DN:SERIES The Weekly
There’s a curious new doc offering streaming on Hulu, a partnership between the platform, its sister outlet FX and the venerable but spry Grey Lady of journalism, “The New York Times.” “The Weekly” promises to provide a deep dive into the process of top-tier investigative journalism, rather than doing actual investigating. The Weekly is so remarkably of the moment—so self-perpetuating, brand-building and Woodward-and-Bernstein-level inspiring—that it deserves attention.
The first episodes, available now, follow a template: Intrepid “Times” reporters—curious, idealistic, young—uncover a story with heartbreaking rip-off at the center, dig into it, break the news and then—here’s the kicker—the world shifts because of the reporters’ work.
Episode 1 focuses on a sketchy college-prep school that seems to have bamboozled both its students, and the colleges that accepted them, through bold efforts to fudge records (a kid’s transcript looks great because of his success in Mandarin, except that he never took the class, etc.). The result of “The Times” report? Significant legal investigations into the school, plus the potential disruption of the kids’ college tracks.
But it’s the story around the story of Episode 2, that shows what The Weekly is setting out to do. That one looks at the grim traps laid for New York City cab medallion owners, cabbies who spent untold fortunes to buy cab-operating licenses through brokers, only to see the medallions' values plummet while they are locked into an inescapable downward trajectories of debt and fees. The trigger for the paper’s coverage was the horrifying recent occasions of several cab- and hire-car drivers in New York, individuals apparently pushed to such levels of desperation by their industry. Again, The Weekly follows the work that already led to continuing coverage by “The Times.” What pushes it over is the next step that unfolded in the story, the June 12 announcement from the New York City Council that it was unveiling a package of bills at supporting the industry and its drivers, while, simultaneously, New York City mayor (and Democratic presidential wild optimist) Bill de Blasio announced that the city will eliminate as much as $10 million in fees to medallion owners. Where was this reported? Why, “The New York Times.”
In other words, this journalism led directly to significant legislative relief—and The Weekly was there to capture it in real time—and to point viewers back to the source reportorial work. It’s a celebration of the passion demanded by this kind of work, and the real-world effects it can have. And if it loops you back to signing up for an online sub to “The Times,” or plunking down the monthly subscription fee for Hulu, well, that’s just fine too.
Airing on FX and Hulu