The Morning Show Season 3 Episode 3 Review: White Noise

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

The Morning Show Season 3 Episode 3, “White Noise,” continues the series’ delightful third season renaissance with another chaotic hour that sees the world of UBA reeling from the fallout of last week’s cyber hack. 

Not in the way you’d expect, however — there’s actually zero mention of the fact that star anchor Bradley Jackson’s very personal private video was leaked. Instead, The Morning Show decides to tackle a story of systemic racism in legacy media, and while “White Noise” seems to stumble blindly into making a few surprisingly necessary points, the show mostly just leans into the nessy drama of it all. 

Don’t get me wrong — the fact that Black employees at real-world institutions like UBA are almost certainly siloed and tokenized to an incredible degree is an important failing the entertainment industry at large should address. But much like The Morning Show’s previous attempts to wrestle with broader social issues involving #MeToo, cancel culture, and even the coronavirus pandemic, this is very much not a show that is equipped to deal with a truly nuanced presentation of these stories. 

But when a racist email from UBA board chair Cybil Renyolds is leaked as part of the hack that also admits to lowballing new Morning Show anchor Christina Hunter, it sparks a company-wide conversation, with all the subtlety that this show is known for. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

To The Morning Show’s credit, it also decides to turn “White Noise” into a showcase hour for new cast member Nicole Beharie, who is far and away the best part of the episode as Chris processes her own personal reaction to the email, the vicious comments made. about her online, and her colleagues’ generally ineffectual (and occasionally downright awful) responses to the situation. 

Chris’s interview with Cybil is dynamite stuff, drilling down into the idea that one woman’s thoughtless email isn’t the problem as much as the fact that it’s emblematic of a larger cultural and institutional failing. Cybil, despite occasionally seeming to mean well, misses the point over and over, and the fact that she’s on the receiving end of a vote of no confidence immediately afterward is not a surprise. 

As the internal conversation about equity and opportunity roils the world of UBA and TMS, Mia and Stella grapple with questions about their own complicity as part of the leadership structure of an organization that doesn’t always value the contributions of women and minorities. (It’s particularly wonderful to see Greta Lee get such meaty material to work with this season, as Stella finally seems to be stepping out of Cory’s shadow, and she and Karen Pittman are a duo I hope we see much more of this season.)

We also see Yanko, for some inexplicable reason, continue to serve as the show’s avatar of the problematic, as he questions whether race is a real thing, makes uncomfortable claims about his own heritage, and is just generally embarrassing in a way that doesn’t do whatever point the show is trying to make any favors. 

It’s such a waste of the very talented Nestor Carbonell, who is certainly capable of doing more than playing whatever uncomfortable archetype they have decided Yanko should be at any given moment. I mean, isn’t he like a main TMS anchor at this point? 

To what is likely the surprise of no one, it turns out most of this mess has been purposefully orchestrated by UBA chaos gremlin Cory, who leaked the Cybil email to help push her out and secure the board’s support for his Paul Marks deal. 

But, in what is actually a rather nice change, for once Cory doesn’t actually get rewarded for being the worst, and his plan to weaponize racism in order to get rid of his nemesis has some very unintended consequences. Apparently, the mess and chaos it all creates are too much for Marks, who decides he no longer wants any part of the embarrassing disaster that UBA has become. The deal is off/

Given that The Morning Show cast Jon Hamm to play Marks, there’s absolutely no way this is the end of this plot and somehow Cory is 100% going to figure out a way to get what he wants in the end. But it sure is satisfying to watch him get taken down a peg for once and, honestly, he probably deserves worse. 

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

• If one scene encapsulates why The Morning Show is so much better this season than it has been in the past, it’s the moment when Alex and Yanko have to manage an extremely awkward pivot from covering a story about long-lost twins finding one another at a pie-eating contest to “up next, a conversation about race in corporate America” is so hilariously self-aware. 
• If this is the last we see of (the always impeccable but frequently underutilized) Holland Taylor, I’m so glad they gave her an incredible episode to go out on. 
• Is there really any television network that would be reporting with such open glee about UBA’s internal drama as Eagle News? Are they like this universe’s OAN? 
• The fact that The Morning Show chooses not to show us the conversation between Alex and Chris, wherein the former presumably hands her buzzy interview off to a new colleague because it’s actually the right thing to do, is a truly baffling decision. Not only because it would have undoubtedly been a great scene between two very good actors, but because it’s actually a moment of genuine growth for Alex! Why leave that offscreen?

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

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New episodes of The Morning Show stream Wednesdays on Apple TV+.

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