Every TV fan knows the power of the workplace comedy.
Sure, there’s “The Office” and two decades of its single camera successors — but it’s also the backdrop of everything from earlier hits like “Murphy Brown” and “The West Wing” and classic examples of the genre like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” To be a working American is to unwind by watching other working Americans.
It is in that rich tradition that “The Office” creator Greg Daniels teams up with co-creator Michael Koman for “The Paper,” which quickly sheds the pressure of a spinoff while introducing a new office full of people to love. Set in Ohio, the show follows a struggling local newspaper and its many employees. With no budget to hire real journalists, the “Toledo Truth Teller” sets out to become a local paper of repute, all while followed by the same documentary crew that captured “The Office.”
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There’s new editor-in-chief Ned (Domhnall Gleeson), online editor Esmeralda (Sabrina Impacciatore), writers (or those aspiring to be) Mare (Chelsea Frei), Nicole (Ramona Young), and Detrick (Melvin Gregg). Tracy Letts is a brilliant choice for a recurring executive who supports the “Truth Teller” while running a toilet paper empire (you read that right).
“The Paper” has much of what made “The Office” soar, with the benefit of an existing playbook (as well as the aforementioned workplace comedies and many more): bumbling bosses, budding romance, and Oscar Nuñez — reprising his role as Oscar Martinez in a new accounting job. The joke density is lethally calibrated between the writing, direction, performances, reactions, and heightened absurdity of any mundane situation. (The pilot includes Ned being locked in a room by his soon-to-be employees while they assess him as a security risk, and one of them noting, “We don’t know you, sir. Why should we know why you say the things you say?”).
The biggest critique that can be leveled at “The Paper” is that it introduces a lot of characters — no more or less than “The Office” in its first season, but with half as many episodes to get to know them, especially those along the periphery — but even those along the edges provide killer punchlines and a strong enough skeletal character to be built out moving forward. Consider Travis (Eric Rahill), Adelola (Gbemisola Ikumelo), Adam (Alex Edelman), and wizened journalism vet Barry (Duane R. Shepard Sr.). Showrunner Koman and the writing staff stick to a few standout dynamics in Season 1, but with lots more space to play in the future.
Gleeson is the de facto lead, armed with a solid American accent and Leslie Knope-esque love for journalism, but Impacciatore runs away with every scene from the start. To compare Esmeralda to Michael Scott would be a disservice (especially when more of that spirit can be found in Tim Key’s supervisor Ken), but on paper she fills the role of a slightly obtuse authority figure preoccupied with her own agenda. In practice, she’s outrageously entertaining, from line readings to body language to glimpses of Esmeralda’s genuine street smarts (or lackthereof, which provide some of the season’s biggest laughs in Episode 5, “Scam Alert!”).
The first 10 episodes chronicle the day-to-day of keeping the “Truth Teller” afloat, a struggle that feels as futile as Dunder Mifflin’s quest to sell paper did in 2005 (and hits extremely close to home if you happen to be working in news media, ahem). With the focus on local news and the paper’s staff, “The Paper” indulges in world-building its workplace like its predecessor or “Parks and Recreation” or “Abbott Elementary” and so much other esteemed company. If you’ve never imagined how a newspaper staff might co-work with toilet paper sales workers, that’s about to change.
The bingeable first season will leave everyone from “Office” diehards to new viewers wanting more — which is just as well, since Peacock ordered a second season a day before its debut. While we hope for a bigger episode order and quick turnaround, the “Truth Teller” staff will be reporting for duty, available to stream and make us laugh any time.
Grade: A
All 10 episodes of “The Paper” Season 1 will premiere Thursday, September 4 on Peacock.
