The Weekly

The Weekly,” whose producers include Times employees like Sam Dolnick, the organization’s assistant managing editor, is so rooted in its view from the ground that it can neglect to bring viewers in and remind them that journalism is important for reasons other than that it happens at the Times. “The Weekly” may reach more viewers than does the daily news report, but it’s a forbiddingly closed circuit standing in for a paper that brings its readers the world.

Each bleak chapter takes you into the shallow waters of a top story already covered in-depth by the Times, following a clockwork episode formula that only serves to intensify an air of sanctimonious artifice: A NYT reporter introduces a controversial event via voiceover narration, interviews the vulnerable victims, adds up the facts for the audience, scrapes together a few hard-hitting soundbites from the villains in the climax and then sprinkles on a brief and bittersweet "where are they now" epilogue.