Spike it
A series on TV journalism, Reporters, fails miserably.
A disappointed MANNIKA CHOPRA sat through ten episodes and found it laughable.
After five minutes of watching Reporters you begin to ask yourself why this programme is being aired at all? The idea sounds promising enough, a primetime series focusing on the footsoldiers of the media world and with journalism allegedly being the natural habitat of truth, justice, and exposes of assorted malfeasances, it’s a made-for-TV idea.
Besides it has a great cast. Rajeev Khandelwal, remember him from his stellar role in Aamir? You are even willing to give the perky Kritika Kamra, host of MTV Webbed, a chance to prove herself. And for additional thrills and chills there is the wily Khalid consistently trussed up with a silk cravat like a bad present waiting to be opened.
By the sixth minute of viewing you know that Reporters, being shown on Sony, Mondays to Thursdays, on primetime, is horribly flawed. Worse, it is skewering television journalism, or what we think it should be, and causing indescribable media angst.
You have the first inkling of the dangers that lie ahead when you read the concept on the network’s website. “An emotionally charged drama woven around the lives of two people finding love in the complex world of journalism – where there is no right or wrong way of looking at news AND life,” (sic). This insightful nugget is followed by teaser promos of the series: to prove you can ‘create news’ out of anything, Khandelwal, media Superman Kabir Sharma, kisses Kamra, enthusiastic trainee reporter Ananya Kashyap, on air.
When Ananya responds by slapping him, we have this gem: “Namaskar! Humara aaj ka mudda hai nari par zabardasti. Aur yehi thappar hona chahiye hai har nari ka jawab…. (Today’s topic is sexual harassment and this slap should be the reaction of any woman who has been subjected to it). Even after this blatant hint of things of come, you still adopt a Zen-like attitude, convincing yourself that promos will be promos so let’s give this production a chance.
But when the opening frames of Episode One roll out and reporter/editor Sharma, now embedded with students of the ICN School of Journalism, tells them that “News ek nasha hai”, you know that nothing can save the integrity of the series. The plotline, perhaps based loosely on Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, aired sporadically on HBO Hits, has a fictional TV channel, KKN as opposed to Newsroom’s ACN.
Sharma, star political reporter with the daily, Delhi Kranti, manipulates his promotion as Editor-in Chief of KKN because “TV mein hi power hai” (television has the power). We know that Sharma is a ruthless, conniving, idiotic, egocentric because we see him scooping an exclusive story from an unsuspecting Ananya about an elderly, horny politician forcibly marrying a young, poverty stricken girl. He then moves off our screen in slow motion, silhouetted against a dark sky with a blanket draped around him like Superman’s cape as the drums roll. As any sms-savvy tween would say, OMG, LOL and WTF?
In the ten-odd episodes I have watched, it’s clear that the series is not about journalists investigating big issues or championing the underdog. It’s not about a tightly written, authentic script or a meaty,engrossing plot line. It’s not about a gender sensitive workplace drama. In fact, it’s replete with sexism.
The women by and large are simpering, unprofessional entities, mostly drooling over Kabir, a Master Misanthrope, except Ananya who, though also bubbly and lovestruck, is also a conscientious reporter.
Sadly, the drama is not even about good acting. Khandelwal’s acting has a cardboard-like quality to it. He prefers to look like a doltish filmy hero, who has taken to the small screen dressed in tight turquoise Ts to show-off his biceps rather than a reporter. In fact, Ananya is more of a natural, as is Ronny, the low-key news producer who, wouldn’t you know it, has a crush on Ananya.
As for news editor Malvika, the glossed up daughter of Daddy who owns the channel, she of the double entendres and unsuitable pencil skirts, the less said about her sell-indulgent character the better.
The sets are mediocre, the dialogue is trite, and the production values so childish it’s laughable. Where are the journalists’ high quality tools, a newsroom’s pulse and energy? This is 2015, so where are the shifts and references to digital journalism or social media platforms? Though Reporters is supposed to be a news channel you don’t hear the name of the BJP or Congress or for that matter any political party even a fictional one.
You can’t help compare Reporters with Sports Night, another Sorkin production that is currently airing on FX. The series airs, unfortunately for it, just after Sports Night in a midnight repeat. With its rat-a tat delivery, strong story line, stellar cast, Sports Night achieved a cult like following way back in the late 1990s and still has a huge fan following.
But these aren’t really the reasons I am so profoundly discontented with the series. This was a golden opportunity for director Goldie Behl to expose the well-oiled mad world of TV journalism and show how some news channels have been able to subvert the media.
The drama could have been not simply a review of what television news is today but a quick take on what it should be and could be. It could have been a deep and touching drama questioning the value systems of leading mediapersons with some romance and scandal thrown in it.
It could have been a homage to everything that is wrong in the world of television journalism. Alas it is far from that. Reporters prefers to live in the mediocre, ratings-friendly world of TRPs. It desperately needs to be rebooted.
(Mannika Chopra is a Delhi-based columnist who writes on the media.)
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