The Morning Show Review: Laura (Season 2 Episode 3)

The Morning Show Season 2 Episode 3, “Laura,” introduces Julianna Marguiles as Barbara Walters-esque UBA anchor Laura Peters, ostensibly to do an interview with Alex ahead of her return. But what people will remember from this episode is the fact that she makes out with Bradley following a trip to the Iowa caucuses. 

The smooch essentially comes out of nowhere and, to be honest, feels like the kind of sensationalistic and/or salacious twist that this sort of show should be above. (Or at least would tell people it’s above.) We’ve had little indication prior to this moment that Bradley is into women in that way, and the slight hint that she might just be kissing Laura in order to keep her from asking about the fact that Bradley wasn’t exactly vetted for her co-host role makes everything uncomfortable.

(Though to be fair, I would possibly respect this subplot more if Bradley was trying to manipulate Laura in this way, it would at least be narratively interesting from a character perspective.)

But making it seem as though Bradley threw herself at the first person in a while who was both nice to her and complimented her professional skill is…well, Reese Witherspoon deserves better. And I liked her insistence that she be allowed to moderate a presidential debate, even if the idea of Bradley being anywhere near even a fictional version of Donald Trump makes me cringe. 

Awkwardness abounds as Bradley and Alex take part in the splashy announcement of the latter’s return to TMS. Bradley looks awkward and uncomfortable throughout, while there are moments where revisiting her old stomping grounds certainly seems to shake Alex up. 

In fairness, I wish The Morning Show was spending more time on Alex’s clearly mixed emotions about returning to the job she left behind, and the way she seems to both crave and resent the way everyone at TMS and UBA keeps referring to her as some kind of feminist icon.

As per usual, the scenes between Alex and Bradley are just an order of magnitude better than anything else happening on The Morning Show right now and the difference in quality is jarring whenever the show focuses on anything either than the two of them. 

There’s so much that’s unsettled and unspoken between these two characters, and since they’ve only shared the screen roughly three times since the season began, it feels like the show is purposefully doling out their interactions in 

The Morning Show Season 2’s weird reenactment of the early 2020 discovery of the coronavirus continues to be weird and uncomfortable. I just don’t know what the show is trying to do here, at all. And maybe it doesn’t either.

The entire subplot of sending Daniel to Wuhan, China seemed like a waste and accomplished almost nothing, save showing viewers that thousands of people were forced to evacuate before the city shut down. (And that the UBA team was willing to lie to get themselves out, which I guess no one is going to bother spending very long feeling bad about?)

There are moments during Daniel’s Beijing quarantine where it feels as though the show is attempting to critique American media — and general population — disinterest in the terrible things happening in the world when they don’t immediately affect by them, which is certainly a fair statement. But then it just turns into Daniel being bitter that he’s not getting the professional opportunities he feels he is owed.

If we’d cut out this whole Wuhan subplot this week and given the screentime to…I don’t know, literally anyone else, what would we really have lost? What was the point supposed to be?

Unfortunately, Stella has still had little to do so far this season beyond performing basic lackey duties for Cory, which feels like so much wasted potential when she’s actually suggesting the sorts of things that would turn the network around. 

It’s not an accident that it’s Stella who wanted to overhaul the entire make-up of The Morning Show and agitated to bring in hosts that weren’t cis white women. Yet, it still feels like with every episode that passes things just slip back toward the status quo of

I feel like the show desperately wants me to care about how the secondary UBA characters whose names I barely remember feel about Chip returning to produce Alex, but the joke’s on them since I fully believe Chip doesn’t really have a role to play in this show. Is there a reason this screentime can’t go to Stella — or Mia, who equally seems to have nothing to do?

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• Cannot believe we had to sit through multiple Mitch scenes this week — and one that included Fred complaining about cancel culture! I know we all know that Steve Carrell is great, but there’s truly no reason he should still be on this show.
• I also hate that this was the week I realized that Mitch is in Italy and will therefore inevitably get swept up in the early spring COVID outbreak that takes place there. 
• If I’m honest, I don’t really grasp the point that The Morning Show is trying to make about cancel culture — half the time it feels as though the show is genuinely questioning what holding someone accountable for their actions actually means, and the other it seems as though it’s happily mocking the idea of safe spaces and snowflakes. (See also: The Morning Show teams’ reaction to learning some folks find the term “spirit animal” offensive.)
•  I hope they do something more interesting with Marguiles than whatever this Bradley flirtation/relationship is – she and Jennifer Anniston had a rather delicious frenemies/rivals chemistry that could go somewhere interesting. 

What did you think of this episode of The Morning Show? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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