circleWhatever happened to Hilary Swank? It’s been 20 years since she won Oscars for Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby, but she’s been working pretty steadily since then. Name at least two recent roles and you’ll get quiz points, and a bonus if you can think of a hit. Swank’s Hollywood wild card, the family-friendly, heartwarming drama set in a local newspaper, Alaska Daily, was canceled in the US after one season a year ago, so we already know it’s not going to end her long string of bad luck.
At the start, we’re standing in awe in the posh offices of a New York news outlet. Manhattan sparkles outside the building’s big windows, and above the reporters’ heads are giant screens that constantly update which stories are trending, tallying up numbers dotted with zeros. It’s a big moment. Eileen Fitzgerald (Swank), a brilliant reporter, sips her coffee and is rude to her subordinates. She’s on deadline, and the scandal she’s about to stir will bring down a corrupt politician. It’s a wonder her keyboard doesn’t burst into flames as she types.
Ten minutes later, the scoop ends Eileen’s national media career, but whether it ends plausibly or not is irrelevant. She lands in Anchorage and reluctantly takes a new job as a reporter at the Daily Alaskan, a struggling local paper. Her office is in a shopping mall, and screens monitoring web traffic show that no story ever goes viral. This is a long way from the big stage. With red wine, a Rolling Stones T-shirt, and a commanding ego, Eileen promises to teach the country folk a thing or two about reporting. But listen up, guys: The Daily Alaskan’s hardworking staff, with their old-fashioned ways and healthy mindset, might just be able to teach Eileen a thing or two about life.
It takes time to get used to how basic a newspaper the Alaska Daily is. Eileen is surprised by the quietness of the city, and the paper picks up all the out-of-place clichés, from scoffing at the idea of wearing a mask to realizing she needs one to block the midnight sun. Her morning run, sprinting powerfully across the asphalt, is interrupted by a majestic moose. On her first night at a local bar, she picks up a kind, patient, bearish man who is both intoxicated and intimidated by her bluntness. At her new workplace, her editor, Stanley (Jeff Perry), is a crafty old reporter who hires Eileen as a final blow against the cutbacks and corporatization that are killing the industry he loves. The news editor (Matt Malloy), a conservative traditionalist who we would assume is named Bob, is aghast that Eileen has jeopardized her intimate relationship with a police officer.
There are weekly storylines and season-long ones, the latter of which is in some ways like a Hallmark version of True Detective: Night Country, in which Eileen investigates the murder of a Native American woman, the latest in a series of similar crimes that have turned off police. She’s paired with Roz (Grace Dove), an Alaska Native who at first resents the intrusion but soon comes to respect Eileen’s ability to break down the institutional wall of silence that has long denigrated her people. Viewers who don’t understand why Roz feels so close to the case are set right by the incredibly spot-on writing. “For me, this story is very personal!” she tells Stanley. “It’s about my community!”
This somewhat gritty plot seems like something that is not at the heart of Alaska Daily. In the second episode, Eileen and Roz follow clues and the young reporters investigate the sudden closure of a beloved diner where generations of residents have gathered and chatted amiably. In some ways, it is a bolder storyline than the murder plot. It is a righteous allegory about the polarization of society brought about by the digital world replacing debate with all-out rhetorical battles. The rejection of the culture wars and the plea for tolerance are unabashed in their honesty and simplicity, as is the show’s overall sentiment about geographic inequality and the quiet tragedy of local journalism’s disappearance. What is surprising is that there is nothing surprising.
Somewhere in there is a boldly kind, unassuming show about the importance of the little things and the value of humble decency, when in fact it would be better if they made a show like this instead of a big-city firebrand trying to shock everyone with deliberate antagonism. Unfortunately for Hilary Swank, Alaska Daily doesn’t really need her.
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