The Fourth Estate

The thing about newsrooms is that they’re full of characters, and always have been, even before Twitter made us count them. The Fourth Estate gets that and shows the people behind the bylines, the podcasts, and the tweets. ... You might see, yes, how hard they try, but also why--and even, amid their obvious exhaustion, how much fun they have doing it.

The series is mostly an engrossing, behind-the-scenes look at a journalistic renaissance driven by the upheaval in Washington. But the fatigue that reporters experience from the barrage of breaking news, and the partisan rancor that makes their jobs so difficult, wears on the viewer as well. ... Yet the series does capture the excitement and crush of journalism today by throwing itself into an exhaustive news cycle.

Regardless of its flaws, The Fourth Estate is the equivalent of mainlining pure political-news heroin, a fascinating fly-on-the-wall look at the frantic and unenviable lifestyle of those genuinely doing their best to provide honest and aggressive journalism in the face of a government intent on muzzling it.

Because The Fourth Estate is less a documentary about the Times than a document of the struggle to report on Trump, it is--though smart and gripping--a frustrating heap of unfinished business.

Tthis emphasis on the fret and care that goes into every word in every story, especially those that shift the conversation and attract the ire of the president, can also drag the energy down. ... Nevertheless, when The Fourth Estate hits its stride, it provides quite an education about the challenges facing every news outlet, concretized in one of America’s top publications.