by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
I don’t watch a lot of network TV nowadays. Hulu is my go-to service for network shows since I don’t have cable. There are only six network shows that I’ve been watching as of late. Returning shows I still try and catch include Ghosts, Bob’s Burgers, and Abbott Elementary. Recently, I got into Quantum Leap and True Lies as well. The only real original drama I watched this season, though, was Alaska Daily, since it was a recommendation from one of my friends.
The series follows journalist Eileen Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), who is pseudo-banished from her cushy job in New York. A former editor and colleague Stanley (Jeff Perry) has an opportunity to bring her out of forced retirement, but it requires her to move to Alaska for a statewide paper. Her colleagues don’t embrace Eileen’s killer instincts at first, but she has a positive influence on their work ethic and journalism tactics.
There are a lot of talented performers in Alaska Daily who are doing great work individually, and as an ensemble. Perry is strong as the leader, and he keeps everyone in check. Each journalist has a unique story that helps them stay motivated to be successful. Some of the journalists include rookie Gabriel (Pablo Castelblanco), and veterans Bob (Matt Malloy), Roz (Grace Dove), Claire (Meredith Holzman), Jieun (Ami Park), and Austin (Craig Frank). Gabriel and Roz are the two standouts, but at the end of the day, this is still Swank’s series.
Swank is a welcomed addition to network TV. She’s fantastic in this role, and she knows how to embrace her inner bulldog to get what she needs for the story. Eileen has a lot of personal turmoil and bitterness about why she lost her original job, but she channels her anger into her investigations. The prospect of coming to Alaska isn’t appealing to Eileen because she thinks there aren’t a lot of stories to tell. But after being assigned a story with Roz, the goal of the season comes into focus.
This central story is what makes Alaska Daily unique from other procedurals. Whereas other shows would investigate any type of crime, Alaska Daily focuses exclusively on something that affects Indigenous women in Alaska. The show speaks about how Indigenous women who are murdered or missing are not properly investigated by local law enforcement; it exposes the hard truths about the way crimes against them are handled, and how there’s little focus on resources allocated to investigation. There’s even a link at the end of the episodes that talks about issues with murdered and missing Indigenous women. In each episode, there’s a fact about something related to this issue that breaks your heart, and reflects on how important local journalism is to a community.
The power of the old-school newspaper is another theme that is explored in Alaska Daily. The problem of misinformation and fake news is spreading fast, and Alaska Daily addresses these with consequences of stoking the fires of fear-based, fact-pinion pieces that rely heavily on someone writing their views rather than facts. There’s also a storyline about how the press is treated and perceived, a timely subject and one that I hope hits home for people who struggle with how journalists in the United States are treated.
Like a lot of network shows, some bloated storylines could have been cut out to save time and give certain stories more time to develop. There’s one involving the owner of the paper that feels like a way to manufacture drama. If they had potentially focused on the real topic of larger corporations buying local papers to spread their ideology, that would have been far more compelling from a story standpoint than the grudge match we see between a father and son. There are politics on the local level in Alaska that distracts the paper from investigating stories. If they had cut the local political issues, we could have had more time for the team to develop sources and research stories.
Beyond that, Alaska Daily helps bring to light a real issue that needs addressing uniquely. This is the first network show I’ve watched where they focus their season on a real issue that they’re trying to solve. Swank is amazing (as usual), and I’m compelled enough about what’s going on with everyone else that I’m looking forward to more in the future. Sure, I have to suspend my disbelief about the sheer amount of events happening in Alaska that require a journalist to write a story, but it’s still a show worth investing your time in.
Score: 8/10
Alaska Daily is currently streaming on Hulu
You can read more from Mike Hilty, and follow him on Twitter, Letterboxd, and Serializd