‘The Morning Show’ Recap: ‘The Overview Effect’

11/8/2023

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston as Bradley Jackson and Alex Levy in Episode 310 of ‘The Morning Show’ – ‘The Overview Effect’. (Photo Courtesy of Apple.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Season Three Finale of ‘The Morning Show’. To revisit the previous episode, click here. Also, this piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

At some point or another in our lives, each and every one of us will set out… to do something special, something noble. Often times, that will involve, righting some kind of massive wrong. For that is a simple way to make something wonderful happen and to cement one’s legacy and sadly, it doesn’t take long for us to learn… that such an act is no easy task. Because fixing that, takes more than good intentions and a can-do attitude, especially when it comes to say… a business that screwed up badly. It can take years of work, to ensure that the culture changes and that such darkness never happens again, and that… can help us to lose ourselves along the way.

Because it’s hard to enact that level of change and life can take us wild places, and well… that begs the question… how then to do we stay on track and achieve our ultimate goal? Well… there’s no easy answer to that. Especially in business. But there are answers to that question. Some of which, people may not like. As was evidenced by the season three finale of The Morning Show on Apple TV+. For ‘The Overview Effect’ saw everything come to a head with the UBA/Hyperion merger and for two of the good people in this story, who wanted to right wrongs, they had to learn at the peak of this madness that sometimes… you have to acknowledge that you lost sight of your goals and failed and accept the consequences. Which is precisely where Cory and Bradley Jackson found themselves in this tale.

Because Bradley knew, there was no more running from the FBI, no more running from her mistakes, for she abused what she set out to fix and needed to atone for that. Yet her understanding of this lesson was quick and simple, and sadly… it took Cory a little longer to get there. Because he was doing his damndest in this story to outmaneuver Paul and secure the original loan and torpedo what Paul had planned for the company. But alas, because he was so caught up in the thrill of piloting UBA, and of being the head honcho… he really did lose his edge and didn’t account for Paul’s laser focus and ability to undercut every single plan. Which prompted Cory to finally understand his mistakes, what he lost sight of and deal with whatever consequences came forth by not sticking to the plan.

Billy Crudup and John Hamm as Cory Ellison and Paul Marks in Episode 310 of ‘The Morning Show’ – ‘The Overview Effect’. (Photo Courtesy of Apple.)

But thankfully, this story wasn’t totally about losses and paying the piper when we lose sight of our goals. For this episode also took the time to teach us, that if the opportunity is still there to do good, and to make change… we can refocus and we can buckle down and save the day and do right, and Alex Levy is the one who learned this aspect of the lesson. For she came to learn that Paul was monitoring everyone to have an edge, and was in fact, not the good man she thought he was, and this plan would bring about disaster and pain and put Alex in a place where she wouldn’t be able to fix what she set out to fix. So, she refocused, went for broke and set up a deal with NBN. To merge and create a super network that would be grounded in honesty, integrity and pure journalism and that deal… went through… with a little pressing from Alex and Stella.

Simply because… Paul did need to pay the piper for his actions and understand he couldn’t use people akin to pawns, and he did and that led… to a vastly different tomorrow for so many. Wherein the future of the UBA and NBN lineups were up in the air and where… people began to move on. For Bradley stayed away to focus on atoning for her grievous decision, with her brother at her side no less. And Cory Ellison finally found himself not in charge of anything but his own life for a change, which put him in a strange spot that he wasn’t used to. And of course, Alex… was finally on course to really create an honest news organization. One grounded in everything she wanted to right years ago… and that made for a fascinating ending to this three-year journey.

For it more or less blew the whole thing up. But that… is sometimes what we need in life to really enact change at an organization that is corrupt. Because when the rot gets into the foundation of a place, it is impossible to get out, so rebuilding is the only option. But it is safe to say that audiences didn’t expect this. But… bold moves are nothing new to this saga, since it swings for the fences often, so this is an ending that fits. That speaks to everything this show wants to accomplish and it will be interesting to see what lies ahead for this series in season four, now that its lead characters are scattered to the winds and moving onto new paths. Courtesy of an understanding that you cannot win them all, and that sometimes you need to be bold to make good happen in the world. Until next year.

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