‘The Morning Show’ Recap: ‘My Least Favorite Year’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season two premiere of ‘The Morning Show’.

Often times in storytelling, the proudest and most uplifting moment in a story is when a protagonist stands up for themselves or makes a bold move for the greater good. For it signals the arrival of something we love, a happy ending, and their wonderful actions in general, helps to remind us that good always triumphs in this world, regardless of the odds. Plus, such a joyous finale, helps to reinforce the mantra that entertainment is a great way to escape the harsh reality of everyday life, where sadly, good doesn’t always win and where big wins are easily forgotten by individuals and the masses. But what’s fascinating about storytelling, is that not every show holds to that particularly fluffy mantra, and some are eager to explore the gritty and fleeting reality of big moments and one show that holds to this is The Morning Show on Apple TV.
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For the season two premiere of this phenomenal series, ‘My Least Favorite Year’, takes the time to show us how big moments come with consequences and quickly fade in the real world and how they transform us in unexpected ways, and it accomplished these particular feats through some fascinating time jumps. The first of which, took us back to the season one finale, mere moments after Alex Levy and Bradley Jackson shocked the world by going public about what life was really like at UBA and sadly, such a heroic moment brought about all kinds of fallout. The kind where Alex was whisked away by personal escort and where some of the good guys were penalized for playing the hero, such as Cory Ellison. Since the UBA board was fast to find some kind of ‘just cause’ to terminate him for aiding in this heroic moment and well, once the dust settled from that, a quick trip to December 2019… informed us of the long-term fallout of this important day.

In that, everyone at the network quickly worked to forget that Mitch’s dark actions happened or that Alex quit the show, as evidenced by the fact that Bradley was able to get Cory his job back and enjoy some stability as The Morning Show’s continued lead but that didn’t quite undo the damage to UBA’s reputation. For ratings were down, and more allegations about another host were starting to arise, all because a vast majority of folks at the network, never once worked to fix the root cause of the problem and opted more so to pat themselves on the back for just saying this behavior is bad. But obviously that doesn’t fix anything in this life, and Cory knew this deep down and that is why he decided on executing quite a risky gambit to give the network a sense of stability and remind the people watching that UBA does care about its employees and decency.

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One that involved reaching out to Alex Levy about a return to The Morning Show, and well… that didn’t quite go as Cory initially hoped. Because Alex was just fine with being away from the limelight and working on her memoirs, and that is why she initially rebuffed returning to the show that gave her a good life for many years. But it turns out that her story had far more depth to it than any of us initially knew. For Alex was actually carrying a lot of guilt over what happened at UBA and her enabling of Mitch’s disgusting behavior and that guilt helped her to lie to herself and believe that perhaps staying away from it all and offering up the best take she could from the shadows, would somehow help her to heal from her own culpability but as the episode rolled along, she came to realize that was not the case.
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Which in turn made it seem as though, the happy ending was about to come to life in this story. Wherein Cory would save Alex’s soul by bringing her back to the show, where she and Bradley could finish their work and make a better future happen for UBA and television in general. But happy endings in this realistic show are simply not in the cards. As evidenced by the rift that is now growing between Cory and Bradley over the fact that he didn’t give her the evening news job because of his bigger plans and because… legal trouble is on the horizon. For Hannah Schoenfeld’s family have opted to file a wrongful death suit against the network, which will cause all kinds of waves at the network and make the comeback infinitely more difficult and rightfully so, since the network refused to handle this the right way and to top it all off… there is a greater threat lurking behind the scenes by way of Covid-19. Which is about to unleash itself upon the world.

But while we wait to see how the show examines a pandemic that is still fresh and traumatizing in our minds and what will come of Cory’s wild plans and what will become of the network after that lawsuit, we can revel in the wonder of one quality season premiere. Because once again, this show did a wonderful job of handling its message in a subtle fashion since its observations on how big moments can consume us and transform us in negative ways were never once overpowering and well, in the end, it is simply wonderful to have this series back on the air. Because it really is something special, thanks to the fact that all of its messaging is bold and realistic and that the problems it presents are never easily solved. And it will be interesting to see how the events of season one shape this one and to see how the dynamic people that populate this world handle the lasting impact of their actions and a world that is about to be turned upside down by a silent and deadly and microscopic monster. Until next time.   

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