Alaska Daily has near identical scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic — 69% on the former and 67/100 on the latter — indicating that critics have warmed to the show.

“Watching it, I felt a sensation I hadn’t in far too long: This is something new,” wrote The Daily Beast’s Coleman Spilde. “This is the rare, modern network drama to balance mass appeal with semi-progressive ideology. Led by an absorbing performance from Swank … Alaska Daily is the most intriguing new show on network television.”

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Owen said that “there’s enough potential in Alaska Daily to easily be fall broadcast TV’s best drama pilot that it’s worth rooting for this series that’s earnest without being cloying, sincere without getting sappy.”

And Common Sense Media’ Monique Jones calls Alaska Daily “a powerful drama that both upholds the tenets of investigative journalism and puts the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) on its largest platform yet.”