The Morning Show Season 3 Episode 10 Review: The Overview Effect

The Morning Show wraps up its most bonkers season to date with “The Overview Effect,” a surprisingly predictable finale that recasts UBA and its culture in the sort of heroic light the show has never really bothered to earn. 

After a season that has leaned so fully into its soapiest, most ridiculous elements should end on a note that feels as contrived and preachy as any of its earliest episodes. It felt like this was the year The Morning Show might really shake things up, so it’s doubly disappointing that this hour pretty much ends by undoing everything that made this season such fun. 

Jennifer Aniston in The Morning Show Season 3 Episode 10 (Photo Apple TV+)

That UBA is now basically going to merge with NBN is admittedly a fairly hilarious and enticing prospect — every one of their anchors is so petty and catty that watching the women of UBA go toe to toe with them should at least make for entertaining television. There will probably be a fair amount of shuffling around as the two networks come together and it’ll be a great chance to introduce new characters. Maybe the show will take the opportunity to refocus and cut some dead weight. (Translation: Bye, Chip!) We’ll have to see. 

It couldn’t be more obvious that Bradley will walk away from the FBI largely unscathed and that Cory will, cockroach-like, somehow wrangle a position of power at the new UBA-NBN no matter how beaten he looks at the moment. The final scene between the two of them (as well as Bradley’s testimony during the investigation into his behavior) couldn’t be telegraphing any harder that this show is finally ready to go for it on the Bradley/Cory front. They’ve waited so long though, it’s unclear how viewers are going to feel about it finally happening. (If, of course, it does.)

It’s odd that The Morning Show does very little in terms of providing any real closure to Laura and Bradley’s relationship in this finale. (The show doesn’t even really confront Laura’s decision to cover for Bradley’s felony!) We see Laura and Alex have a heart-to-heart, in which Laura certainly seems unwilling to forgive Bradley for lying to her and questions whether she ever really knew the woman she loved at all. All signs certainly point to the two being over, but it’s really bizarre that the show offers no real closure for the pair — and almost completely ignores their relationship in the final episode of the season. 

Meanwhile, the revelation that Paul Marks is a bully who’s willing to color outside the lines to get what he wants isn’t surprising — he’s a billionaire who never gets told no, we all know that story. But, the problem is, is that for at least 75% of this season, The Morning Show didn’t really write him that way, so it’s frustrating he’s suddenly transformed into an all too convenient villain for its final hours.

(I mean, I’m sure Jon Hamm has stuff to do, so it’s not like he was destined to stay forever on this show 0r anything. But The Morning Show’s inability to commit to whatever his character was supposed to represent — the dangers of income inequality? the problems of allowing the mega-rich to control the news in a free society? a garden variety jerk? — means that a lot of his behavior in these last couple of episodes of the season feels like whiplash.)

“The Overview Effect” also finds itself stuck in the weird position of casting Cory Ellison as some kind of hero — the white knight rushing in to save UBA from Paul Marks because he just cares that much about the future of legacy media and the jobs of the 20K employees he’s never bothered to give a crap about before.

And lest we forget, the only reason Paul Marks is involved in all of this is Cory! He literally stalked the dude while he was surfing! And this is somehow The Morning Show’s hero? The idea that this is somehow the guy I’m supposed to be rooting for is just…a lot. 

The other frustrating thing is that so much of this finale turns on Bradley and Alex’s friendship — a bond this show has spent the last…at least a season and a half basically ignoring. Don’t get me wrong, I want these two to be besties. But we, as viewers, have seen so little interaction between them that it’s a little bit hard to believe that they’d both sacrifice so much for each other here. 

It’s good, in the end, that Bradley is going to face up to what she did. It’s hard not to wish, however, that her ultimate choice to do so was more about her recognizing how incredibly wrong she’s been rather than because Laura found out and dumped her. Bradley certainly hasn’t behaved as though she feels all that bad about her choices — she discouraged Hal from turning himself in, got Cory to cover for her to the FBI, and seemed to have zero concerns about trading her way to the evening news anchor chair.

Watching Bradley struggling to come to terms with the fact that she essentially betrayed everything she once said she believed in would have been amazing TV! And yet….we saw none of that. Instead, she just seemed to be very upset she got caught out — and that Paul figured out enough of what happened to blackmail her over it. When did she decide to turn herself in? How did she break this news to Hal? How is she planning to handle her decision to cover up Hal’s becoming public knowledge?

No idea, because this finale is more concerned with reaching specific narrative destinations — the final scene outside the FBI building — than it is making sure those big moments make sense for where the characters are in their specific journies. Which is such a shame, because Season 3, for the most part, is the best the show’s ever been, and I can only imagine what it might have looked like had it managed to really stick the landing. 

Stray Thoughts and Observation

• Where does Season 4 go from here? As I said, there’s no way Bradley doesn’t bounce back from this, too much of The Morning Show’s identity is wrapped up in the Bradley/Alex partnership to ever truly let go of the character. Maybe the next season can finally get back to the show’s purported focus — their relationship — rather than counting on viewers’ affection for both characters to fill in the emotional gaps in the narrative.
• I’d love to see Alex get the chance at some genuine happiness for once.
• Just gonna keep the dream alive that Paul Marks might come back to visit at some point in the future. (Look, I’m hanging on to that bit where he almost turned around, don’t judge me.) I don’t know what it means that he and Alex got a better break-up scene than Laura and Bradley did. Surely it means something that both of them seemed devastated about it?
• It’d be fun to watch Cory have to actually face some consequences for his many awful decisions. 
• Yanko and Chris are the best together and I desperately want more of the weirdo opposites-attract friendship between them.
• What was the point of the whole subplot about Mia’s photojournalist boyfriend and his time in Ukraine?
• Chip hollering that Paul Marks’s rocket looks like a giant penis is basically such Jeff Bezos Blue Origin vibes.

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

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All three seasons of The Morning Show are now streaming on Apple TV+. 

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