The Prestige TV Podcast - 'The Morning Show’ Season 2 Finale Recap

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

After being let down one final time this season by the writers of 'The Morning Show,' Bill, Amanda, and Nora discuss the flawed character development of Alex Levy and what could lie ahead for her in Season 3. Plus, some forgotten storylines and the crew hands out their final grades of the season (39:02). Hosts: Bill Simmons, Amanda Dobbins, Nora Princiotti Producer: Troy Farkas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Derek Thompson, long-time writer with the Atlantic Magazine on tech, culture, and politics. There is a lot of noise out there, and my goal is to cut through the headlines, loud tweets, and hot takes in my new podcast, Plain English. I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know to give you clear viewpoints and memorable takeaways. Plain English starts November 16th. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies. Sweet Green's new wraps have got you. Real ingredients? Zero shortcuts. Everything you love in one hand.

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here with Amanda Dobbins, Nora Princeati. There's so many good TV shows we could be discussing right now. I really like Yellow Jackets on Showtime. I thought that was good. I enjoyed the Sex Lives of College Girls. My wife and I watched the first two this weekend. That was pretty good. Curbenthusiasm is good.

Successions is good. Morning show, not good. This was a show that we kind of begrudgingly enjoyed last year, even though it wasn't good. But there were things that we liked. These last four episodes of season two, the show crashed into a highway divider. And I don't know if I can come back.

I'll start with you, Amanda. Will you watch season three? Is this it? Because I think I'm out. I think this is it for me. I think I am too. But Bill, there's always that pull of just being like, how much worse can it get? Because that was the only reason we kept watching season two, right?

Of like, can this be worse? And I guess we were watching, like, maybe they can turn it around, but we weren't. We were really like, what bad decisions are they going to make? So if I'm being very honest, I think I would, I would at least dip in, right? eBay shopping show. Am I going to be committed to it going forward? Absolutely not. How about you, Nora? It's just like a sunk cost fallacy thing. Like, I've put so much time into this god-awful television program, but I guess I'm just going to keep doing it. Wow. You can't escape. I want to know what I have.

I think I'm out too, except I'm probably back in when the first one comes up like a year and a half from now just like, all right, I want to see if maybe they fixed it. You don't know if they can fix it. You don't want to know if UBA Plus works? Oh my God. Yeah. Where did that come from? I have so many questions.

I'll just, I'll hit the six storylines that I guess you could say. Six. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I'll just go quick. What an absurd show. Alex gets COVID. Rails against cancel culture.

on a Zoom. That was one plot. Bradley looks for her brother that we just met a couple episodes ago and was arguably one of the worst characters in the 20 episode history of the show. We're supposed to care about that. Corey is worried about the UBS Plus launch. Chip gets COVID from Alex doesn't really care. Cory inexplicably in love with Bradley. But he doesn't. He does it. He fakes COVID to go pull up with Alex. I should have said fake. Fake gets COVID. Corey, inexplicably in love with Bradley, which they didn't set up at all over the last

eight episodes. And then, uh, Rain Man Ladies' documentary may or may not happen. Those were our six things. We'll start with Alex. Can I just say? I have done, I've done apologizing for myself. Either get on the house, leaving train, or just stay at the station. Who says that? What human being would say that

ever? It was like 20 minutes of a fake streaming special where she just yells about cancel culture while like being COVID drunk. But honestly like 20 minutes of the show, it was so long. That was my question too. It was if it's 20 minutes of the show that we just watched, presumably in the world of the morning show,

this would have been like a three hour special or something. It just kept going and going and going and she would say the craziest things. And then they would cut to Chip who would like nod with a satisfied grin. And it was like, do you think this is going well? I will say that when they first like pitch the idea of like Alex in her house, like live streaming COVID to the world, I thought it was going to be a Truman show. Like I thought it was going to be Big Brother 24 seven. Just like let's watch Aniston have COVID nonstop for like a week.

And in a way, maybe that would have been better. Though every time I say something that this show could do that's ridiculous. and then they do it. I regret it. But yeah, it was nuts. Can I get something on record here? Yeah, go ahead. This was prior to this episode where she's just told up in the house. But in Italy and then the first episode back, great saddlebag. Oh, yeah. It's saline and I've Googled it and it's definitely out of my price range. But if anyone

at the morning show wants to send it to me and Nora as like payback for watching this show, We'll accept it. They're going to send it with a whole thing of horse manure inside it after we continue killing the show. I tweeted and still use it. It's really nice. I have a theory on season two because obviously COVID sent it into a tizzy. And it does feel like they were coming up with stuff on the fly as the season was going along.

Alex is so willfully and aggressively unlikable this entire season, really from the first episode of season two. And it just gets worse and worse. And I almost wonder if Aniston got upset like halfway through. And it's like, what are you doing to my character? And they kind of tried to make her feel better by giving her more to do. Because I can't understand for the life of me who that 20-minute monologue was for on the season finale. Why people thought, ultimately this is supposed to be an entertaining show, right? Like, theoretically, the three of us are supposed, theoretically the three of us are supposed to be entertained in some way.

It's supposed to be funny. It's supposed to be poignant. It's supposed to be thoughtful. This was none of these things. I don't know what this was. I don't know why they had it. I can't believe it got greenlit. And it's honestly one of the worst things.

I think since the Dexter season finale of an expensive prestige TV show, it's one of the biggest misfires I think I've ever seen on a television show. And I can't believe nobody stopped it. Can I bounce something off of you guys? Yeah. We have to go back one episode for this, but the most entertained and invested and, you know, kind of that, oh, this is nice. I'm having fun watching this television show. I'm rooting for a character that I've been in at least the last month of content they have put out on this show was when Bradley is doing the interview with Maggie Brenner and is like going in on her.

Yes. by far the most fun I have had watching this show in four to six episodes. And I don't understand why they don't seem to either get or be able to execute that we would like to like some of these characters. We would like something to root for. Right. Well, the top two are unlikable. And they tried, I think, halfway through there.

Like, we got to make Bradley more likable. let's give her this brother situation, which was just, every scene was horrible, culminating in the Simon and Garfunkel food court scene or whatever the hell that was. And then Corey,

who's the other one we're all supposed to like, they just gave him some of the worst plots ever. He's apparently in love with Bradley, although they never set it up. He has no other love interest. He's got this kind of, it's supposed to be this tension with Stella, but none of their scenes are interesting at all.

And then this UBS Plus plot, And so they waste Corey the whole year and that's it. The three top characters suck. I don't care about any of them. I don't care what happens to Corey. Corey comes in and tells Bradley he's the lover there. Amanda, what were the breadcrumbs laid for Corey being loved with Amanda over the last 10 episodes? We were supposed to believe that moment.

I mean, there was one weird flashback, right? where at some point they're on the couch and they're talking about how they were friends but not friends and there's it's alluded to that like in the in the time we didn't see between season one and season two maybe something happened well that would have been interesting to find that more about yeah totally yeah I believe that they'd hooked up ones yeah why don't show it where was it and if you're going to do flashbacks then that gives you all this

territory with Bradley and Corey to have a ton of fun. Instead, the flashback almost seems like it was thrown in after the fact to justify why he would have the season finale moment where he would confess he was in love with her. And then, Nora, did you care about whether Julian and Marglese and Reese Weatherspoon were getting up together? Just care about that relationship at all? Oh, my God. Well, so here's the other thing.

No, because they can't. Like, they obviously wouldn't. These two people are not right for each other. Also, Bradley, the lack of exploration on, does Bradley want to be with a woman? Does she want to be with a man? Is she spending time thinking about this? Does it? Could she go either way?

Like, it is just the most unexplored plot detail that would be of such huge significance to a character. The other thing that just baffled me was that so when Corey says, I love you, it feels like they set that up as what he says instead of saying, well, I outed you and, um, Laura Peterson. Yeah. And I don't know if that was intended to be sort of justification almost. And this is, this is sort of the recurring problem is that I think they, when they want to

make someone more likable or when you think they want to make someone more likable, they tend to give them either internal conflict or justification or something that's gone bad for them. To make us like characters, we actually want to see them kind of kick some ass once and a while. Like do something cool. Succeed in achieving a goal. But instead it's always like, okay, we'll make Bradley more likable. We'll give her this tragic brother situation. No, why don't we see her be good at her job or nice to someone? Like that would be more effective. Yeah, have her. It's a great point. Have her go get coffee with somebody who's like her best friend from college or like her best friend from her old roommate when she was 23 and she's explaining

to her. I don't know how I ended up with Julian and Marguile's. I never thought I'd be attracted to women, but I am and this is like the, like nothing. We're just supposed to guess every sort of feeling that this person has. This show would much rather have her walk through a COVID hospital in slow motion without a mask looking for her brother just, hey, I'm just going to barge into the ER because that was realistic. Or handing out, have you seen this man flyers on the streets in the year 2020? Like, the star of basically the Tate show has printed out flyers and is handing them out one by one in the middle of a pandemic. She doesn't have a Kyle.

Yeah, she's nobody. Like, what on earth? Also, the show is attempting to take us back to the scary COVID time. For reasons that remained unclear. It was bad enough to be there the first. time. It's like, oh, cool, we get to relive this now. But once we had the Tom Hanks Reed a Wilson moment, nobody was going outside. I was afraid to get gas. Nobody was wandering around handing out flyers. People were in their apartments, houses, wherever, terrified to

run into another human being for like two months. I know that he has several movies with Apple right now, but please leave Tom Hanks out of this morning show. Like that was a very important moment, but protect Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. I was scared and I was worried about them. And they don't need to be brought into the UBA Plus streaming launch event from Australia. Right. And they dropped the Tom and Rita and I'm like, good. They didn't mention their full names.

It goes to another character like, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson? Like it was like they shoe her in. I think who had a worse arc, Nora, in your opinion this year, season two? Who ended up in a worse direction, Alex or Bradley? If you had to pick one. I think it's Alex. Me too. I think it's Alex.

Because she was, first of all, she started from a higher place. I liked watching her in season one a lot more than I liked watching Reese. There's a little mystery with her in season one. Right. It's like, what's going on with this lady? Right. And Bradley had a couple moments in season two. She had a couple moments.

She had, again, I liked the Maggie Brenner interview. And at least she was blonde. and until the strange car makeout, the first trip with Laura Peterson was at least sort of interesting. So I think it's Alex. It's so funny if they did a poster with the quotes from critics on it. And Nora's was just, at least she's blonde. Nora Pritziani, the rigor.

I think Alex had the worst thing. Alex is one of the most unlikable people I've ever watched on a television show. who is supposed to be the star. And it's like, there's been some good ones over the years. Like, Jeff Daniels in the newsroom pretty aggressively unlikable, right? Like, it was one of the things that was tough about that show was, do I like Charlie? But at least that show was aware of the ambiguity of whether we were supposed to like him or not. This show seems to think that Aniston's star power and the fact that she's been one of America's

sweethearts, basically since 1994, is enough for to overcome bad writing, bad situations and bad actions. And she doesn't seem to be willing to go into a complicated character by doing anything other than just being completely exasperated, overwhelmed. I've never seen somebody more overwhelmed more times than a 10-episode series. And not in a fun way. It was like she just is just dreadfully miscast, unfortunately, for this show. I would also say the writing did not help her.

Like, how many times did Jennifer Anderson have to say the words, I'm canceled or I got canceled in like an earnest way. There's no winking. There's no understanding of like either the internet and or, you know, media dynamics, even though this is ostensibly a show about the media. She's just like, I got canceled, which they pretty much equate to, not pretty much. They actually equate to I got COVID and just make her dwell on that. Bill, to your point about

Aniston getting mad halfway through the season, it's almost like they made this season about the Steve Correll character getting canceled and what that means. And she's like, no, no, I want in on it too. Yeah, give me some. Give me some of this. But like doubling down on

like the least interesting, or at least the least nuanced in terms of this show's plotline. And so she's just again giving a speech. Like the climactic speech, in season two, the spot that they held in season one to be about like exposing sexual misconduct.

In season two, she's just yelling about how people are mean to her. Like, what are we doing? Well, on top of it, it really kind of misrepresents what late February, early March was like just to run a content company because we were doing it at the ringer. Like we, we almost sent six people to the Sloan conference, which was the week before the Tom Hanks' Rita Wilson thing. and we backed out of it probably, I don't know, eight, nine days before. Spotify's office closed that week.

There was no, like this, this COVID stuff happened really fast where people became aware of like, oh, maybe I shouldn't go out to this place. Maybe I shouldn't fly. So for people to be that mad that she went to Italy, like two weeks before the Tom Hanks-Reed Wilson thing, there's just no way. People, there wasn't enough of a sensibility about what was going on in the world. And so that's, so these last two episodes hinge on her being completely selfish for going to Italy and then bringing COVID back to the show. And it's like, no, that's not how, that's not how anybody was operating in the first week of March.

Sorry. They also involve her showing up at Mitch's funeral last minute to give her own unwanted eulogy. Right. That is then, like where she admits that she was in Italy, that is then filmed, that is leaked. to the news media, it's like two seconds after the, like, Bradley Redemption interview. Great, great. A lot of respect for the, for the widow, too, on that situation. Like, I'm sure she wanted to see Jennifer Ernst's character twice.

Right. Yeah. I don't know what's going on there. We have the Chip character. AIA. Who isn't one of the three most important characters in the show, but is stripped bare of any likability and respect at all, and I have no idea. Like, if I'm, which DuPlaas was that?

Is that Mark or the other one? That's Mark. Mark. Mark. But what do you say to Mark? If you're one of his buddies, they're like, hey, Mark, good season. Like, man, it's some good moments there. He's just, I've never seen a character get emasculated by that.

Nora, how does Mark come back? Oh, God. Chip. I hate him. Chip. Yeah, Chip. Who likes Chip? Who's Chip?

So his girlfriend needs to break up with him right now. Yeah, please. Dump him. Right now. The moment this man is pretending that he tested positive for COVID to go like pine after on death's door, Aniston. And then his fiance calls him and he declines the call. Like run as fast as you can away from this man. Well, that plot was terrible.

I have some. I'm going to give you some. some plots that were abandoned, either from season one or during season two. And we could just go round and round. The wrongful death suit. Yep. Just kind of out the window. We don't know.

The first five episodes hinge on this wrongful death suit. Last five episodes, eh, not even mentioned. Nope. What happened to it? They had the one character, Bell Pally, came back in episode nine. remember to be like, yeah, because she ran into Yanko. Yeah. Bye.

And then Chase like runs away. So. So crazy. This is when you know that the writing on the show and the way the show is put together went sideways. When they just like succession wouldn't, succession, which is almost not fair to compare this show to succession.

But succession wouldn't just abandon something from the first four episodes to make you think, oh wow, I wonder what happened to. Kendall's suit against the family. It's like, oh, it's just gone. We got rid of it. I'm glad you brought up Yanko. What was his season two?

Describe Yonora, describe Yanko's season two in one sentence. Insane and then unaddressed. He like flipped out in public. Yeah. Punch somebody. And now he just goes to like the Union Square Christmas fair. was where he ran into those people. Yanco.

It's almost like things got cut out of Yanco's. Like, Yanco's scenes were cut for time, but I also don't think they filmed them. Yeah. They were just like, eh, Yanco, we'll get to him in season three. That's one where I wondered, like he was on a different set

than everybody else at some point, right? So not to justify it, but you wonder whether that's a COVID thing of like, okay, well, we don't care about you and we're not going to develop your plot line. So you just go on, like set five over here and we'll film a few scenes. Again, this show has four times as many plots as it can reasonably support.

It's not a defense. What if you just don't do the Yanco storyline? I agree. Instead of starting it and then dropping it, what if we didn't? I agree. This show is juggling characters like the wire after a head injury. They had 30 characters, but no idea. They couldn't even remember who the characters were.

And then the young lady that he was with in season one, I had a know, where it comes back for one scene in season two and then is they've seen again. It's like, what happened to her? Another one. What happened to Mia? Mia, who had, did probably a couple of the most interesting scenes of season two as she tried to grapple with her role in Mitch and all that. And by last episode, I don't, was she even in two scenes? Yeah, well, she and is Daniel, the replacement? They have that like phone call where Daniel quits because he feels marginalized at the show and she's like which literally and figuratively marginalized yeah like fair enough and so she's kind of grappling with her role in the show and like what she can fix and what she can't fit that

interesting i mean no like i think that she's the best actor on the show i feel bad even that scene was like a little moving but she's trying to carry the weight of a bunch of things that haven't been thought through well she's not her fault yeah that scene needed three three more scenes to set it up and there's no room for it. Exactly. Yeah, it was like they cram them in, which also ties to the juicy details from the book, which the show where it's being hinted at all these bombshells are going to drop. This is actually interesting to me because there's all these different things they could have done

with this book coming out and excerpts and things like that. And you think about like succession in season two, one of the most interesting episodes they have is when they all go on that retreat and then that article drops and they're all kind of reading it on their Blackberries while they're having a business meeting or Apple phones,

not BlackBerry, sorry. This book, they miss all of the possible any fun that could have happened from book details being kind of funneled out a little bit at a time. And then it just kind of forgets

the book is interesting. I thought Marshall Gay-Harriden was a good character. And of course, they got rid of her almost completely. I don't know how you mangled the book, I guess is my point. Yeah, and there was the, first of all, they could have used so much. I would watch Margie Gayhard and like, I don't know, read the phone book on screen. So I'm very much in favor of more of that.

You might have to in season three. That's season three. Honestly, it would be an improvement. But they have the moment when Alex is doing the special where she's like, what's Maggie Brenner's book going to sell? $30,000, $40,000 if she's lucky. Like, it would have been kind of funny to have a little bit more of all of them fighting over how much the book matters, right? Yeah. Because that episode in Succession, it's all about, well, there's nothing actually, come on, there's no protein here.

Like, there's nothing actually in here. Oh, well, they have this detail. They have this detail. Like, seeing how people respond to that stuff is actually kind of interesting if it's a show that's supposed to be about media culture, people in public life. they did none of that. Well, they also, when you think about, like, the books coming out, it's a parallel to the book that started this show, right? Brian Stelter's book about, which was the genesis for why they're doing this show.

They could have gone meta in a whole bunch of different ways, which they just missed completely. Here's another thing they missed completely. Didn't Alex have a daughter at one point? Yes, yes. That we kind of had to suffer through some. season one scenes with her and her daughter and connecting. Right. She had to boarding school and they had to go visit. Yeah.

So Alex, during this season, she just goes off to Vermont, wherever the hell she was for months, comes back. She's missing. She gets COVID. Where's the daughter? I really hope my daughter cares more about me than this daughter did. If I had anything remotely close to the things that happened out of season two. How do you just abandon characters? Why? I mean, I don't understand. Have one scene. with her. Just remind us she has a daughter. Can't pretend she doesn't have one. They had the moment where when Chip goes to her place, Alex is like, you can't

thinks the other person in her apartment is her daughter. I'm forgetting her daughter's name right now. She's like, you can't be in here. And then you see on the wall she has like the portrait of the two of them. Also, the other thing was that when she's puking in her bathtub, I think there's a picture

of her and her wedding dress above the bathtub, which might be the weirdest thing this show has spent money on, is like, oh, let's have a fake photo print of Alex Levy's wedding that, like, doesn't have her ex-husband in it, but it's going to be hanging above her bathtub. Lovely bathtub, by the way. That in the saddle back. That's what I'm...

Nice bathtub. Mitch's family also just disappeared by the end of this season. It's unclear. Listen, is Steve Carl getting paid for season three? They're going to have to film more flashback scenes? Are they getting more for the documentary? That was another one that they dabbled in a little bit, but Rain Man Ladies' documentary, whether that happens or not,

is it going to come out, is it going to win the Oscar? The showrunner, they did some interviews, and the showrunner animated that the show is going to now jump ahead, which I think as we talk about season three predictions, other than I predict I'm not going to watch season three. you have the ability with COVID to just get rid of a couple characters, right? Yeah. What happened to Sousa?

Oh, they're dead. They died. Oh, no. We've lost four characters from COVID, but. I'm sure it'll be handled with a lot of grace. They're going to jump ahead, and you could conceivably jump ahead to that documentary is, like, up for the Oscars. Right. I don't know.

But then you've missed the actual release of the documentary. I mean, this show wanted, I think. My best guess as to what this show wanted to do was to like examine what happens to people who, you know, are criticized in the public eye who are canceled. I know I was like just trying not to be Jennifer Anderson there, but it's can't avoid it. And the documentary is probably the most sophisticated way that they could do it at this point. Yeah. So it would make sense for them to just completely skip it. You never see it.

they never actually get to talk about any of those issues. Well, the Mimi Leader who directed, I think the last episode, she gave an interview and here's what she said about Alex. It was necessary for her to hit rock bottom in order to start building back up. And when you lose everything, it's easier to get to the roots of what matters to you. This sounds awesome on paper, but was not the experience I had watching the show at all. First of all, Alex was in Rock Bottom for 10 episodes. None of it was entertaining.

And I have no faith that she's going to be a more entertaining character in season three because she at Rock Bottom. They tried to make her entertaining in the last episode to give her William Holden network speech. And it was one of the worst 20 minutes I've seen on a television show. So good luck. I mean, what matters to her based on that speech? You know, like if I'm taking Mimi Leader at her word and I watched all 20 minutes, like it just you don't want people to be.

mean to you on the internet. Yeah. Get on the Alex. Levy train. Also, these people are just looking at their Twitter mentions way more than any famous person ever looks at their Twitter mentions. Or are they trying to tell us something? The idea that Alex would have individual tweet notification. Exactly. Not just when she goes into the app, but that appear on the home screen of her phone.

every single time she is mentioned in a tweet is sort of, it might be the most insane thing that has happened on this show. There's only one part, but it is the craziest. There's only one person we know who would have that. And it's Kevin Clark. I knew it was.

Here's Carrie Ellen. I think that's how you pronounce her name, the showrunner. She gave two interviews. And it was like a victory lap tour for her a little bit, which I'm not, I'll do respect to Carrie. but I probably wouldn't take a victory lapse.

Here's what she said about Bradley and they're like, what do you want to see in season three? She said, well, I definitely want to see more of Bradley and Laura. I feel like Alex has come to a place for the first time since the pilot of accepting who she is and facing her worst fears. And I want to see how the phoenix rises from the ashes for her and learning how to have a full life and be present and loving. I'm positive.

I don't want to see that. I absolutely do not. That sounds horrible. They've been trying to do that episode for, the last six episodes. Last 12. Every single one, there is some moment where Alex is like muttering into a mirror or to herself about whether or not she is a good person and how she can try to have a more rich personal life.

Wait, she has more to say about Alex. Alex is a person who she won't stay in denial. She'll stay tough. She doesn't want to think about it. She gets cranky. She gets pissy. But when she lets it in, it really sweeps over like a tidal wave. And to me, that's what episode 10 is about,

this person who's been thrown through so much emotionally and internally has come to a point where she's gotten washed up on the beach and she's picking herself up. That to me is where we end it and I'm really very proud of it. I don't know what to say to that. Honestly, I don't have a response. That's not how we felt watching the episode. I can tell you that much. Speechless.

She's gotten washed up on the beach. Maybe that's where you should have left her. Then she also said, this was another doozy. I love the Corey Stella relationship. I think they are a great story about sort of the transition of the old world and the new world and I think they're both just such rich characters

I'm excited to see how they develop. Stella's one of the most poorly written characters not only in this show but of any show that's launched probably in the last five years. I wouldn't, can you describe Stella and three adjectives? I don't even know how to describe her.

What is she? It's anxious and then she's like a very obvious stand-in to address all of the anti-Asian sentiment at the beginning of COVID, which was a real thing. And they've talked about how it was important to represent that. But it's like, all she gets to do is that. And then just be like, I, the ratings, like the something, we need advertisers. She doesn't even get full sentences.

Like, why she has clauses? Advertisers. Advertisers. Ratings. Yeah. BBS plus. I don't like the Corristel relationship at all. No.

I don't have a relationship. I didn't like any of Corey's scenes of this entire season except for the first episode in the scene when he went to the bar to talk to the dad. That scene was good. The one in the elevator when he, but Stell is not doing anything so I don't think you can qualify it as a relationship. But when he's like, leave your feelings at home or whatever. Yeah.

Yeah. I also, I love the Corey Kyle relationship. I like Corey in his assistant. I think that's fun. Well, let's try to help them out. They have a lot of time to write season three. Right. I actually think I would probably kill off Alex Levy, but I know they won't.

But if they're not going to kill her off, here are my ideas. There were like two minutes. I would say minute six to eight of her 20-minute like COVID cancel culture breakdown. I was like, it's on the table that she could die of COVID on this show. Like maybe they would do it. So, you know, I'm with you. Doors not closed. No, I'm going to give you three.

choices for Alex Levy season three. One, dead of COVID. Two, celebrity relationship with a celebrity playing themselves. Like, it's actually Bradley Cooper. It's somebody like that where they're actually playing themselves dating Alex Levy. Three,

alcohol addiction or pills. A bee. Celebrity relationship. Okay. Yeah. Celebrity relationship, dead. She's, alcohol, or pills. That's my rankings for that. But this is how this show could win. You have to be more meta.

Somebody's got to get a W. Yes. Something's got to go right for somebody. The show has to get more meta about the world that's in. And it's just not meta at all. If she's dating a famous person who people like and we're watching it going, I'm not positive she likes this person, but she knows it's good for her career to date this person. Now we're kind of going somewhere. And it's like, is this person still a narcissist?

or does she actually like this person? And I'm rooting for Bradley Cooper. Right. A, because I don't know why he's in the show. And B, because I don't want Bradley Cooper to get hurt by this, you know, this witch that we've had to fall for 20 episodes. At least now something's happening. And it's also bringing in real-life Aniston backstory, which is why she would never allow it.

But I would love for her to, you know, comment on the whole Brad and Jen of it all. How about this? She dates Justin Thoreau, and it's actually Justin Thoreau. Yes. They're back. I love it. They're back. For Bradley,

I don't know where you go. I never want to see the brother character again. Let's get him out. Here are some soap opera plotlines they haven't done. Surprise pregnancy? Evil twin. Oh, no. I mean, just think about it.

What if Bradley has an evil twin or some cousin who just like her? Yeah, dark hair. Oh my God, what if the dark hero season one Bradley? That would be great. What else? Well, they've done addiction. They've done me and mom. Well, they're clearly going to try to love triangle us.

Right. With Laura and Billy Crudup. Right. And Bradley. Tax fraud? Tax fraud. I want tax fraud. Tax fraud.

But Corey is probably the obvious one for a tax fraud situation. But maybe Bradley uncovers it. But then she secretly realizes that she loves Corey because Corey didn't ask her to sever her relationship with her brother. so she covers up the tax fraud, but then Alex discovers the tax fraud. And then maybe Corey, Corey is compelled to finally actually tell her that he outed her relationship with Laura Peterson. And then Bradley feels like she's chosen the wrong love interest. Right. I think we could go, ex-husband we've never learned about.

Yes. Oh, good one. Good one. Or like an early 2000s revenge porn plot, like an extortion plot. with her where she's getting extorted. Yeah. Because the show kind of intimates. There's a couple years there where she might have gone a little off the rails and was

probably partying a little bit. Maybe there's some sort of extortion thing from that, some old boyfriend or there's some crime that she committed that got covered up in a small town. We need to see her more in danger. She doesn't need to be the moral compass of the show. And I never want to see the brother again. Corey, I guess they're going to stick us with this stupid love triangle. But, next to you know, I'm getting excited for the season.

Where post-COVID, UBS Plus is going to be a hit, Nora? What do you think? Well, it just missed out on its big launch. Is it UBA plus or UBS plus? I think it's UBA plus. I like calling it UBS Plus. I'm going to stick with that just for the hell of it. Is that a bank?

Yeah, UBS is a bank. It is a bank. It is a bank. It also sounds like something you need to go to the doctor for. No, I don't think it's going to be a great success Because again, and I think you guys and I differ on this a little bit. I think Corey, I do still want to see Stella try to oust Corey Because I think Corey is most effective when he's like scheming to get to the top.

I think he's a little too at the top. I want Corey and like Corey to be calling Kyle being like, Kyle, we got to figure this out. the show also could have asked interesting questions about does a morning show even matter anymore right you know you think about like you felt that with katie corick's book and all all the stuff that was coming out about that where um you know back in the day that the morning show really meant something like when deborne norville kind of ousted jane polly to some degree and everyone turned on deborne norville and that was like a real story that tens of millions of people cared about and now i just don't know what a what is a morning show even mean how many people

people even watch network TV and what's the relevance of it. There's, and then on top of it, you have the Katie Couric and the stuff in her book and how vindictive and kind of power play she was is kind of what the Alex Levy character should have been, right? This person who's constantly threatened by everybody and trying to keep her, her spot as these younger up-and-comers are coming for her doesn't really dive into that, really, at all. And that was the most interesting about the Bradley part, where it was like this younger upstart,

even though they were like two years different in real life. But yeah, a lot of missed opportunities for this. I would not take a victory lap. No. If I'm anyone involved in this show for season two. I can't even imagine how expensive it was, too. That was the other thing. We're throwing money away left and right.

It's like, here's Juliana Margulis. Oh, Will Arnette for two seasons? Yeah, for like two scenes, two scenes, literally. I did some deep dive on that. Okay. They're very close in real life, and I think she just asked them to be on. Oh, okay. That's actually nice.

Friends. It would be like if fantasy asked you to be on a special episode of the big picture that you didn't know you're going to be on. You'd be like, sure, I'll do that for you. I think that was well or not. He's like, I'll just talk in a deep guttural accent. Right. Get my two scenes in, and I'm happy to help Jen. Final grade for season two more, Nora?

D. D. Amanda? Yeah, I mean, I was flirting with C minus, but I'm going to join Nora on D. I am a solid D minus. Okay. And I really thought about an F. Yeah.

I was thinking about F plus. Is F plus? Do they do F plus or is it just F as an F? I mean, we can invent it. Why not? I'm somewhere between a D minus and an F plus. And I'm trying to think, are there any episodes I even? enjoyed or any moments that I enjoyed.

And I think the highlight of the show for me was Steve Correll taking his hands off the steering wheel. If only we could all do that together. Because I was like, this totally, totally explains how I feel about this dumb show. Yeah. I want to take my hands up the steering wheel. For the record, I thought the first couple of episodes of this season were good. They didn't really do anything, but it was mostly just, I enjoyed watching them.

They were good because they were good. because they were, all they did was set stuff up, right? So it was just celebrities running around being on a glossy TV show, which is pleasant enough. I love the New Year's party in Vermont with like 200 extras for one scene where Jennifer Anderson. That's the morning show. Let's get that back. Just complete excess.

Although I guess you could have said the 200 extras of the COVID hospital scene. Yeah. As Reese is running around unmasked, just entering the air. This podcast was produced by Troy Farkas. you can hear Amanda on the big picture with Sean Fantasy. You can hear Nora on every single album. Yes. Oh, yeah.

Which has its own feed and has put out pods about Taylor Swift's red album, which has 30 songs and murdered Jake Gyllenhaal. Again. And then Adele's new album you did last week, right? Last Saturday? Yep. On Saturday, we taped a reaction episode to 30. And then we're going to go through Adele's entire.

discography. It's going to be very exciting. There you go. All right. Good to see you. This podcast, I said it was produced by Troy Farker. I'll say it again. We will see you. I think, I'm not sure what's going to go on. It's Thanksgiving week. So I know we have at least a succession deep dive on Friday with Sean and Joanna, but we'll see what else we have. See you next. Hey, Mama. Thanks for making all my favorite recipes.

Hi, Ma. Thanks for your unfiltered advice. Hi, Mom. Thanks for always being by the phone. Hey mom, happy Mother's Day. When you ship UPS Air at the UPS store, your items arrive on time or your money back. Guaranteed at no extra cost, exclusively at the UPS store UPS store U.S. retail locations. Visit the UPS store.com slash air shipping for full details.

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