with this balance, everything can’t help but feel too little too late, and “Un Bel Di” proves this. It reaches a point when I see a season is going south, and I try to fix it.
The Morning Show Season 4 should have focused more on the drama inside the newsroom instead of the drama at the network — slight difference, but quite powerful.
For example, instead of throwing us a package here and there, the news of Bradley’s arrest in Belarus should have been the focus of the season. An expose about how the Dumonts hid crucial research and threw a reporter in a foreign jail to cover it up.
That should have built up throughout the season and culminated in an on-air showdown, possibly anchored by Chris. A gal can hope!
The series has been renewed for Season 5, and unless they get this back to the newsroom, they’re never beating the “fell off” allegations.
Stray Observations
- It’s so jarring to hear 9-1-1‘s Kenneth Choi take a stern tone. I’m like ‘What did they do to Chim now?’
- I know close to nothing about the opera, so if anyone can chime in with the piece’s meaning, that’d be swell. I have a feeling it fits into the episode’s theme, especially with the Italian title.
- The development about the TV show being held off due to the war in Ukraine is such a meta moment that Apple never anticipated. They are currently holding off on two shows, and no one knows what will happen next.
Over to you, The Morning Show fanatics. What did you think of this episode? Did it stick the landing for you? Please share your thoughts in the comments; I always appreciate your input.
Meanwhile, if you’re craving a show that knows exactly what it’s about, Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 is bringing the heat.
Agree? Disagree? Have a theory?
Let us know in the comments, or share this article with someone who will want to argue about it with you. That’s what makes it fun.
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