I’ve found it therapeutic to immerse myself in dramas about newspaper journalists going through the daily slog of doing their jobs. So far I’ve gone through:
HBO’s “Sharp Objects” starring Amy Adams (in progress)
“Spotlight” starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, and Rachel McAdams
“The Post” starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep
“All the President’s Men” starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman
“Zodiac” starring Jake Gyllenhal and Robert Downey Jr.
“God’s Pocket” starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christina Hendricks, and Richard Jenkins
Does anyone have any good ones to add (particularly ones that are available on Netflix, Hulu, and HBO)?
I watched that when it first came out. It was a fucking stupid show, one of the most idiotic depictions of journalism if ever seen. Plus, it’s about TV, not what I’m looking for.
I don’t have a show to suggest, but I would object a bit to the idea that the shows you list portray the “daily slog” of journalists. Just like shows about police and private detectives, the disconnect between TV/movies and the real world is pretty extreme. My mother was a city reporter for a daily newspaper in a medium-sized metro area and she DID do the daily slog, which was covering the police reports, reporting on city council and school board activities, and so forth. She also had to submit at least one feature each week that could be used in the Sunday edition (or some other edition, if needed). For her, it was just work. She had to stay on top of things, but 99.9% of it was pretty mundane.
About ten years ago, I was also involved in working with a pair of reporters seeking to free an innocent man from prison. It was surprisingly low-key, although they did spend a lot of time working on their strategy to release certain parts of the story at appropriate intervals in order to maintain interest and have the maximum impact. Their work won several prizes and the exonerated man’s story made it into film and into a TV special, but I don’t think I ever saw either reporter even get very excited about what they were doing.
Season 1-3 have been out forever, but the rest of it only very recently became available. You can see 1-3 on Hulu and Amazon, and you can see the rest on Youtube. The quality if better on Hulu and Amazon, so if you want to see 1-3, don’t watch Youtube, but you are stuck with it for the later seasons (or, at least were about a month ago, when I watched several episodes).
The show holds up pretty well. You hear facts that are wrong, because we know things now that we didn’t know, but the acting isn’t as cheesy as some shows from the era (I’m looking at you, Jack Klugman), and they touched topics that didn’t get touched on again until the 21st century. They did one on workplace sexual harassment that was way ahead of its time. It was, first of all, years before Anita Hill, when no one was talking about it, and second of all, not salacious in the slightest, and third, at least some of the men learned something-- but some didn’t, just like life. They did another on why prostitution was a viable economic choice for some women. Billie did the story, and went into it with feminist skepticism, but came out with a lot of sympathy for women whose economic circumstances forced them into it. They did yet another on the brain damage football can cause.
I was pretty young when it was on, but it was one of my favorite shows when it was new. So I was expecting that it was going to be a lot sillier than I remembered. I was quite impressed that it still seemed like a good show to me now. I had good taste then.
Speaking as a journalist myself With 30 years experience I think it’s reasonable to say that I don’t expect dramas to be dicumentari s about my life.
When I say daily slog of journalism what I mean is that the shows focus on journalists going around talking to people in person or in the phone rather than engaging in car chases, shootouts, or superheroics … or whatever that stupid shit was on “Newsroom.” And also not primarily focusing on introduce romance and stuff like that.
In limited release now is Shock and Awe about journalists covering the run-up to the war in Iraq (Shock and Awe (2017) - IMDb). Strong cast and interesting premise although the reviews are mediocre to poor. It looks like it’s already left my local theater after a one-week run.
If we’re going in offbeat directions, there’s The Night Stalker series (two made-for-TV movies and a short-lived TV series).
Okay, it’s a horror series with vampires, zombies, werewolves, and other monsters. And the series hasn’t aged well. But Darren McGavin’s performance holds up. And it does show Carl Kolchak doing his job as a newspaper reporter.
Reading the Wikipedia article, I just found out that Carol Ann Susi, who played a young intern on the series, was also the voice of Mrs Wolowitz on The Big Bang Theory.
How about the movie “Broadcast News”, with Albert Brooks, Holly Hunter and William Hurt? It’s more of a comedy-drama than a straight drama, but I believe it’s a pretty accurate depiction behind the scenes of a tv news studio. At least how it was in the late 80s (it’s over 30 years old? Really?!?). Very entertaining movie. Not sure if it’s available on any streaming services.
