The Paper Season 1 Review

It's not the OFfice and that's Okay

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WARNING: THIS ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN spoilers from The Paper Season 1 and it's prequel series The Office. CONSIDER WHEN AND WHERE IT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE TO READ THIS PIECE. 

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One Paper to Another

The new ensemble cast

I think a lot of people, not only in the USA, but around the world, would agree that The Office (USA) is the pinnacle of workplace-based television shows. While the Steve Carrell led show was an adaptation itself of the British comedy created by Ricky Gervais, no other adaptation has really caught on with a wider public audience like the American version did when it hit the airwaves back in 2005.

A lot of that success has to be placed on the shoulders of Showrunner Greg Daniels, who fused his own sitcom style into that of Gervais’ raw vision. Twenty years after launching the legendary series, Daniels is back with an actual sequel series of sorts called The Paper, that exists directly in the same world as the Michael Scott-run Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. Now developed as a Peacock series made specifically for streaming, The Paper is a lot more than a nostalgia tour for The Office fans as it trades in one type of paper for another.

Like The Office, The Paper turns a less popular city into a character of its own. Revolving around a decaying newspaper team based in Toledo, Ohio, the documentary team behind the paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania 20 years ago, has now found their new subject. The Toledo Truth-Teller is a far cry from its former glory days as a leading newspaper, but former top toilet paper salesman, Domhnall Gleeson’s Ned Sampson, embarks on the tall task of being the new editor-in-chief in order to resurrect the paper from its ad-ridden churnalism. 

Ned quickly runs into a problem as he realizes none of the staff at the Truth-Teller actually knows anything about journalism. With the exception of Mare, the paper’s compositor, who might be the only actual competent employee at the entire company, Ned embarks on a season-long journey to make reporters out of his team of misfits.

While Michael Scott’s staff at the Scranton Dunder Mifflin branch redefined what it means to be an ensemble sitcom cast, I genuinely found myself quickly connecting with the staff at TTT. Each character had a certain type of charm that was amusing, relatable and frustrating in their own rights. I appreciated that it wasn’t a clone of The Office either, despite carrying through with similar themes. When I reviewed another nostalgic revival in Happy Gilmore 2 earlier this year, I found that sequel to be an extremely forceful rehash of old jokes and gags that just weren’t as funny 20 years later. They were forced and essentially became a run through of greatest hits from the original film.

Oscar made the move to Toledo

The Paper feels like The Office in tone and manner, but the characters and story define a distinct identity of its own. While the rich history of The Office is sprinkled all around with nods and background dialogue, the main anchor connecting the two franchises together is Oscar Martinez. In Episode 1 of this new show, we find out from Bob Vance who still works in Scranton that the paper company that he shared the same office building with went out of business nearly 6 years ago. Some of the old staff still stay in touch, but everyone has since gone their own way. As the documentary crew moves onto its current subject, a familiar face pops up during the tour. Now working in Toledo as TTT’s head accountant, Oscar is very reluctant to go through the entire filming process again.

While Oscar was an easy way to get The Office fans to tune into the new show, he didn’t end up as the main reason why I wanted to binge the rest of the show. Like he was in the original show, Oscar just simply meshed back into an ensemble cast that fed off of one another so well.

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The signature The Office-styled interviews are back

Similar but Different

The Pam and Jim equivalents for The Paper are clearly Ned and Mare. In this particular dynamic, we get to see a unique boss and employee stigma play out in a surprisingly non-awkward way. For a sitcom that relies so heavily on awkwardness, this twosome was incredibly natural. Ned’s boss persona is a significant departure from the immaturity and attention seeking ways of Michael Scott. The boss’ genuine dedication and desire to revive TTT makes for funny scenarios to see just how far he’d go to accomplish this goal. Chelsea Frei plays a sensational Mare. The straight man of the company, as she’s a former servicewoman who can handle her own business, serves as the normalcy that the viewer can relate to. They’re a really cute match to watch form throughout this first season.

Another stalwart character that I didn’t think I would enjoy as much as I did was Sabrina Impacciatore’s Esmeralda Grand. This character and Tim Key’s Ken Davies are the two peas in a pod that feed into the Michael Scott energy for this tv series. As a comedic duo, Esmeralda and Ken are the perfect bumbling, colluding, narcissists who constantly trip on their own two feet executing their schemes. They don’t always hit with their shtick, but I will say that Esmeralda carries a lot of the show’s zingers and memorable one-liners.

What Works and What Doesn’t

Speaking of sitcom humor, there was more to laugh about then there was to be bored with. That’s a recipe for success. While I wouldn’t say that every minute of the show was must watch television like I would say most of The Office’s nine season run was, the overarching story here in the first season didn’t overstay its welcome. The characters go through some growth spurts as well as relationship developments all within the confines of the ten episode run. Out of the ten episodes, I’d say “Scam Alert!” and “TTT vs the Blogger” were the standout episodes of the season. The commentary and understanding of where the direction of what we now call "modern journalism is so well crafted together on screen. The show is making light of a dying industry, but it’s also rightfully able to identify why the industry is dying in an enjoyable way. Just the opening intro showcases the varying applications of what people use newspapers for. It is so genius.

On the flipside of things, Season 1 Episode 7’s “I Love You” was a slogfest to get through for me. When sitcoms stick with a play that isn’t that funny for too long, it just gets more and more unentertaining by the minute. I didn’t find much humor in the daddy issue storyline that kind of came out of nowhere. Ned and his boss Marv, the CEO of Enervate (yes, THAT company that bought out Dunder Mifflin), had no rapport in prior episodes that would have any kind of setup for this strange relationship shift. A good example of a setup that pays off is when Esmeralda plants the seed in Ned’s head that Mare is asexual. Later down the line, this white lie leads to some tension between the characters that actually was beneficial to their relationship in the long run. The “I Love you” subject manner just flies by and disappears. While The Paper does have an episodic format, I actually felt like the show did a fine job building up towards a greater storyline for the most part so I was quite disappointed with the way Episode 7 played out.

Lightning in a Bottle again?

Streaming Now

All ten episodes of season one are now available to stream on Peacock.

Lightning rarely strikes a bottle twice. The Paper isn’t The Office and it never will be. However, after watching The Office (AU) on Prime Video last year and feeling a bit disappointed with the direction the show was adapted, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how at home I felt with The Paper. I believe there have been 13 (and counting) adaptations of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s franchise, and while they all have certain charm to them, I think I know why I enjoyed the USA version so much. After The Paper, I can definitely confirm it’s because of the vision that producer Greg Daniels has for the sitcom.

I read a comment from social media before that compared the original British show with the USA version and it resonated with me every since. The Office (British) centers around socially awkward co-workers, while The Office (USA) features awkwardly social co-workers. It might be a cultural difference, but that difference does make the enjoyment and humor stick more to me as an American. The Paper follows that same American structure that I find endearing and I’m actually excited for the second season which was confirmed by Peacock prior to the series premiere.  

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