Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank is back on television in Alaska Daily, the new mystery drama that follows disgraced journalist Eileen Fitzgerald on a quest for redemption at a small local paper in Anchorage, Alaska.
The pilot episode shows Eileen working on a big story that has the potential to derail a general’s appointment to office. She’s on deadline in her New York newsroom and anyone who crosses her path encounters her wrath. When her source is called bogus and her workplace behavior is called into question, Eileen leaves the paper and decides to write a book.
When former colleague Stanley (Jeff Perry) shows up and offers her a job in Alaska, she balks. When he puts a stack of missing and murdered indigenous women in front of her and tells her that their cases have been swept under the rug by local police, it grabs her interest. Soon she’s on a plane to Anchorage, but she suffers a panic attack on the way that leads her to faint. She’s never had that kind of reaction before and she wonders what it means.
Eileen is a fish out of water in Alaska, but she soon settles into her new newsroom and uses her experience and resources to help her new colleagues in a quest to not be as abrasive as she used to be. She’s partnered with Roz (Grace Dove), a reporter who grew up in an indigenous community. Together, they start making headway on the cases and discover that something is amiss.
The primetime television landscape is chock full of medical dramas, legal dramas and police procedurals. Alaska Daily is refreshing because Eileen is a champion for local journalism and her brash personality is very familiar to people who have worked at local papers.
Fans applauded the series for shining a spotlight on MMIW, missing and murdered indigenous women in Alaska; in fact, the series is based on an article that appeared in the Anchorage Daily News and the authors, Kyle Hopkins and Ryan Binkley, are executive producers on the show.
Check out some reaction from those who tuned in for Alaska Daily's premiere:
-;*Alaska Daily seems like it’s going to be good! I like it so far. #alaskadailyOctober 7, 2022
I’m so excited about #AlaskaDaily. It got enough of the Alaskan details right that the minor name changes didn’t bug me at all. (They all seemed to have a good reason.) And it’s an ode to local journalism which is so important and so vibrant and amazing in AnchorageOctober 7, 2022
@AlaskaDailyABC was FANTASTIC. Can’t wait to see more. Also grateful that attention is brought to missing and murdered indigenous women, even if in a fictionalized form. It’s about time. #premiere #TVShows #alaskadailyOctober 7, 2022
Watched #AlaskaDaily tonight! Loved it! Great to see Hilary Swank back on TV!! Can't wait to see what happens next!October 7, 2022
Alaska Daily airs Thursday nights at 10 pm ET/PT on ABC. New episodes stream next day on Hulu.
