Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Press’ On PBS, A ‘Masterpiece’ Miniseries Where Two British Newspapers Battle For Stories And Eyeballs

Newspapers may be dying, but they’re still extremely important in our society; without them, people will be left in the dark about all sorts of news, from world events to government and corporate malfeasance. But in 2019, the battle for stories and readers is fiercer than ever. A new PBS miniseries contrasts the news gathering methods of two different British papers, and the hard-nosed reporters that work at each. Read on for more…

PRESS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman with a vacant look on her face walks down the cubicle-lined office, followed by her boss. She goes out the front door of her building at The Herald and tells gathered reporters. “My name is Holly Evans. I’m a journalist.”

The Gist: Three months earlier, Evans (Charlotte Riley), a deputy news editor at The Herald, wakes up and sees a handmade birthday card from her roommate Dee, and tears it up. Not a sentimental sort, she puts the birthday gift she gets from her best work friend, investigative reporter James Edwards (Al Weaver), in her bottom drawer. She’s got more important things to do, namely look into the hit and run case of a woman who was killed by a police vehicle.

Young reporter Ed Washburn (Paapa Essiedu) is outside a house, nervous as can be. He’s a reporter for the Post, a notorious tabloid, and he has to do his first “death knock.” He’s pursuing the story of a soccer star that just committed suicide and he has to knock on his parents’ door and get an interview. He manages to get it by saying the piece will be a “tribute.”

But The Post‘s executive editor, Duncan Allen (Ben Chaplin), gets info on the soccer star from his other reporters that needs to go into the story; the star was closeted and he had he had received emails threatening to out him. In an editorial meeting, he directs Washburn to go back to the parents to get a response; Washburn doesn’t the star’s parents to find out that way, but that’s none of Allen’s concern. “Our job is to deliver the news,” Allen shoots back.

Over at The Herald, executive editor Amina Chaudury (Priyanga Burford) wants to couch the story in terms of a young promising athlete losing his life to depression. They’re not in the market to sensationalize stories like The Post is wont to do. Another story that both papers have, 30-year-old compromising photos of an MP who is a strong advocate for women’s rights, gets treated differently: The Post offers her the chance to respond if she poses with a scantily-clad woman promoting the paper’s “Check Me Out” breast cancer awareness promotion, and The Herald offers to cover it in a feature on misogyny. But The Post manages to get other photos from that day, ones that include the MP snorting lines of blow, and the MP is forced to resign.

Meanwhile, Holly is looking for surveillance video of the hit-and-run, but finds out The Post took some key footage. In a massive protocol breach, she emails Duncan to ask for the footage, and he says no, especially because he remembers Holly’s critical articles of him and The Post‘s brand of journalism. But he changes his mind, realizing how good Holly is, and sends the footage for nothing in return. We find out after Hannah encounters Ed in a pub and takes him back to her place why she was so adamant about getting the video.

Our Take: Press is a BBC-produced miniseries airing in the U.S. on Masterpiece, and it’s servicing two purposes. Created by Mike Bartlett (Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned), it’s trying to illustrate how high-minded publications like The Herald (a not-so-veiled stand-in for The Guardian) and down-in-the-gutter tabloids like The Post (a not-so-veiled stand-in for The Sun) fight for stories and eyeballs in an era where newspapers are hemorrhaging money. By contrasting how each paper deals with the same story, Bartlett shows how these journalists see the news and themselves.

The people from The Herald think the staff of The Post aren’t really journalists, while the staff of The Post think the staff of The Herald have trouble breaking any kind of viral news from atop their high horses. But both have problems: The Herald is losing readership, both in print and online, and The Post loses money hand over fist, as the paper’s owner, George Emmerson (David Suchet) takes every opportunity to mention to Allen. Bartlett does a fine job illustrating this dichotomy, especially positioning the two papers caddy-corner from each other. The reporters mix and mingle, encounter each other getting coffee from the truck between the buildings, but yet for the most part they keep their distance. It’s an inventive way to show the contrast in this slugfest, and will fuel the drama as the miniseries continues.

But then there’s the personal drama, which is always frustrating. Why? Because, like every show involving journalists, they’re written as hollow husks that throw themselves into their jobs to the exclusion of a fulfilling life. Allen is more concerned about making a competent MP resign than see what his wife’s new hairstyle looks like, and Holly’s intense manner is nailed by a conservative author who visits the newsroom, who pegs that Holly wishes she was pounding the pavement for stories instead of being what’s essentially a middle manager.

Listen, if Press were just about the battles between major newspapers, it would likely be less entertaining to the general public. So each character has to be sanctimonious about their role in society, which they need to be because their personal lives are a disaster and they’re defined by their work. It always makes our eyes roll, but we tend to have to accept it, just like lawyers think all law shows suck or doctors hate every hospital show except Scrubs.

Sex and Skin: Besides Holly and Ed hooking up (and they don’t get too far), everyone is pretty chaste.

Parting Shot: At 2 AM, Holly sends an e-mail of the video of the hit-and-run to the police, asking for comment. Then she writes the story “Justice for Andrea Reed.” She’s got a personal stake in the story, which no one else knows about (which is just so, so ethical).

Sleeper Star: We haven’t mentioned Weaver as James Edwards, but there’s a subplot where he’s following up a leak about a new MI5 initiative, but can’t go with the vague info his source has like he used to in the old days. He’s fighting for his job and he needs to come with real proof.

Most Pilot-y Line: The conservative author ends up penning a piece for The Post about how lazy the folks at The Herald are. That little plot device, where the author is a mole, is just plain stupid. Are the folks at The Herald that dense?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Press shines when it focuses on how the different papers handle the same story. Its more eye-rolling aspects aren’t a huge factor, at least in the first episode, which is a plus.

Your Call:

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Press On PBS.org