‘The Morning Show’ Season 4 Overview: Extra Messy Than Enjoyable

“The Morning Show” has at all times felt a bit prefer it was generated by AI — like if somebody prompted Sora to make “The Newsroom” vaguely about #MeToo, or conceive probably the most flattering attainable lighting for actresses over 40. So when the present provides AI to its effervescent stew of topical references within the opening minutes of Season 4, with media CEO Stella Bak (Greta Lee) introducing a deepfaked steady of anchors theoretically in a position to report the information in any language forward of the 2024 Olympics, the subplot has an air of inevitability. The characters of “The Morning Show” love nothing greater than to grandstand about the reality, however “The Morning Show” itself revels in flashy toys and a shiny, well-packaged floor. It’s completely suited to our new period of LLMs equivalent to ChatGPT, a development star Reese Witherspoon has publicly championed.

But “The Morning Show” can be powered by precisely what AI can’t pretend: The singular charisma of gorgeous, well-known human beings, a not-so-secret weapon the Apple TV+ drama fittingly quadruples down on for its fourth go-round. To reinforce Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston as work frenemies Bradley Jackson and Alex Levy, “The Morning Show” brings in Marion Cotillard as Celine, the newest president of the board; Aaron Pierre as Celine’s artist husband, Miles; Jeremy Irons as Alex’s father, a legislation professor; William Jackson Harper as a producer; and Boyd Holbrook as a Joe Rogan-esque podcaster who’s inexplicably working at an old school community and is actually named “Bro.” (See what I imply about being plausibly generated by AI?) Together, these visitor stars type a supernova of expertise designed to beat such trivial challenges as coherence by sheer brute pressure. Would that it have been so easy!

Season 4 picks up in spring 2024, about two years after Bradley turned herself into the FBI for overlaying up her brother’s involvement within the January sixth rebellion. (Just typing that sentence brings a smile to my face.) Compared to final season’s daring, cleaning soap operatic fusion of real-world occasions with its heroines’ lives, “The Morning Show” — beneath the management of returning showrunner Charlotte Stoudt — is way more gunshy on this newest batch of episodes. Both the conflict in Gaza and the 2024 presidential election get solely cursory mentions, maybe as a result of they’re extra controversial, advanced or simply grim than the collection is snug with. Unwilling to drag from the headlines, “The Morning Show” merely invents worldwide incidents from entire fabric, like an Iranian fencer deciding to defect in the midst of her interview with Alex. The storyline permits producing director Mimi Leder to stage a full-on automobile chase inside a journalism drama, however by no means acquires its personal momentum. 

Incorporating all the brand new gamers into an already packed forged proves difficult, partly as a result of present’s odd unwillingness to let go of outdated baggage. Do we actually have to examine in on Alex’s billionaire ex Paul Marks (Jon Hamm) when their relationship is so definitively over? What about pairing up Alex’s former deputy Chip (Mark Duplass), now a profitable documentary filmmaker, with Bradley to analyze an environmental cover-up — a storyline that performs out like an unauthorized sequel to “Erin Brockovich”? The dynamic duo’s work even reunites them with a beforehand departed forged member who seems to have undergone a complete character transplant. Why the present bothered to deliver again an unrecognizable model of the character as a substitute of introducing a contemporary one is anyone’s guess.

Without clearing more room, “The Morning Show” is left to awkwardly retcon Celine into relevance; we’re meant to grasp she’s at all times been essential to the fictional media firm’s company governance — we’ve simply by no means seen or heard of her earlier than. Harper and Irons each disappear for lengthy stretches at a time. Holbrook’s Bro might get probably the most developed arc, however he’s named after a stereotype for a purpose; the person is extra a composite of tropes about politically incorrect poseurs than a legible particular person. The solely correctly utilized contemporary face is Pierre, who broke out within the motion movie “Ruby Ridge” and who “The Morning Show” shamelessly exploits as eye sweet. Pierre’s future roles will likely be extra multi-dimensional, however it’s enjoyable to see him cater so clearly to the feminine gaze.

Surprisingly, Season 4 does its greatest work not with these shiny additions, however with veterans lastly getting their due. “The Morning Show” has spent a number of seasons loudly speaking the discuss racial inequity within the office, a convention it continues by the baffling and clumsily written Stella. (The position is an odd detour on Lee’s speedy ascent to stardom post-“Past Lives.”) This time, the collection not less than walks the stroll, giving each Karen Pittman’s put-upon producer Mia and Nicole Beharie’s Olympian-turned-TV-star Chris an opportunity to step up. The Olympics are, in fact, a chance for ex-athlete Chris, whereas Pittman stepping again from “And Just Like That” — a collection whose conclusion leaves a spot within the “hatewatch with wine” house “The Morning Show” can’t fairly fill — provides Mia more room to take up.

Unlike Paul or Chip, these ladies haven’t overstayed their welcome; in contrast to Celine or Bro, they’ve an precise historical past on this world. Their late blooming as full-fledged protagonists feels borrowed from a extra methodical, affected person sort of present. It’s additionally not sufficient to anchor all of the insanity. “The Morning Show” has at all times been a compulsively watchable, campy sort of mess. In Season 4, the mess takes middle stage.

The first episode of “The Morning Show” Season 4 is now streaming on Apple TV+, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Wednesdays.