‘The Morning Show’ Recap: ‘A Private Person’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 206 of ‘The Morning Show’.

We live in quite the fascinating and somewhat troubling time. Simply because, our ability to access knowledge and news on a moment’s notice, has given rise to an uncomfortable obsession. One that revolves around celebrities and public figures. Because the unprecedented access we have to those individuals, has motivated so many to latch onto them and their every waking moment in an unhealthy manner, and the rest of the general public is no better than the toxic fans. Because even the casual fans are eager to pounce upon viral and breaking news about people of note, making us in essence a nation of voyeurs, the kind that cannot get enough of other people’s lives and well, perhaps the time has come to rethink that aspect of our world.
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Not necessarily because people obsess over celebrities. After all, people have been fawning over celebrities and what they mean to an individual since the dawn of celebrity, and the majority tend to eventually grow out of it. But more so because this inherent desire to know more about them and learn every bit about what makes them tick, is becoming a violation of privacy. The kind that has to have some kind of lasting impact we don’t fully understand, and knowledge that might be the key to stopping our desire to seek out breaking news on what a celebrity had for breakfast. Specifically, knowledge of what having prying eyes can do to a person emotionally, especially when business that they wanted to keep a secret or to themselves is thrust into the public eye and believe it or not, The Morning Show on AppleTV+ is a series saw an opportunity to explore that impact in its next episode.

Because ‘A Private Person’ saw Bradley Jackson deal with the fallout of having some supremely personal news aired to the world and that led to quite the powerful examination of how the world’s microscope can do harm. But it certainly didn’t seem as though this was going to be the theme early on. For this is a story that spent a fair chunk of time, having Chip work to track down Alex Levy… who as it turns out, basically ghosted UBA after flying home from the Vegas debacle and is missing in action as well… and that in turn, allowed for Laura Peterson to fill into her spot for a time, allowing for Bradley to find some joy at work since she was finally going to be alongside someone she genuinely cared about and had special chemistry with. Something that would do her some good in the moment, since her brother dropped by the hotel to escape his mother and his woes, once again.

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But just when it seemed as though, Bradley was going to be on cloud nine at work, quite the bombshell dropped. For The Vault published a photo of Laura and Bradley holding hands in Las Vegas to accompany quite the salacious article. One that basically outed Bradley and that put her in one hell of a place mentally. Since she did indeed work hard to keep her sexual identity to herself and well… it took some doing on Laura’s part to calm Bradley down and to give her focus but the power of this sequence was undeniable. Because for the first time ever, we got to see the sheer horror and agony that comes with having personal matters go viral, and we truly were able to see how much this impacts a person’s mental health and well-being and the show deserves serious credit for exploring this.
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Because this is a conversation we aren’t having right now, but we should. Because celebrities and public figures are human begins, who have lives outside of the career field and fans that have given them so much. And they can be hurt, and they deal with the same things we do and perhaps if we saw them as people and not as deities or above us, our view on this would change and we’d handle news like this differently. But truth be told, it shouldn’t take some kind of humanizing moment to bring about that kind of epiphany, since all we really need to do to understand how difficult and awful this must be, is to put ourselves in their shoes and ask ourselves how we would respond if our private matters were leaked on the web. But all of that aside, this really was quite the brilliant and poignant storyline, one that speaks to how wonderful a job this show does at tackling relevant and important topics in our world.

But all commentary and growth for Bradley aside, since she did eventually find strength from this, we would be remiss to not talk about how heartbreaking and angering it is that Cory made all of this happen. And ‘right’ reasons be damned, since he leaked the story to keep Hannah’s off the front page… what he did is infuriating. Because he violated the trust of his friend, and he did her dirty rather than taking the high road in this matter and it will in fact, be incredibly interesting to see what this does to Cory since it is already eating at him at rightfully so. But while we wait to see how he handles the worst decision he’s made as UBA’s CEO; we can revel in the wonder of one compelling tale. One that really did examine something quite powerful and allowed for Reese Witherspoon to shine, since she sold the gravity and the power of this moment and well… hopefully the lessons inherent here, gives the audience great pause the next time they’re eager to deep scroll through a celebrity’s Insta feed or see their name trending on Twitter for the wrong reasons. So, this unhealthy aspect of the information superhighway can come to a quick and satisfying end. Until next time.

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