The Paper Review
It shouldn’t be controversial to say that The Office (US) did not need a sequel. It did not need an extended universe. While it’s a favourite of many, no one was clamouring for more. And yet, more than a decade after the series ended, The Paper has landed on our doorsteps. In the new show, the documentary crew that once filmed Dunder Mifflin finds itself following a bottom-of-the-barrel local newspaper in Toledo—and, of course, its plucky, overenthusiastic new leader who wants to make it something great. Add in a staff of quirky characters and you’ve got yourself a sitcom.
There’s nothing novel about the series. The characters don’t come with many surprises, relationship arcs can be divined from the first episode, and plot points don’t carry much weight. Some plotlines are especially juvenile—one focuses on the paper company’s main products, toilet paper and related paraphernalia, and another on gas station ‘male enhancement’ pills. They’re a slog to get through, and dull sparks in the performances.
Domhall Gleeson is great as the editor-in-chief, desperate to drag the Toledo Truthteller up by its bootstraps, and Chelsea Frei is a strong, down-to-earth second-in-command as Mare Pritti, a former military journalist disappointed by her current career. The rest of the ensemble rounds out the newsroom, either close enough to people you recognise that you can sympathise with them or comically exaggerated enough to entertain. The writing, too, has merit, with genuinely funny gags and clever background details that hint at what the show could be. It’s light on the more emotional moments, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing—and, if this becomes a longer-running series, they’re certain to crop up. Based on past performance, it seems likely that they’ll be well-executed.
Yet what holds The Paper back most of all is its insistence on harking back to The Office. There’s no reason for the series to be tied together aside from bringing in loyal audiences, occasional comments and asides included solely for viewers to be able to chuckle and remember when Jim Office said that one thing one time. It’s frustrating and rarely benefits the show. Surprisingly, the only time that it does have some merit is in Oscar Nunez’s reprisal of his role from the original series. His pure horror at the thought of being filmed all over again, then slow acceptance of and cooperation with the crew, produces some actual laughs and is a fun subplot. Nevertheless, the pros certainly do not outweigh the cons.
Despite all this, though, The Paper offers nothing new and has little chance of standing out amid the standout workplace comedies that have been released since The Office (Superstore and the more recent St Denis Medical come to mind), it’s easy to be charmed by the series. The low-stakes nature of it all, coupled with a committed cast and delivered in a tried-and-tested formula, results in an easy, passively enjoyable watch. It won’t set the world on fire, but it’s fun. And, sometimes, that’s what you want.
★★★
On Sky/NOW TV from September 5th / Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Oscar Nunez, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Tim Key / Created by Greg Daniels & Michael Koman
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