The Morning Show’s queerbaiting problem
I’m tired. Are you tired?
If you’re a purveyor of one of what seem to be now dozens of streaming services, or just social media, you’ve likely heard that Apple TV’s The Morning Show has a lesbian romance arc this season. Reese Witherspoon — yes, the same woman who “didn’t understand what homosexuality was” until moving to Los Angeles — plays Bradley Jackson, a newly established name in morning news, and Laura Peterson (Julianna Margulies) is a tenured primetime news reporter.
Their romance is sudden, chaotic, but comfortable — in the seven-episode storyline, the coupling shifts from casual (“Did you call?” / “No[. . .]” / “Oh, well, it’s a good thing I was telling the truth.”) to comfortable (“Am I your woman?”).
Their age gap lends to a series of conversations about homophobia in the late-1990s when Laura was outed and subsequently fired. Not only was Bradley outed, but she works directly with the woman that outed Laura twenty years prior. These discussions of workplace safety and traumas are not out of place, particularly in the context of their relationship being revealed…but it becomes tonally incongruent in the context of the finale.
In spite of a clearly displayed understanding of systemic oppressions facing the LGBT community at large, the finale incorporates a push for a heterosexual relationship for Bradley. Her boss — the man who outed their relationship for his own Machiavellian means— confesses his love for her. It harkens back to some of the first queer relationships on television; Erica Hahn’s swift exit on Grey’s Anatomy after Callie Torres cheated on her with a man (2008), Xena’s various male love interests to distract from the intentional lesbian subtext (Xena: Warrior Princess, 1995–2001), Natalia Rivera’s near-marriage to Frank Cooper on the ground-breaking soap opera Guiding Light before her relationship with Olivia Spencer (2008–09), or worse — the 2010 film The Kids Are All Right in which Julianne Moore’s character cheats on her wife with their sperm donor.
Though it’s been over a decade since such story devices were commonplace, I wouldn’t be surprised if Julianna Margulies’ name was never on a The Morning Show call sheet again, but rather was simply a convenient plot device to drive viewership.
See you next season…maybe.
