The entertainment business loves telling stories about journalism and media. If you’re like me, you eat up those stories — from various movies about reporters doggedly pursuing difficult investigations to a show about a ridiculously wealthy family whose haunting patriarch rules over a media empire. Far from an exhaustive list, here are some media-focused and media-adjacent series and movies you can watch during the holiday break.
‘Succession’
There’s a big question that looms over “Succession”: Which of Logan Roy’s four adult children will run his media conglomerate when he steps aside? That is, if he steps aside. For four seasons, the Emmy-winning satirical comedy-drama had fans in a chokehold until its series finale this past spring. We watched as members of the Roy family fought, schemed, lied and tried to claw for control of the company. It was entertainingly repulsive.
As New Yorker staff writer Rebecca Mead put it, “Succession” became “an ensemble exploration of gnarled humanity at the highest levels of power, offering resonances with contemporary media dynasties and the Julio-Claudians alike.”
(How to watch: Streaming on Max)
‘The Morning Show’
The Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon is a drama that examines the people and culture behind a network broadcast morning news program.
The show’s premiere centered on morning show anchor Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) being fired by his network over allegations of sexual misconduct. His co-anchor, Alex Levy (Aniston), is left devastated at the news surrounding her “TV husband.”
Since its premiere, the show has been a top performer for Apple’s streaming service. And fans can now look forward to a fourth season full of controversy, betrayal and the cutthroat politics of morning television.
(How to watch: Streaming on Apple TV+)
‘Boston Strangler’
Released by Hulu this past spring, this true-crime film is based on the story of reporter Loretta McLaughlin, who broke the story of the Boston Strangler killings of 13 women during the 1960s.
In the film, McLaughlin is assigned to do a product review of a new Sunbeam toaster as part of her work. But she begins investigating the killings on her own time and teams up with fellow reporter Jean Cole to follow the threads of the murders of different women in the area.
(How to watch: Streaming on Hulu)
‘All The President’s Men’
This 1976 journalism classic follows Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) as they uncover and investigate the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
During the film, based on Woodward and Bernstein’s nonfiction book, we watch as the journalists team up to peel back the layers of the Watergate complex burglary and go through great pains to obtain any information they can from fearful sources. We see both the granularity and great importance of investigative journalism.
(How to watch: Streaming on Amazon Prime Video)
‘Spotlight’
We could probably call this Best Picture-winning film this generation’s “All the President’s Men.” The 2015 biographical drama follows The Boston Globe’s investigative unit, Spotlight, and their Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into cases of systemic child sex abuse in the Boston region by numerous Catholic priests.
Featuring an all-star cast including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Michael Keaton, the film follows the small team of reporters as they work to uncover a decadeslong cover-up of abuse within the Catholic Church.
(How to watch: Streaming on Max)
‘She Said’
This 2022 drama film follows New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan), whose 2017 investigation exposed Harvey Weinstein’s history of abuse and sexual misconduct against women. The journalists later won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service along with a team of colleagues who exposed harassment across industries.
In one scene, Kantor explained, “We’re looking at extreme sexual harassment in the workplace. These young women walked into what they all had reason to believe were business meetings with a producer, an employer. They were hopeful.”
Kantor said that, instead, Weinstein met them with threats and sexual demands.
“They claim assault and rape,” Kantor said. “If that can happen to Hollywood actresses, who else is it happening to?”
(How to watch: Streaming on Amazon Prime Video)
MORE FROM POYNTER: The New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story share advice for student journalists
‘Bombshell’
In 2016, former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against Roger Ailes, the chairman of the cable conservative news channel. She accused him of explicitly asking her for a sexual relationship during a meeting in his office. After the suit, more women came forward with their own allegations of sexual harassment against Ailes.
Ailes was later ousted.
“Bombshell” is a 2019 drama about the women at Fox News who worked to expose Ailes. It stars Academy Award-winning actresses Nicole Kidman (who plays Carlson) and Charlize Theron (who plays Megyn Kelly), and Margot Robbie as a composite character named Kayla Pospisil.
In her review for RogerEbert.com, film critic Christy Lemire wrote that the film “depicts, with equal parts bemusement and outrage, the explosion that occurred when the women of Fox News Channel dared to expose the culture of sexual harassment that had prevailed for so long at the cable television juggernaut.”
(How to watch: Available to rent on YouTube, Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video)
‘Shattered Glass’
Stephen Glass, a former journalist at The New Republic, was found to have fabricated many of his published articles. This 2003 film follows his story.
Hayden Christensen portrays Glass, who wants to be adored by his colleagues. He compliments the receptionist’s necklace, and brings soda to a colleague during a busy day. For the most part, it seems like his charm works in the office. But then conflict arises in one of Glass’s stories, and later his lies about his work unravel.
In an interview with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien five years after he was fired from The New Republic, Glass described “Shattered Glass” as his own “personal horror film.”
O’Brien noted the lengths he went to cover his tracks.
“You’d create websites. You’d create emails. You would create phone messages,” O’Brien said. “It almost seemed much easier to actually just tell the truth.”
(How to watch: Available on YouTube and Amazon Prime Video for free with ads)
‘Being Mary Jane’
A hit show on BET that spanned five seasons, this drama centered on Mary Jane Paul (Gabrielle Union), a cable news anchor who has a successful career, designer clothes and a gorgeous home. She seems to have it all. But under the surface is chaos in her personal life.
There’s a lot going on in this entertaining series: a rotating cast of steamy love interests, difficulties in her life and career as a Black woman and television anchor striving to tell important stories and shifting dynamics with her family.
(How to watch: Streaming on BET+)
‘The Newsroom’
This drama series ran on HBO for three seasons and featured an ensemble cast led by Jeff Daniels. The show centered on the behind-the-scenes action at the fictional Atlantis Cable News channel. Daniels starred as Will McAvoy, the volatile anchor and managing editor of “News Night.”
“He’s a guy that is in the cable news world, and has settled,” Daniels said of his character in a 2012 interview with ABC News’ Peter Travers. “He’s very comfortable. He’s very popular doing what he does. And he gets in trouble when he’s pushed.”
Viewers can expect plenty of drama, corporate obstacles and personal issues.
(How to watch: Streaming on Max)
‘Bridgerton’
This one is a stretch, but stick with me. I was one of many viewers who got sucked into the over-the-top historical fiction-romance series on Netflix. Set against the backdrop of the Regency era, this show’s got love, scandal and a multiracial cast that historically has been seldom seen in British period dramas.
In season one, the hidden identity of the show’s narrator, Lady Whistledown, intrigued me. The name is a pseudonym for the writer of Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers, a popular social pamphlet that today would be considered a gossip rag.
Barely a minute into the first episode and she’s already dragging her first subjects.
“Consider the household of the Baron Featherington,” Lady Whistledown says as a young woman is being squeezed into a tight corset. “Three misses foisted upon the marriage market like sorrowful sows by their tasteless, tactless mama.”
People eagerly await the delivery of Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers, and rush to read it.
Wish more people felt that way about their local newspaper.
(How to watch: Streaming on Netflix)
