Should it still be called The Morning Show when almost none of the main storylines have to do with the morning talk show anymore?
Plenty of shows have reached points where the storylines outlive the title, and The Morning Show season 4 is one of the best examples of how the show's title, which at one point represented the core of its narrative, has made the title meaningless.
Otherwise, The Morning Show, in the context of the narrative, has become barely more than a background piece to justify the main setting at UBN.
In season 3, one of the show's biggest problems was separating Alex and Bradley, the two main characters that act as the heart and soul of the series. Their dynamic is what helped make season 1 the success that it was. The relationship developed by Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon is complex, adversarial, and an allyship when the narrative calls for it.
While they had the potential to be one of the strongest representations of enemies turned ride-or-die friends available, season 4 has continued season 3's biggest mistake of keeping the duo apart for long periods of time. In doing so, it not only hurts their characters but the entire show as a whole.
With only a few episodes left in season 4, the season has been jagged and mangled, as if the writers decided on an explosive season 3 finale without considering the consequences of their actions, and are now just trying to keep their heads above water long enough to reach the finale. Season 3's big ending meant massive changes for season 4.
Yet, these huge changes meant the consequences have taken too long to get to the meat of the story. Season 4 bounces between wanting to be a journalistically explosive powerhouse through Bradley and considering the issues of executive administrative power through Alex and Stella. But, it fails on all fronts.
Bradley may be allowed to be an investigative journalist, but she and Chip are not the thrilling duo that Bradley and Alex, or even Bradley and Cory are, so it falls flat. It does not help that The Morning Show does not appear to know what to do with Chip when he is not Alex's right-hand yes man. Meanwhile, Alex's rise to power means that Alex spends no time as a journalist, which was the very thing that was interesting about her in the first place, as it was her and Bradley's opposing opinions and perspectives that made the series so exciting.
The Morning Show does not justify Chip's return to the series and has waited too long to make Cory relevant, as he has skated on the edge of a return to UBN without officially pulling the trigger for a majority of the season.
Season 4 is too much set-up and not enough execution, leading to dead-end plots that feel like they are just there to fill up time, such as Stella's affair plot, which was only relevant to feed into her exit from UBN and had not real emotional tether to the series as a whole.
The Morning Show is already renewed for season 5, so any cliffhanger that season 4 presents at the finale is guaranteed to be answered. But, it may be a bigger question of if season 5 can dig itself out of the hole the show is currently in, where it appears as if all of the characters are too scattered around to really be connected anymore.
Perhaps, one of the things that The Morning Show needs to do is drop the executive and administrative angles and get back to basics. This is a show that elevated its leads, potentially too quickly, for the storylines to keep up. It is far more interesting to watch characters rising through the ranks and seeing what they are capable of as they grow than it is to see them once they have made it to power. At least, that is the case when looking at the narrative arc of The Morning Show. Alex Levy's strive for power while being a journalist made her interesting. Alex Levy, the executive, has become dead weight on a sinking ship.
The Morning Show has lost its heart, soul, humor, and emotional connections to its audience.
Even if the season 4 finale manages to pull off being one of the best episodes in the show's history, season 5 still needs to remember what made the audience love the series in the first place. Re-connect to a focused plot line that allows its main characters to actually interact with each other. Stop having each leading character in their own, separate storyline that turns main character interactions into feeling like the series is having a crossover instead of a regular scene.
The Morning Show has been on a decline, but it has enough ingredients to turn the tide.