The Morning Show – Apple+ Season 1 Episode 4 Recap and Review

The Interview

The Morning Show gives us another strong episode this week, concentrating more on Bradley’s character as she’s determined to put her personal stamp on the show,  gaining the approval of America by showing her true self. The episode does a great job building tension too, climaxing in an interview which will cause serious shock-waves in the weeks to come.

We begin with Alex and Bradley presenting their first show together. They have great chemistry on-screen which leads to a video chat with Bradley’s mum to help the audience get to know her better. However, we soon see that everything her Mum narrates on camera about her happy life has been scripted and is far from the truth. After a break, Bradley decides to go off-script and explains that her life wasn’t really that perfect. She mentions the different hard times she had to endure, including an abortion when she was 15. This leads to a big commotion in the studio as Charlie and the rest of the team scramble to deal with her confessions.

The backlashes surrounding this are quite important for the channel and everyone involved. Fred screams down the phone at Cory, blaming him for letting Bradley be on the show as some of the advertising firms have already dropped them. Later that night, a worried Alex decides to pick up Bradley from her hotel and tells her she’s going back to the studio to film the show like nothing has happened. As the show starts, Bradley delivers a statement regarding her revelations from the day before, apologizing and promising to do her best to earn America’s support and trust.

Tension builds in the studio as an investigator arrives to question everyone about Mitch. After being questioned, Yanko worries about his relationship with Claire and wants to make sure he’s not going down the same path as Mitch. As he relays this to Claire, she quickly reassures him that this is not the same. Meanwhile, Bradley’s abortion story causes ripples throughout the country as multiple protests arise in favour of the abortion’s bill in certain states.

As we reach the end of the week, things are looking good for the network as they notice an increase in ratings for the 18-35 demographic, thanks to Bradley’s influence. After discussing the positive impact of Bradley with Alex, Chip tells her that New York magazine want to do a feature piece on Bradley which makes them realize that her presence takes the focus away from Mitch’s issue.

The investigation continues with Mia admitting to having an affair with Mitch. She explains that she was the one who broke it off but that everything remained professional afterwards. However she wasn’t happy with him constantly backing the MeToo movement which lead her to file a complaint about him to HR. As the interview with Ashley approaches, Bradley questions Mia about the impact it will have as she’s not sure it will be strong enough. Mia quickly reassures her, explaining that the network doesn’t want to be impacted too much but she’s sure this will help many people who have experienced similar situations.

The day of the interview finally arrives and Bradley greets a very nervous Ashley. As she starts explaining how it all unfolded, she speaks to the camera about how the flirting was exciting at first but soon became overwhelming when Mitch started to inappropriately touch her, resulting in her fearing for her job if she didn’t respond to it. Being her usual controversial self, Bradley goes off script and asks Ashley if there was anything in the network culture that made it difficult to complain. After probing further, Ashley finally admits to giving oral sex to Mitch in his dressing room.

As the interview unfolds, a seething Alex watches on, speaking into Bradley’s earpiece and trying in vain to make her stop. Afterwards, Alex confronts Bradley but he asks her if she knew about Mitch and Ashley, prompting her to walk away in disgust as the episodes ends.

As expected, Bradley was brought forward in this latest episode and the chemistry between her and Alex serves as the glue to hold everything together. Both actresses are doing a great job with their roles and the drama is becoming more and more entertaining to watch as the season progresses.

Bradley constantly defying the odds makes the show feel quite refreshing this week, bringing with it a lot of dramatic and emotional moments. The pace of the episode is good too, showing each day of the week and building up to the interview with one of Mitch’s victim. With things left wide open and Alex now furious, all of this builds the foundation for what should be a very dramatic episode next week.