The Morning Show

Christine Merser, May 6, 2025

I just rewatched Season Three of The Morning Show and here’s the thing, I’m rattled. Not because of the drama or the plot twists or the perfectly timed zingers. I think we missed it. All of it. Right in front of us.

Season Three aired in 2023. That’s a year after Elon Musk bought Twitter and started blowing up the public square like it was one of his SpaceX test rockets. That was also the year we got introduced to The Morning Show’s Paul Marks, a fictional billionaire tech mogul who launches rockets, buys a media company, charms the public, and spies on everyone from boardrooms to bedrooms. Sound familiar? It should.

Because Paul Marks is Elon Musk? Maybe a little Jeff Bezos thrown in for extra flavor. He’s the slick, moneyed disruptor who doesn’t just want to change the world, he wants to own the narrative. Control the platforms. Rewrite the rules.

At the time, I treated it like fiction. Slick storytelling. Emmy bait. Jon Hamm in a suit? Yes, please. But the writers of The Morning Show weren’t writing fantasy. They were waving a massive red flag. And you, me, and the critics, waved right back with our popcorn and forgot to look up.

Let’s go back for a second. In 2023, Elon Musk had already gutted Twitter, renamed it X (like a Bond villain with branding issues), invited conspiracy theorists into the tent, and started using Starlink to interfere with the war in Ukraine. He was already treating “free speech” like a prop for authoritarian cosplay. Meanwhile, Paul Marks was doing the same thing on screen, except his version came with omnipresent surveillance tech that let him listen to every private conversation, everywhere, all the time.

They showed us what it would look like if a man had no ethical constraints and unlimited access to our lives. But it wasn’t a hypothetical. It was a script pulled from the present, before it was the present, disguised as the near future. (I’m exhausted.)

And yet, here we are. We’re still debating whether Elon Musk is a mad genius or just misunderstood. Still asking if billionaires should control media platforms instead of asking how we take them back.

Charlotte Stoudt

Season Three didn’t just predict Elon’s behavior, it captured it mid-flight. And what haunts me is what the writers knew? Showrunner Charlotte Stoudt, who came out of Homeland and House of Cards, has spent her career writing about corrupt power structures and shadow games. This wasn’t an accident, right? This was a warning with wardrobe.

The writers’ room included Michelle Denise Jackson, Zander Lehmann, Selina Fillinger, and a whole lineup of sharp political minds. They gave us a tech overlord who uses AI to manipulate news cycles, gaslights journalists, and dismantles accountability in real time. This wasn’t satire. It was a smoke signal.

You might be asking why they are not political strategists for the democratic party? Duh.

And we still didn’t see the fire.

Now, here’s the kicker. Season Four is in the can. It wrapped filming in late 2024. It won’t air until late summer or fall, 2025. Season Four, according to the breadcrumbs left behind in interviews, deals with AI, deepfakes, collapsing media trust, and the question, who do you believe?

Sound familiar again?

Think about that. Season Four reportedly goes deep into the world of synthetic truth, technology that can literally alter what we see and hear. We already have AI clones of public figures saying things they never said. And we’ve got the real Elon Musk amplifying falsehoods faster than any bot ever could.

So here’s my question. What do The Morning Show writers know this time that we’re still pretending isn’t happening? Stay tuned?

It’s time someone asked them. Really asked them. Someone needs to sit down with Charlotte Stoudt, with the entire Season Three and Four team, and say, what did you see that the rest of us didn’t? What’s still coming? Tell us how your plot unfolded?

Because if Season Three was a warning, maybe Season Four is the reckoning.

The billionaires don’t need to run for office anymore. They already own the arena. Capitol Hill is … well it’s the poor relation to power now? - CM

APPENDIX & NOTES

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You don’t need to watch the entire season of The Morning Show. you can watch Episode Nine and Ten, Season Five, and get what you need. On Apple. (Yes, it’s on Prime, but no way am I putting that link on here.)

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In case you haven’t heard the term synthetic truth before, here is the definition. We need to add it to our everyday vocabulary. I am working on incorporating it into my thought process on a lot of things these days.

In philosophy, a synthetic truth is a statement whose truth depends on the way the world is, not just on the meaning of the words in the statement. Unlike analytic truths (which are true by definition), synthetic truths require empirical evidence or observation to determine their truth value. - My Ai, Celeste

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Writers of The Morning Show Season Three & Four

    •    Charlotte Stoudt (Showrunner, Homeland, House of Cards)

    •    Michelle Denise Jackson

    •    Zander Lehmann (Casual, Sorry for Your Loss)

    •    Selina Fillinger (The White House Plumbers)

    •    With contributions from journalists and consultants embedded in media and tech.