‘Alaska Daily’ Shows Us an Appealingly Dogged Side of Hilary Swank: TV Review
variety.comDaniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” is the single best film about journalism of our era. So while it comes as no surprise that the writer-director’s take on life at a daily paper for ABC is substantially better than the average 2020s network drama, it’s certainly good news.
On the McCarthy-created “Alaska Daily,” Hilary Swank plays Eileen Fitzgerald, a high-powered newspaper reporter whose reporting comes into question in the pilot’s early going; her losing her job is as much about the claims against her work as it is about the fact that her sudden vulnerability opens up a conversation about her habit of talking down to colleagues.
Suddenly, she’s spinning her wheels, endlessly reporting a book that may never see daylight; the conditions are perfect for her to accept the offer of a former mentor (“Scandal’s” Jeff Perry, excellent) to take a job in Anchorage.
Swank, who has not consistently been served well by television, has a strong handle on her character here — it’s a type she has always played well, so hard-driving that she can be willfully blind to her flaws.
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