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Leave it to Ethan Hawke, Sterlin Harjo, and the folks behind The Office to make local news fun.
We’ve talked here before about the dire status of real-life local news—a reason we’re so proud to honor the best in local audio and video reporting from across the nation every year. Print news is equally important, and yet the United States lost nearly 40 percent of all local newspapers over the last 20 years, according to Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative.
But some recent scripted shows have swooped in to do their part in reminding Americans that local news is a vital institution—by taking us behind the scenes of some fictional news gatherers who are wildly entertaining. The Lowdown and The Paper both take the importance of local news to heart, reminding us not only of its crucial role, but also of the drama and fun inherent in it. Neither has yet been eligible for a Peabody, but they embody the spirit of speaking truth to power at the levels where it can make the most difference. Both are from creative teams who have won Peabodys in the past—and have already been renewed for second seasons.
‘The Lowdown’
The Lowdown takes us inside the life of a freewheeling freelance writer named Lee Raybon, played by a charismatic, shambling Ethan Hawke. Lee identifies as a “truthstorian,” splitting his time between running a used bookstore and investigating the wealthy and powerful of Tulsa. Here, he finds himself consumed with the recent suspicious suicide of Dale Washberg (Tim Blake Nelson), the outcast of a family that seems to have its hand in nearly everything in town, from real estate to the upcoming governor’s election in which Dale’s charming brother Donald (Kyle MacLachlan) is the leading candidate. Creator Sterlin Harjo (a multiple Peabody winner for Reservation Dogs) meticulously builds a lived-in world full of colorful characters straight out of a pulp crime novel, with Lee’s delicate relationship with his adolescent daughter, Francis (a stunning Ryan Kiera Armstrong) at its center. He also shows how truly dogged, obsessive (if unethical at times) reporting is the only antidote to unchecked corruption.
Where to Watch: Disney+
‘The Paper’
The Paper‘s existence is something of a meta joke about spinoffs and reboots: Remember The Office? Well, the same fictional documentary crew has reassembled 12 years after that show’s end to follow the scrappy team trying to rebuild a local newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. The connection: The Office‘s paper company, Dunder Mifflin, has gone out of business and been sold to a corporation called Enervate, which makes office supplies and Softees toilet paper, but also happens to own a dying newspaper. Star toilet paper salesman Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleason), was given his pick of jobs in the company, and he unexpectedly chose editor-in-chief of the Truth Teller, with an idealistic dream of reviving it. The Paper really gets going as its team of mostly volunteer reporters (who pull double-duty with their Softees corporate positions) tackle the kinds of stories that are the lifeblood of local news, like water main breaks and questionable business practices at a local mattress store. The Office team also still knows its way around a simmering romance, building undeniable tension between Ned and his one serious reporter, Mare (breakout star Chelsea Frei). Despite a slow start, the first season finale’s journalism awards sequence builds to a genuinely swoonworthy conclusion.
Where to Watch: Peacock
How It Happened: ‘On set with Sterlin: Step behind the scenes of The Lowdown production in Tulsa’
It seems fitting to catch a glimpse of the series from a local publication, the Tulsa Flyer, which shared photos snapped by one of the show’s camera operators.
Where to Read: Tulsa Flyer
Further Listening: ‘The Paper, The Lowdown, and the Drama of Journalism’
The New Yorker‘s Critics at Large podcast takes on both shows, examining how their bumbling and fumbling paints journalists in a different light from serious films such as All the President’s Men and Spotlight.
Where to Listen: Critics at Large Podcast
A Look Back: ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’
The team at WJM flounders through live election coverage as a blizzard shuts down the communication systems providing the results, testing Mary’s newsroom leadership.