S02.E09: Testimony

[txhorns79]

Quote

Alex and Bradley try to accept change as a new book promises shocking revelations.

Streaming early, 11/11/21.

[Armchair Critic]

They redeemed Alex and Bradley for me this episode. And just when we thought Alex was going to be okay.... they gave us a twist.

[funnygirl]

I'm sorry but Alex being a pariah and now "canceled" for going to Italy is dumb. People in the States were very much still traveling at the end of February (and she was there in Feb. because when she was back at the anchor desk with Bradley on the Tuesday, she said the date March 3rd). Italy clearly had not closed their borders to traveling seeing as Paola made it to Mitch's memorial a week or so after Alex's trip. This whole season has been a pile-on on Alex for one reason or another, when these other characters are really no better. 

Here's hoping Laura goes to Montana and stays there indefinitely. She chewed more screen time this season than the majority of TMS/UBA staff combined. 

I did enjoy the Alex/Laura interaction if only for the 90s nostalgia of seeing Rachel Green and Carol Hathaway of NBC's golden era together. Bradley interviewing Maggie was also a great moment. 

Edited November 12, 2021 by funnygirl

[Armchair Critic]

With Chip's luck he will be the one who ends up dying of Covid since he spent time close to Alex. She was a super spreader.

[ruby24]

I don't know why I find this show so unintentionally funny sometimes. I laughed when Alex tripped and then when she woke up in a hospital bed and the first thing she does is complain on the phone that she got "canceled." It's just too over the top.

Plus, I SWEAR I never heard the term "cancel culture" until maybe fall 2020. It wasn't this universal term yet at this time was it?

[Snazzy Daisy]

Thanks to Alex, everybody at UBA and Mitch’s memorial must be tested for Covid-19. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I like the part where Bradley grilled Maggie about her book and her true intentions. I think the lines in this scene should be more punchy.

The other good scenes were Alex and Laura’s heart-to-heart talk, plus Alex’s impromptu speech at Mitch’s memorial.

Alex being canceled because she visited Mitch on the day he died? So majority of the people are so shallow minded and assume she’s the same old Alex because of this? This doesn’t make sense.

So, will Paola share Mitch’s last video in next week’s finale?

[BingeyKohan]

This episode made it seem like UBA’s nighttime programming is … all about UBA itself. No wonder it’s losing $$$.

As much as I enjoyed seeing Bradley lay a trap for Maggie I felt like they had to majorly dumb down the Maggie character to get there.

What must viewers make of the revolving door of fill-in hosts on TMS? First Bradley bails for 3 weeks then Alex comes back then disappears then reappears then Bradley is gone for the rehab run and now they have to explain to viewers another absence for Alex. Speaking of, this show is sort of turning into a Final Destination movie all about what’s ailing Alex.

In no way does it make sense for Paola to have flown from a country in lockdown for a minor begrudgingly attended memorial service. 

They kinda sorta planted the seed for Laura’s heart condition on her first TMS guest hosting day but that was still out of nowhere. 

Finally, it feels a little icky, the way I sense they are using COVID as a story engine — the great perspective (re) setter for these characters. Yes, it might be nice to see Bradley and Alex face the sobering reality that it’s their job to help get America through it and step up but … the producers can also set their show whenever the hell they want. They could get Alex to the finish line of just embracing her role in public life in some other way. 

[Penman61]

I don't have a blanket prohibition on COVID-19 story lines, but since we're about to go into another surge here in the US (yup, we are, sorry), I just find it distracting and disturbing when something very real, very horrific, and still very, very present is used as a backdrop for "drama," equivalent to an affair or jockeying for a morning show hosting slot. It just yanks me right out of the melodrama. But I guess TPTB have signaled this storyline all season, so...I can blame only myself for watching, lol. 

[re13]

So Laura is going to die from the COVID Alex gave her, right? And then Bradley will hate Alex next season.

 

[BingeyKohan]

Wrong Side of the Dead: Maggie's sequel where she documents how Alex is the kiss of death for her fellow anchors!

[Ms Blue Jay]

15 hours ago, funnygirl said:

I'm sorry but Alex being a pariah and now "canceled" for going to Italy is dumb. People in the States were very much still traveling at the end of February (and she was there in Feb. because when she was back at the anchor desk with Bradley on the Tuesday, she said the date March 3rd). Italy clearly had not closed their borders to traveling seeing as Paola made it to Mitch's memorial a week or so after Alex's trip. This whole season has been a pile-on on Alex for one reason or another, when these other characters are really no better. 

It's because of her closeness with Mitch, not the COVID stuff.  But I agree, it was dumb that they focused on that at all.

[funnygirl]

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

It's because of her closeness with Mitch, not the COVID stuff.  But I agree, it was dumb that they focused on that at all.

Her closeness with Mitch wasn't the issue going by the tweets she was reading during Bradley's interview with Maggie. Alex was pleasantly surprised by how supportive people were being. 

It was when she woke up in the middle of the night and saw tweet notifications on her phone where people where slamming her for traveling to a Covid hotspot, then she turned on the news and saw the anchors criticizing her for going to Italy and the video recording of her at Mitch's memorial where she said she went to see him.  When she woke up in the hospital talking about how she's "canceled", it was because of that. 

That's what annoyed me: Alex has lovely conversation (somewhat) with Laura and apologizes to her for the past, she comes out on the other side of Maggie's book release/interview, but the the rug is pulled out from under her because she went to Italy during Covid. Like, give the girl a break. Bradley gets away with being a brat consistently but the public and colleagues continue to shit on Alex. 

Edited November 12, 2021 by funnygirl

[ruby24]

I forgot about that, but yep. Alex definitely gave Laura covid.

[coconspirator]

3 hours ago, funnygirl said:

Her closeness with Mitch wasn't the issue going by the tweets she was reading during Bradley's interview with Maggie. Alex was pleasantly surprised by how supportive people were being. 

It was when she woke up in the middle of the night and saw tweet notifications on her phone where people where slamming her for traveling to a Covid hotspot, then she turned on the news and saw the anchors criticizing her for going to Italy and the video recording of her at Mitch's memorial where she said she went to see him.  When she woke up in the hospital talking about how she's "canceled", it was because of that. 

That's what annoyed me: Alex has lovely conversation (somewhat) with Laura and apologizes to her for the past, she comes out on the other side of Maggie's book release/interview, but the the rug is pulled out from under her because she went to Italy during Covid. Like, give the girl a break. Bradley gets away with being a brat consistently but the public and colleagues continue to shit on Alex. 

The Italy stuff didn't work with the timeline if the story is going to be people are mad at her for going to a "hotspot."  Early March 2020 was still life as normal and people wouldn't have been up in arms about Alex traveling to Italy because of Covid. Now, traveling to see Mitch would be a different story as it would undercut Bradley's assertion about Alex making a mistake "10 years ago."  I feel like if they wanted Covid to be a big part of the story they should have started the season the first or second week of March rather than February 2020.  I assume they'll do a time jump for season 3 (hopefully the show gets picked up) rather than focus on remote working, Zoom, etc. 

[Diapason Untuned]

3 hours ago, funnygirl said:

Her closeness with Mitch wasn't the issue going by the tweets she was reading during Bradley's interview with Maggie. Alex was pleasantly surprised by how supportive people were being. 

It was when she woke up in the middle of the night and saw tweet notifications on her phone where people where slamming her for traveling to a Covid hotspot, then she turned on the news and saw the anchors criticizing her for going to Italy and the video recording of her at Mitch's memorial where she said she went to see him.  When she woke up in the hospital talking about how she's "canceled", it was because of that. 

That's what annoyed me: Alex has lovely conversation (somewhat) with Laura and apologizes to her for the past, she comes out on the other side of Maggie's book release/interview, but the the rug is pulled out from under her because she went to Italy during Covid. Like, give the girl a break. Bradley gets away with being a brat consistently but the public and colleagues continue to shit on Alex. 

I thought people were upset because she didn't let anyone know she had been to Italy and was just mingling among them.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Diapason Untuned

[SunnyBeBe]

I don’t buy that Mitch’s kid asked his mom if his dad’s  old friends would be at his memorial….kids don’t think about stuff like that. Plus, the kids knew the friends were gone. And,  if they did say it, that’s when mom says it’s  a private service.

 The ex showing up at the network where he was ousted….no way.  And where were the kids at that thing..was that the memorial?  Wife allowed Martin Short character to speak? No way.   And why would Alex have any thought that she had a right to attend?  No…just no…all of that was so off, imo.  And to walk into a room late and call attention to your speech…..uninvited….hell no, that’s  crazy town.  
 

Does Bradly have ZERO knowledge about drug addiction?  Some people say anything to get people into rehab. Would it kill it to do that in the rehab parking lot?  The goal is to save the addicts life.  Why pick the parking lot to get antagonistic?  Sort out vacation plans after the addict detoxes and is thinking more clearly.  Someone in her position should have a little knowledge on this. Plus, she could afford to get a professional opinion or at least google a little advice on it.  Was that money from her brother that he returned?  
 

Why were there a few people in the studio wearing masks?  
 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by SunnyBeBe

[txhorns79]

3 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

 

Does Bradly have ZERO knowledge about drug addiction?  Some people say anything to get people into rehab. Would it kill it to do that in the rehab parking lot?  The goal is to save the addicts life.  Why pick the parking lot to get antagonistic?  Sort out vacation plans after the addict detoxes and is thinking more clearly.  Someone in her position should have a little knowledge on this. Plus, she could afford to get a professional opinion or at least google a little advice on it.  Was that money from her brother that he returned?

I fully understood Bradley's reaction.  She needed to do what was right for her.  In this case, that entailed setting down a boundary that made it clear to her brother he was no longer her problem.  If that will be his excuse for abandoning rehab, that's on him.

I thought Alex being cancelled was silly.  Someone needs to tell her to turn off her notifications, and not give such a large amount of her head space over to a bunch of random people on social media. 

[marceline]

Watching Alex running all over creation is so awful now that it's confirmed she's infected. She's just Typhoid Mary. I rewatched and it's a contact tracing nightmare. 

Cory's pinball machine monologue was bizarre. I was half expecting him to turn into the Green Goblin, grab Alex, and fly her off to his super secret mad scientist lair. Seriously, Cory, you don't have to be quite so extra.

There's something narratively satisfying for me that Mitch's memorial was basically a funeral LARP that people used to engage in serial narcissism. I hope all the employees that showed up to the service made overtime.

My thoughts during Laura and Bradley's conversation...

Laura: "You're an interesting girl, Bradley."
Me: "No she's not."
Bradley: "What's so interesting about me?"
Me: "Absolutely nothing."

As someone who was very active during the Dem primary, reliving some of those moments has been giving me some mild PTSD.

Edited November 13, 2021 by marceline

[Maximona]

On 11/12/2021 at 1:22 PM, re13 said:

And then Bradley will hate Alex next season.

Always assuming there is a next season.  Has it been renewed for a third season yet?  I'm on the fence.  On the one hand, The Morning Show is a kind of fun schmaltzy melodrama.  On the other, The Morning Show is a kind of not-fun, schmaltzy melodrama. 😊

In case any producers' assistants are reading this bbs:  I do not care about Bradley's brother.  Trust me!  Nobody cares about Bradley's brother.

And nobody cares about Bradley's romance with Laura either since Witherspoon and Margolies have about as much chemistry together as an eighth of a cup of Tide in a cold water wash.  If you really needed to spice things, you should have drafted Stella and broken two-two-two taboos in one!  (girl-on-girl action plus Gen-X-on-Millennial action.!)

Corey's pinball machine solitiquy was bizarre.  Nobody plays pinball anymore.  Was the screenwriter just too lazy to get someone to explain Fortnight well enough to extract some metaphoric subtext from it?  Or was the screenwriter making a generalization about the viewers of this show?  (Okay, Boomers.)

Edited November 13, 2021 by Maximona

[juno]

After nine episodes I came to some conclusions.

Only parts of each episode entertain me. This one I enjoyed the interview with Maggie and Bradley. This actually took Bradley back to last season where she was searching for the truth and was willing to stand up to others to get it.

Mitch was the villian last season and Alex was the villian this season.

There are way too many characters and almost all of them are unpleasant and bring nothing to the show. Such as Daniel and Bradley's brother who was completely unnecessary on this show.

Yanko and Chip seems to be the show's punching bags where Chip seems to be verturing into masochistic territory.

Characters go from hate to love in the course of an episode. Bradley was verbally violent towards Cory and Alex in the first few episodes and now she is their bestest buddy.

There are no really good relationships on this show. Every relationship has been destroyed. Zero and I mean zero chemistry with Laura and Bradley.

Cory went from essential in season 1 to useless in Season 2 and pinball analogies along with many of his analogies are useless.

Amazing actors but complete lack of direction and terrible writing doomed this season.

 

[Espy]

My wish for this season is for Chip, for the love of god, to just get a fucking life and GTFO.  Move on from Alex. It’s truly ridiculous how masochistic he is. Move. On. Get another job while you can. 

There are so many issues with the characters this season but I just can’t get over what a doormat Chip is. Sheesh. 

[TimWil]

On 11/12/2021 at 8:33 PM, coconspirator said:

The Italy stuff didn't work with the timeline if the story is going to be people are mad at her for going to a "hotspot."  Early March 2020 was still life as normal and people wouldn't have been up in arms about Alex traveling to Italy because of Covid. 

The show made it clear via news reporting on TMS, though, that Italy and Iran were already being considered to be Covid hotspots.

Edited November 14, 2021 by TimWil

[SunnyBeBe]

Why is Cory so resistant to let Alex go?  Is it due to the network powers who want Bradly out?  Wouldn’t it make better sense to get someone better who wants to be there? Scout for a new, bigger, better face than Alex or Bradly….

[txhorns79]

3 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Why is Cory so resistant to let Alex go?

I would guess given what they went through to bring her back, it would be humiliating and professionally devastating for him if this does not work out.   

[jenn31]

On 11/13/2021 at 7:12 PM, Espy said:

My wish for this season is for Chip, for the love of god, to just get a fucking life and GTFO.  Move on from Alex. It’s truly ridiculous how masochistic he is. Move. On. Get another job while you can. 

Especially since he has such a lovely girlfriend (who is played by the actor’s real-life wife, by the way) and seemed happy with her before Alex pulled him back to work for her. Wake up, Chip!

[luvthepros]

On 11/12/2021 at 8:33 PM, coconspirator said:

The Italy stuff didn't work with the timeline if the story is going to be people are mad at her for going to a "hotspot."  Early March 2020 was still life as normal and people wouldn't have been up in arms about Alex traveling to Italy because of Covid. Now, traveling to see Mitch would be a different story as it would undercut Bradley's assertion about Alex making a mistake "10 years ago."  I feel like if they wanted Covid to be a big part of the story they should have started the season the first or second week of March rather than February 2020.  I assume they'll do a time jump for season 3 (hopefully the show gets picked up) rather than focus on remote working, Zoom, etc. 

This is what I found on a Google search.........

If there is a Season 3, it will not be about Covid

[BrownBear2012]

On 11/12/2021 at 9:02 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

I don’t buy that Mitch’s kid asked his mom if his dad’s  old friends would be at his memorial….kids don’t think about stuff like that. Plus, the kids knew the friends were gone. And,  if they did say it, that’s when mom says it’s  a private service.

 The ex showing up at the network where he was ousted….no way.  And where were the kids at that thing..was that the memorial?  Wife allowed Martin Short character to speak? No way.   And why would Alex have any thought that she had a right to attend?  No…just no…all of that was so off, imo.  And to walk into a room late and call attention to your speech…..uninvited….hell no, that’s  crazy town.  
 

Does Bradly have ZERO knowledge about drug addiction?  Some people say anything to get people into rehab. Would it kill it to do that in the rehab parking lot?  The goal is to save the addicts life.  Why pick the parking lot to get antagonistic?  Sort out vacation plans after the addict detoxes and is thinking more clearly.  Someone in her position should have a little knowledge on this. Plus, she could afford to get a professional opinion or at least google a little advice on it.  Was that money from her brother that he returned?  
 

Why were there a few people in the studio wearing masks?  
 

 

 

Mask wearing was not really commonplace until late March/early April as I recall. There was a shortage of PPE and N95 masks were nowhere to be found...people were asked not to buy them and allow for essential workers and healthcare facilties to have access to them first. Even cloth masks were not widely available at the time. Where I live I didn't see people out in stores or elsewhere wearing masks until late April/early May.

[Blakeston]

March 3 was when New York City's second COVID case was confirmed. I guess I could buy that a pregnant woman like Rina, who would have reason to be especially anxious about it, might be one of the very few New Yorkers to wear a mask to work.

I don't buy, however, that Alex would be slammed by the public as Typhoid Mary so quickly. That said...once word got out that she had COVID, and had put so many people at risk, it would be a different story.

And people would be right to criticize her. She came back from Italy knowing that she'd had potential COVID exposure, was there on set for reports about how scary COVID was, and still never thought to limit her exposure to others.

The episode was littered with people who she had screwed over, like Paige, Chip, Daniel, Laura, etc. I'd add Cory, too, who fought so hard to get Alex back only for her to ditch the show.

I really hope we don't have to see Bradley's brother again. I give the actor credit, though - I had no idea until someone pointed it out to me that he played Kate WInslet's character's best friend's husband on Mare of Easttown. He comes across extremely differently here.

[Sweet-tea]

On 11/13/2021 at 6:04 PM, juno said:

After nine episodes I came to some conclusions.

Only parts of each episode entertain me. This one I enjoyed the interview with Maggie and Bradley. This actually took Bradley back to last season where she was searching for the truth and was willing to stand up to others to get it.

Mitch was the villian last season and Alex was the villian this season.

There are way too many characters and almost all of them are unpleasant and bring nothing to the show. Such as Daniel and Bradley's brother who was completely unnecessary on this show.

Yanko and Chip seems to be the show's punching bags where Chip seems to be verturing into masochistic territory.

Characters go from hate to love in the course of an episode. Bradley was verbally violent towards Cory and Alex in the first few episodes and now she is their bestest buddy.

There are no really good relationships on this show. Every relationship has been destroyed. Zero and I mean zero chemistry with Laura and Bradley.

Cory went from essential in season 1 to useless in Season 2 and pinball analogies along with many of his analogies are useless.

Amazing actors but complete lack of direction and terrible writing doomed this season.

 

I agree with all of this! The writers did not do this show justice this season. There wasn’t even a real story arc. Instead it seemed like they were throwing random ideas at the wall. Every time they showed Bradley’s brother, I lost interest.

I never understood the relationship between Bradley and Laura. In the beginning, I thought Laura was setting up Bradley, but that never happened. (I kind of wish it had as I don’t like Bradley.) I’m not sure if JM was miscast or what the issue was, but Laura and Bradley were about as interesting to watch as UBA’s weather segments. 

Jennifer Aniston had little to work with this season. Her character is the most watchable to me, but she was all over the place. I don’t know if she was searching for her character or the writers’ intended for her to be erratic, but it was frustrating to watch. If the show comes back for another season, I hope they’ll give her better material.

I was also not interested in the Italy segments at all. I like Steve Carrell, so it’s shame he wasn’t given more to do. I didn’t see much chemistry between him and VG. I don’t know if it was poor casting, poor writing or both. 

I don’t even know what to say about Cory. I had no clue what was going on with him throughout this season. Another example of a good actor wasted by poor material. 

I’m not sure I’d even watch another season. 

Edited November 16, 2021 by Sweet-tea

[Carolina Girl]

 Looking around the Interwebz, not seeing where it's been renewed for a Season 3.  I believe that usually they do the renewal while the current season is in broadcast - but I could be wrong.  Does anyone know what the viewership has been?  

[tvfanatic13]

On 11/16/2021 at 1:11 AM, Blakeston said:

March 3 was when New York City's second COVID case was confirmed. I guess I could buy that a pregnant woman like Rina, who would have reason to be especially anxious about it, might be one of the very few New Yorkers to wear a mask to work.

I don't buy, however, that Alex would be slammed by the public as Typhoid Mary so quickly. That said...once word got out that she had COVID, and had put so many people at risk, it would be a different story.

And people would be right to criticize her. She came back from Italy knowing that she'd had potential COVID exposure, was there on set for reports about how scary COVID was, and still never thought to limit her exposure to others.

The episode was littered with people who she had screwed over, like Paige, Chip, Daniel, Laura, etc. I'd add Cory, too, who fought so hard to get Alex back only for her to ditch the show.

I really hope we don't have to see Bradley's brother again. I give the actor credit, though - I had no idea until someone pointed it out to me that he played Kate WInslet's character's best friend's husband on Mare of Easttown. He comes across extremely differently here.

THAT’s who he is. Couldn’t place him. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 11/12/2021 at 9:02 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

Why were there a few people in the studio wearing masks?  

One person is pregnant.

On 11/13/2021 at 6:20 PM, Maximona said:

In case any producers' assistants are reading this bbs:  I do not care about Bradley's brother.  Trust me!  Nobody cares about Bradley's brother.

Yes!  The actor is the opposite of interesting or charismatic.  Please!

[mostlylurking]

 Nearly two years into COVID it’s been really interesting to see how naive we were in the beginning, thinking all this would be over in a few weeks, etc…..Like others I see COVID everywhere while watching.  The pregnant lady wearing the mask, everyone close talking with no masks, hugging.  I thought it was just misdirection at first but it makes sense Alex got COVID.

Alex did have a good episode, except for the end.  Her talk with Laura and her speech at Mitch’s memorial.  Then Bradley smacks down Maggie, who really should have known better.  Obviously all the UBA people are going to stick together.  On a shallow note I also noticed that Jennifer and Reese’s faces both still move, which is more that I can say for Juliana Margulies and Marcia Gay Harden.  So that’s good!

So all these people show up for Mitch’s memorial for the sake of his kid and then the kids aren’t even there??  I’d be pissed.  I was so excited to see Claire I actually clapped, but it didn’t end well.  Sad.  And after all that we didn’t even see Yanko at the memorial.  Maybe he chose not to go after all?  I only saw a couple control room people there.

[Anela]

On 11/15/2021 at 4:28 PM, BrownBear2012 said:

Mask wearing was not really commonplace until late March/early April as I recall. There was a shortage of PPE and N95 masks were nowhere to be found...people were asked not to buy them and allow for essential workers and healthcare facilties to have access to them first. Even cloth masks were not widely available at the time. Where I live I didn't see people out in stores or elsewhere wearing masks until late April/early May.

I think it was about mid-April when we were told that we should be wearing masks, after all. I had a bit of a panic attack, because we had none in the house. 

I don't remember there being a big panic until mid-March. I didn't go to the movies on a Sunday night, because I felt like I had a cold coming on, and wasn't sure if I should chance it. I hadn't been paying much attention to the news, so I wasn't panicking, but it was just getting through to me, that I should have been paying attention. Two days later, we were supposed to vote in our primary (Ohio), but there was a lot of confusion as to whether we would be able to - our governor had been shutting things down since late February, and he decided we would vote by mail instead. Then the following Friday, was my last time spent at a bookstore for close to a year, as we got take-out, and I weighed up going to the bookstore, or coming right home. I can't remember when the big sports games were cancelled. but I saw a tweet from a young guy who was going to be traveling, and he insisted on wearing a mask, and was really scared, after they announced the sports being cancelled. I remember the "wow, this is big if they're cancelling this" tweet.

I suppose they will do a time-jump to the election, what happened afterwards, and vaccines, if they get another season. They probably expected the worst to be over by now. 

[SunnyBeBe]

Considering it’s about a news show, ignoring covid would be odd.  I’ve seen the medical shows that do it and that’s weird to me as well.  

[love2lovebadtv]

On 11/12/2021 at 9:02 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

I don’t buy that Mitch’s kid asked his mom if his dad’s  old friends would be at his memorial….kids don’t think about stuff like that. Plus, the kids knew the friends were gone. And,  if they did say it, that’s when mom says it’s  a private service.

 The ex showing up at the network where he was ousted….no way.  And where were the kids at that thing..was that the memorial?  Wife allowed Martin Short character to speak? No way.   And why would Alex have any thought that she had a right to attend?  No…just no…all of that was so off, imo.  And to walk into a room late and call attention to your speech…..uninvited….hell no, that’s  crazy town.  

Why were there a few people in the studio wearing masks?  

Alex's son had a famous, charismatic parent who lost his marriage and friends and then died. He was so happy to see Alex. I can imagine that he liked the idea of his father's friends returning. It reminded me of when I went to a coworker's funeral. He was a single dad of one son who seemed really glad to see his dad's "friends" at the funeral and repast. 

But I agree that Alex had no right monologuing at the funeral. It came back to bite her in the butt, too.

As far as a few people wearing masks, that makes sense. There are people who wore them in early March 2020 and even before the pandemic to protect themselves if they had an underlying health condition, etc. 

On 11/12/2021 at 8:33 PM, coconspirator said:

The Italy stuff didn't work with the timeline if the story is going to be people are mad at her for going to a "hotspot."  Early March 2020 was still life as normal and people wouldn't have been up in arms about Alex traveling to Italy because of Covid. Now, traveling to see Mitch would be a different story as it would undercut Bradley's assertion about Alex making a mistake "10 years ago."  I feel like if they wanted Covid to be a big part of the story they should have started the season the first or second week of March rather than February 2020.  I assume they'll do a time jump for season 3 (hopefully the show gets picked up) rather than focus on remote working, Zoom, etc. 

I think the issue is that her going to see Mitch, despite Bradley telling people that Alex had changed. 

AND Italy was a hotspot. If people heard about someone traveling to certain areas that got hit by Covid early on, others would be concerned and blaming her.

On 11/16/2021 at 1:11 AM, Blakeston said:

March 3 was when New York City's second COVID case was confirmed. I guess I could buy that a pregnant woman like Rina, who would have reason to be especially anxious about it, might be one of the very few New Yorkers to wear a mask to work.

I don't buy, however, that Alex would be slammed by the public as Typhoid Mary so quickly. That said...once word got out that she had COVID, and had put so many people at risk, it would be a different story.

I buy it because she didn't tell people she had gone to Italy so they couldn't make the decision for themselves how comfortable they would be working around her.