Alaska Daily is a drama that premiered on ABC on October 6, 2022.
Eileen Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) is a start reporter in New York City writing what she thinks is an exposé on a high-ranking general. But when the story is cited as filled with fake news, Eileen is fired. She ends up landing a job for a small newspaper in Anchorage, Alaska and soon involved in an investigation into missing people in the state.
ABC announced that the series will not be renewed.
Tropes:
- Amateur Sleuth: Eileen and the other reporters are more often doing this than what real reporters might do. For example, encounters with sources in the journalism world is about fact collecting rather than attempting to intimidate them into making statements.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Claire Muncy.
- Break the Haughty: Eileen starts off riding high as a superstar reporter and by the opening credits, her reputation is in tatters to the point an Alaskan newspaper is all she can work for.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Eileen at first doesn't seem intimidated by verbal threats made by an unseen man nicknamed "Concerned Citizen". It is not until the end of "You Can't Put a Price on a Life" where she finally sees that person is as dangerous as he says he is when he shows up to her office and holds her at gunpoint at the end of "You Can't Put a Price on a Life". The episodes after this one also deal with blowback from earlier cases, and questions about the paper's future.
- City Mouse: Big city, fast moving, energetic reporter Eileen in slower paced Alaska resembles the trope.
- Cliffhanger: The show was delayed several months after the hostage situation described above. The following episode shows the outcome.
- Determinator: Eileen will stop at nothing to get the scoop, even if it will end her job.
- Driven to Suicide: Jordan Teller commits suicide via airplane crash once his embezzlement is exposed.
- Ensign Newbie: Stanley appears to give Gabriel stories in a sink-or-swim manner.
- Fish out of Water: As part of the effort to paint Alaska is a wholly different setting than the contiguous United States and an interesting locale, the cultural differences between Eileen and the rest of the staff are emphasized.
- From New York to Nowhere: About as straight an example there is. Eileen lives in New York, sees Alaska as a huge step down.
- I Work Alone: Eileen says these exact words. Since the other reporters know the area better, she doesn't act this out in practice.
- Knight of Cerebus: "Concerned Citizen" establishes himself as this at the end of "You Can't Put a Price on a Life".
- Missing White Woman Syndrome: The show revolves on how law enforcement neglects attention and effort to crimes against indigenous women. Roz even lampshades the trope in the first episode by saying that the show's main victim, Gloria Nanmac, would have been strongly believed to be murdered and presented all over CNN if she was a blonde Caucasian girl.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Eileen wakes up naked in bed with Jaime in the first episode.
- One Degree of Separation: Several reporters with some stories
- Roz for the Gloria Nanmac death. She knows a few key people in the town who help with the case.
- Una knows the parents of a missing fighter pilot. The disappearance relates to Eileen's story and book, and events at a military base Austin is reporting on.
- Austin was married to a lawyer with information on a political story.
- Scenery Porn: There are a lot of exterior shots of the grandiosity and vast tundra of Alaska. Particularly in the third episode where Eileen and Roz ride a small plane from town to town.
- Suicide by Cop: How Concerned Citizen gets killed. Points an empty gun at Eileen, gets shot by police sniper.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Eileen foolishly thinks simply by holding by her story, despite all the evidence it's filled with errors, she can come out on top. Instead, she's fired and her reputation ruined in New York.
- The Daily Alaskan had been a big paper, but by the time Eileen gets there, it's been downsized to the point the paper works out of an abandoned strip mall.
- In the episode "Enemy of the People', Gabriel is hiding in a sideroom. He gets scared, accidentally makes some noise, and gets found. Also, Concerned citizen, who is a random angry person not connected to other stories, gets killed.
- The Voice: Eileen gets harassed and threatened by an unknown caller that goes by "Concerned Citizen". He is never seen physically until the end of "You Can't Put a Price on a Life" where he holds Eileen hostage at gunpoint.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Reporter Gabriel and subject Erica Block. Although the relationship is supposed to be professional, there's a fair amount of what can be read as giggling or flirting. Additionally, the music in the background seems to connote an emotional moment between the two. Of course, it's taboo to use a reporting job to hit on subjects, so it's for the better that Gabriel didn't act on it.
