(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
Using a fully interactive AI version of yourself as a personal therapist is unwise. Stella Bak (Greta Lee) learns this the hard way when her starry new tech turns on her within the blink of a very public eye. Yep, The Morning Show is offering an AI cautionary tale for the ages.
Even before this meltdown, Stella faces an impossible uphill battle. Little does she know that UBN board president Celine Dumont (Marion Cotillard) was already vying to force Stella out of the CEO role as part of a good old-fashioned power grab that has nothing to do with Stella sleeping with Celine’s hot artist husband, Miles (Aaron Pierre).
It would be easy to think (as Cory does) that Celine had meddled with the software ahead of the splashy Olympics presentation in front of 300 journalists to ensure maximum humiliation. Or, that Celine is actually a witch (as Stella jokes about being in a coven with Celine and Alex) who has put a hex on the coding. Instead, Stella, in a last-ditch effort to deliver something seismic, ends up serving her resignation on a platter. It is a flameout for the ages.
It is not the first time this fall that Lee has come face-to-face with destructive AI. I haven’t seen Tron: Ares yet, but I am willing to bet that nothing as sink-in-the-ground mortifying happens to her CEO character in that.
Lee has long been a TMS highlight, and her absence while Stella was at an AI conference in the last two episodes has been felt. I had a sinking feeling the moment I heard Stella’s voiceover. In part, because some of the dialogue careens into cheesy territory, but mostly because it has a farewell episode written all over it. Lee breathes life into the narration even when some of the sentiments and metaphors are overly labored.
By the time it is revealed that Stella’s words come from a letter for Mia (Karen Pittman), it is clear this is Lee’s TMS swansong—though there is room for her to return. The actress more than makes the most of it, serving up raw emotion opposite her dead-behind-the-eyes AI avatar. It is a fantastic double act, and while I know the AI doesn’t have any human impulses, I can’t help but think AI Stella is also a messy bitch who loves drama. Why else would it data dump Stella’s late-night gabfest?
So how does Stella end up at the center of a firestorm? All roads lead to the Olympics, where this interactive tech is going to make its splashy debut. However, the O24 demo showcasing the UBN big-name Games’ hosts, is a clusterf— before it has even begun. A last-minute lack of talent causes Stella to opt for a Hail Mary, putting her trust in something she earlier compared to the OG AI killer diva: Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Okay, in Stella’s defense, it was Chris (Nicole Behaire) and Alex’s (Jennifer Aniston) AI models that she likens to Hal.
I’m sure we’ve all had a version of this experience where something falls through before a crucial work or school presentation, and you have to vamp. Still, I don’t think most people face embarrassment on this global scale.
At first, Stella’s computer double plays ball during the demonstration of how AI will revolutionize your viewing experience. My skepticism is at an all-time high, and although some characters have expressed concerns about being replaced, there is insufficient pushback against replacing humans with computers. Luckily, a reporter is on hand to ask a question, triggering an erratic response that puts a nail in this project’s coffin. Sadly, it does the same to Stella’s career at UBN.
Kabir (Rushi Kota) asks if this is a replacement tool or a way to keep talent like Chris in line. AI Stella quickly spills her no-filter guts with talk about DEI as a failure and the Iranian defection (which had been kept secret until now). The program then pulls from Stella’s soul-baring confessional about whether she is a bad person and her fear about being racist and sexist for how she treated women like Mia.
As if it wasn’t already catastrophic, AI Stella babbles about being in love with Miles. To have this happen in front of one reporter would be bad, but Stella takes implosion to the next level. The cacophony of gasps and overlapping questions from the audience adds to the juicy scandal (ditto the perfect use of Björk’s “All is Full of Love”). At least this program didn’t recount the story of Stella letting an Asian woman lick a martini off a table so she could seal a deal last season. Somehow it could’ve been worse.
All it takes to shut off the loose lips AI is to close the laptop. Of course, Celine isn’t going to try to save Stella. The UBN board president only ends the debacle when her personal life is dragged into the mess. Even for TMS, the absurdity levels are high. It is a horror movie for the AI age.
While I hate to see Stella suffer, exposing her affair on this stage is delicious melodrama. It does suck that spineless Miles is not worth blowing up her career because, of course, he stays with Celine instead of making good on his promise to leave with Stella. Even if she now feels free, Stella deserves more than to be left broken hearted at the airport.
It is unfortunate that the resignation package read by Alex on TMS sounds like a barely embellished rundown of Stella’s Wikipedia page. But this is Lee’s episode, giving her a roller coaster of reactions to play out.
One earlier highlight is her lack of poker face when Celine says, “I feel so close to you,” as if it were a threat. In fact, every time Stella and Celine are in a room together, Stella looks like she wants to claw her own skin off. Another specter is the Variety magazine cover with Stella, Celine, and Alex on the front, which haunts the frame whenever Stella is in her office.
I also need to give Lee kudos for not stumbling delivering lines about letting her inner white straight man come out during her time as CEO. Sure, the Cory (Billy Crudup) comparisons make sense—and she is also recalling Mia’s critique—but this is TMS at its most corny. Observations about race are more insightful when Stella is talking to her AI about being complicit and in the final lines of the letter to Mia about the mistakes she made.
Stella’s parting message isn’t just an apology but a call to action for Mia, sending a flash drive containing (likely) damning evidence to aid Mia’s quest. Stella lost the battle but Mia can win the TMS war—as long as she steers clear of any and all AI software.
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