'The Morning Show' Episode 6: Alex Levy's 'charming narcissist' draws signature Hollywood parallel with 'The Devil Wears Prada'
This article contains spoilers for Episode 6: 'The Pendulum Swings'
If Hollywood is to be believed, the only way to make a kickass woman in power excel at what she does is to give her an absolutely turbulent domestic life. Clearly a woman can't have a flourishing career and run a stable family life side by side because by the likes of Miranda Priestly from 'The Devil Wears Prada', or even Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) from 'How to Get Away with Murder', and more recently Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) from 'The Morning Show', those two never mix.
The woman with a successful career cannot enjoy a stable relationship with her family, as Alex's world comes crashing down both in the personal and professional spheres, she gets more and more reminiscent of the Prada donning dragon lady played by Meryl Streep, all thanks to Alex's alleged 'charming narcissism.'
In the most recent episode 6 of 'The Morning Show' we see hell break loose in the Levy household, as Alex's separated husband Jason - who lives with her but doesn't share even a bedroom with her anymore, has an outburst demanding a divorce. Jason barges into Alex's bedroom while she has just been informed that she needs to leave for LA to cover the wildfires in a couple of hours. At home, Jason is furious - ranting about how she stranded him at her own fundraiser held within their lavish apartment, but that isn't his only grievance. He talks about how she doesn't love him and neither does he love her anymore, and how it's about time the two of them face those facts.
Jason accuses Alex of being a 'charming narcissist' who has a way of making her own problems always sound more valid and bigger than everybody else's, and of course, there comes flying in the odd references to her prioritizing work over everything. Like a petulant child, Jason threatens Alex if she picks up another call from work, he would never speak to her again. Ever. And the only reason Alex keeps caving in with apologies is that she absolutely can NOT afford to undergo a family crisis while she is already dealing with such a colossal workplace one.
Alex tries dodging a consultation with their lawyer that Jason wanted to attend the very same day, claiming she has to go to LA. She tries postponing telling their daughter Lizzie about it too, using the same excuse. And as we see Jason hit Alex back with how her PR has to be informed because like most things in their personal lives, this "has to be f*ckin handled", it's hard to not see the clear resemblances with the trials and tribulations of dragon lady Miranda Priestley from the 2006 romantic comedy about all things in Vogue.
Streep's Miranda played an impeccable rendition of Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour as the movie's fictional fashion bible - the Runway's editor, and feared as she was within her workplace and throughout the fashion industry, that didn't stop Miranda from having a personal life incessantly dampened by the demands of her professional one. When Miranda goes through a divorce for the third time since her becoming of all things powerful in the industry, we see her makeup-less distress masked by defensive condescension. That is until she breaks down with a single tear streaming down her face, as she talks about how another divorce will be splashed across the sensational page sixes and tabloids while criticism will come flooding in about how she can't save a family for the life of her.
Alex is quite different in that matter; her separation from her husband hasn't been stamped on divorce papers mostly because her standing in the industry can't afford that. It's obvious that she and Jason are beyond reconciliation, and maybe the whole share-a-kid aspect is a more socially acceptable mask slammed on her own selfish needs. But when Alex snaps finally snaps, it is clear that this woman isn't just a manipulative, opportunist ball of rage and thirst for power. It might be a glitzy gala of speculations over custody and alimonies on the outside, but deep down is a woman grasping on to thin air in an attempt to be labeled the quintessential superwoman, because Hollywood clearly can't fathom offering her the respite of handling both spheres of her life expertly.
'The Morning Show' drops new episodes on Fridays only on Apple TV+.
