S03.E09: Update Your Priors

[Snazzy Daisy]

Synopsis:

Quote

A line is drawn as Alex and Bradley are forced to choose sides. Cory scrambles for stable ground.

Airdate: November 01, 2023

 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Sneak peek 👀

Exclusive: Bradley and Alex Face Off About Paul in New ‘The Morning Show’ Clip

Quote

Bradley keeps trying to hint to Alex that something is off about Paul’s interest in UBA and we all know that Alex knows the truth about his big plan to basically sell it off for parts. But as Bradley asks, how well does Alex actually know this guy? Well, we’re going to have to wait to find out.

 

[Blakeston]

Alex is going to bring down Paul after she realizes he’s evil, right?

I can’t believe she’s naive enough to think she’ll be able to hire her UBA colleagues and pay them all well. Yeah, sure.

[funnygirl]

13 minutes ago, Blakeston said:

Alex is going to bring down Paul after she realizes he’s evil, right?

I can’t believe she’s naive enough to think she’ll be able to hire her UBA colleagues and pay them all well. Yeah, sure.

I hope so! I keep hoping that she is well aware of who he is and that she's playing the long game and going to one-up him in the end and it will be the ultimate surprise/fake-out. 

If not? She's coming off as really dumb. 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Is it safe to say that Paul f-king Marks was responsible for the UBA hack??! He’s keeping tabs on everyone. Blackmail and intimidation are his MO.

Alex/Bradley face-off scenes were filmed separately, weren’t they?

I don’t believe that Maggie has changed. The way she suddenly shows up at UBA is sus.

Laura’s boss:    
“We break one moral code to uphold another.”

Cory has outed Bradley and Laura to protect Hannah’s reputation. How will Bradley react to this?

Can the grooming scandal be used to camouflage/shield the lying to the Feds drama? PR wise. To the public eyes, most people will simply assume that Bradley has resigned because of The Vault’s exposé.

When emotions get in the way:

• Cory withheld information from the FBI to protect UBA and indirectly Bradley.
• Laura decides not to report the Jackson siblings to the authorities.
• Bradley protecting Hal (and his family) while trying not to repeat what she did to her dad.

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Snazzy Daisy

[RunningMarket]

While I generally dislike Alex, I got a good laugh at her line about Cory's endless monologues. The last few minutes really paid off, and Billy Crudup's way of playing Cory as over the top with his reactions worked really well.

I am enjoying the hell out of Jon Hamm in this role. And hello Cybil! Did anyone else think it was Frank buying up all the stock to screw Cory?

[txhorns79]

18 hours ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

He’s keeping tabs on everyone. Blackmail and intimidation are his MO.

He certainly has gotten Alex and Bradley into positions where they won't have much credibility if they go after him.  With Alex, she's hopelessly conflicted because he's her boyfriend.  With Bradley, well she is just a full up criminal with no journalist ethics when it suits her needs.

And of course Bradley dramatically quits in the middle of her broadcast.  That's pure Morning Show. 

On the positive side, I thought it was a great episode.  Lots of high drama, with a nice cliffhanger ending.  I'm glad Laura told Bradley off, even if she now complicit in the cover up.     

[CarpeFelis]

I get why Laura was so outraged over Bradley’s coverup for Hal, at least about it being illegal and unethical. What I really, really don’t get was why she thought she had the right to snoop and why she was taking this as such a personal affront since what she’d really been trying to find out was whether Bradley had slept with Cory.

And why Bradley, upon Laura’s announcing that she knew about Hal, didn’t immediately ask “How did you find that out?”

13 hours ago, RunningMarket said:

Did anyone else think it was Frank buying up all the stock to screw Cory?

Ha! I hadn’t thought of that but it would definitely fit.

4 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

He certainly has gotten Alex and Bradley into positions where they won't have much credibility if they go after him.  With Alex, she's hopelessly conflicted because he's her boyfriend.  With Bradley, well she is just a full up criminal with no journalist ethics when it suits her needs.

Which makes me wonder: did he start up this relationship with Alex expressly for that purpose, or is it real?

Edited November 2, 2023 by CarpeFelis

[txhorns79]

6 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

I get why Laura was so outraged over Bradley’s coverup for Hal, at least about it being illegal and unethical. What I really, really don’t get was why she thought she had the right to snoop and why she was taking this as such a personal affront since what she’d really been trying to find out was whether Bradley had slept with Cory.

It's hard to get upset over your girlfriend snooping through publicly available records and putting two and two together because she was jealous of a guy, when what she found is that you are covering up some crimes and have no real moral compass.   

[whiporee]

As a former reporter, I have a lot more sympathy for Bradley in the Hal case. She's not a citizen detective; she's not an adjunct to the police or the FBI. It's not her job to turn anything over to the police that she uncovered while working on a story. If the police have enough for Hal, then indict him. But reaching out to everyone's cell phones is overstepping their bounds, but more importantly sets a dangerous precedent for other situations. I don't know of any reporter who would have turned in a family member to the police, or allowed their footage to be used in that kind of way. 

Laura doesn't know how she'd act in that same situation ... oh, wait, she does. Because she's doing the same thing. It's not just protecting Bradley, it's that her life then gets pulled in, too. Just like Bradley's would have been. But instead of accepting that life has difficult choices, she got up on her self-righteous journalism high horse and delivered her sanctimonious diatribe. 

Bradley got put in a terrible situation through no fault of her own. Laura got put in a terrible situation because she snooped into her lover's phone and then searched hacked -- supposedly private -- emails for more details. And Bradley is the one who violated trust?

[txhorns79]

1 hour ago, whiporee said:

As a former reporter, I have a lot more sympathy for Bradley in the Hal case. She's not a citizen detective; she's not an adjunct to the police or the FBI. It's not her job to turn anything over to the police that she uncovered while working on a story. If the police have enough for Hal, then indict him. But reaching out to everyone's cell phones is overstepping their bounds, but more importantly sets a dangerous precedent for other situations. I don't know of any reporter who would have turned in a family member to the police, or allowed their footage to be used in that kind of way. 

I think if it was found out a reporter had edited or removed footage they had taken while filming an event in order to cover up a friend or loved one's crime, that reporter's credibility would be destroyed and they would lose their job.  I sympathize with Bradley's problem, but what she should have done was give the footage to another reporter at UBA to handle the editing and reporting.  To me, that's really the beginning and end of it.  

[CarpeFelis]

18 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

It's hard to get upset over your girlfriend snooping through publicly available records and putting two and two together because she was jealous of a guy, when what she found is that you are covering up some crimes and have no real moral compass.   

I don’t think Bradley completely lacks a moral compass. It’s just skewed towards protecting family over everything else.

Edited November 3, 2023 by CarpeFelis
typo

[maddie965]

For me, Bradley did nothing wrong. Family comes first, unless there are other risks involved, which was not the case. I would have done the exact same thing in her place. Laura can go to hell. 

Poor Cory. That's the only person I really care about. He does love chaos, but this? 

Edited November 3, 2023 by maddie965

[gesundheit]

On 11/2/2023 at 10:40 AM, txhorns79 said:

I think if it was found out a reporter had edited or removed footage they had taken while filming an event in order to cover up a friend or loved one's crime, that reporter's credibility would be destroyed and they would lose their job.  I sympathize with Bradley's problem, but what she should have done was give the footage to another reporter at UBA to handle the editing and reporting.  To me, that's really the beginning and end of it.  

It's also really really bad that she leveraged this for a major promotion and made someone else complicit in the cover-up as well. It's not just about that knee-jerk instinct to protect family, that part is only human. But the rest is ugly.

[Hedgehog2022]

On 11/2/2023 at 9:28 AM, whiporee said:

As a former reporter, I have a lot more sympathy for Bradley in the Hal case. She's not a citizen detective; she's not an adjunct to the police or the FBI. It's not her job to turn anything over to the police that she uncovered while working on a story. If the police have enough for Hal, then indict him. But reaching out to everyone's cell phones is overstepping their bounds, but more importantly sets a dangerous precedent for other situations. I don't know of any reporter who would have turned in a family member to the police, or allowed their footage to be used in that kind of way. 

Laura doesn't know how she'd act in that same situation ... oh, wait, she does. Because she's doing the same thing. It's not just protecting Bradley, it's that her life then gets pulled in, too. Just like Bradley's would have been. But instead of accepting that life has difficult choices, she got up on her self-righteous journalism high horse and delivered her sanctimonious diatribe. 

Bradley got put in a terrible situation through no fault of her own. Laura got put in a terrible situation because she snooped into her lover's phone and then searched hacked -- supposedly private -- emails for more details. And Bradley is the one who violated trust?

Spot on! Frankly, I'm growing bored with this romantic entanglement. Laura has always had the upperhand in this relationship and has even gone so far to phone Hal and ask him to curry favor for her with Bradley. She's acting all holier than thou but she went on a sketchy website and did some snooping on Bradley...she likes having the upper hand in the relationship and doesn't have any qualms about how she gathers info on Bradley that she will undoubtedly use to crucifer her for ratings with her audience. 

Bottom line...TV journalism stinks to high heaven.

 

 

[Sarahsmile416]

On 11/2/2023 at 1:31 AM, CarpeFelis said:

I get why Laura was so outraged over Bradley’s coverup for Hal, at least about it being illegal and unethical. What I really, really don’t get was why she thought she had the right to snoop and why she was taking this as such a personal affront since what she’d really been trying to find out was whether Bradley had slept with Cory.

And why Bradley, upon Laura’s announcing that she knew about Hal, didn’t immediately ask “How did you find that out?”

Ha! I hadn’t thought of that but it would definitely fit.

Which makes me wonder: did he start up this relationship with Alex expressly for that purpose, or is it real?

I mean, MMV but I think he originally did it as a calculated maneuver - like the drive he took her on in ep 1, but I think post Coney Island and interview, I think he did develop feelings for her.  I think he is truly Machiavellian which makes him a really fascinating character.  I know folks on Reddit (and other places), see him as sociopathic, but based on things I have read from Leder, I think he does have genuine feelings for Alex.   I just doubt when push comes to shove if he would prioritize her above money and business arrangements.   
 

That being said, some have said she’s dickmatized and I think she definitely is, but I have been watching the scene where she tells him she is in and she just looks like she has her doubts about him.  Who knows though 

[Kel Varnsen]

That episode was some high quality comedy. Between the Laura/Bradley break up with Laura threatening to lose her shit, Cybill threatening Cory with salon intelligence and then his temper tantrum and then Bradley's ridiculous news cast I was laughing my ass off. 

And now I just want to know who took over the evening news after Bradley walked off mid broadcast. Because even if the thing with her brother didn't kill her reputation then walking off like that surely would have. 

I also want to know what exactly Alex's plan is for her own news business. Are we talking like some kind of YouTube/website thing like vox. I have to imagine that a start up like that couldn't possibly pay her enough to maintain her current lifestyle, at least without a ton of money from an investor like Paul. And if that is the case is she any more independent than she is at UBA?

[Cornhusker12]

On 11/11/2023 at 8:53 PM, Kel Varnsen said:

And now I just want to know who took over the evening news after Bradley walked off mid broadcast.

Haha I think they mentioned something about "Josh will handle the evening news" a couple times when Bradley has been absent for whatever reason, but I have no idea who Josh is... Have we met him or is he an offscreen character like Norm's wife on Cheers?