{"id":117248,"date":"2025-09-03T17:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T17:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/117248\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T17:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T17:31:07","slug":"peacocks-solid-the-office-spinoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/117248\/","title":{"rendered":"Peacock’s Solid ‘The Office’ Spinoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe first season of The Paper<\/a>, Peacock<\/a>\u2018s sorta kinda demi-spinoff of NBC\u2019s The Office<\/a>, is better than the first season of that show or the first season of NBC\u2019s Parks and Recreation<\/a>, which started its own creative life as a sorta kinda demi-spinoff of The Office before it became merely a stylistic and spiritual companion.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is one of those things that sounds like a big deal if you put it on a billboard \u2014 \u201cThe Paper Is Better Than The Office or Parks and Recreation!\u201d. But it is, ultimately, a reminder that The Office launched with a bumpy first season that struggled to blend new episodes and ill-fated remakes of the beloved BBC series before finding is own unique rhythms, while Parks and Recreation underwent one of TV\u2019s all-time great transformations from a six-episode opening run of clunkers to a near-perfect second season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Paper\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tBeats the first runs of NBC’s ‘The Office’ and ‘Parks and Rec.’<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAirdate:\u00a0 Thursday, September 4 (Peacock)
Creators: Greg Daniels and Michael Komen
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, Tim Key and Oscar Nu\u00f1ez \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Paper, created by Greg Daniels<\/a> and Michael Koman, settles into its voice swiftly. Echoing, if not reproducing, the elements that made The Office such a venerable success, The Paper is quick to capitalize on the strengths of its impressive ensemble and to mine the versatility of its fresh workplace, delivering a 10-episode initial run that is frequently funny, occasionally pointed and, more than anything, consistent.\u00a0(Peacock has already renewed<\/a> the series.) <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter a strained and generally unfunny introduction that loosely connects The Office to the new series, The Paper takes us to Toledo and the offices of the Toledo Truth-Teller. It\u2019s a once-proud regional newspaper, itself the subject of a \u201970s Maysles\/Wiseman-style documentary (in clips featuring Tracy Letts), fallen on hard times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tToday, the Truth-Teller shares office space with a toilet paper company. Interim managing editor Esmeralda Grand (Sabrina Impacciatore<\/a>) has mastered the art of Buzzfeed-style clickbait content for the website, TTTOnline, while the print edition is stumbling along with only a pair of reporters: Stars & Stripes veteran Mare Pritti (Chelsea Frei), who yearns to do journalism but mostly pulls stories off of the wire; and aging Barry (Duane R. Shepard Sr.), who yearns to nap.<\/p>\n

\n\tNon-editorial staff include Nicole (Ramona Young) in circulation, Detrick (Melvin Gregg) in ad sales, and a robust accounting department featuring Adelola (Gbemisola Ikumelo), Adam (Alex Edelman) and Oscar (Oscar Nunez). Yes, The Office fans, THAT Oscar<\/a>, very much chagrinned to find himself followed by a documentary crew again.<\/p>\n

\n\tNed (Domhnall Gleeson<\/a>), who set aside youthful journalistic dreams to become a superstar toilet paper salesman, arrives at the Truth-Teller elevated all the way to editor-in-chief and immediately clashes with Esmeralda and sniveling corporate middle-man Ken (Tim Keys).<\/p>\n

\n\tDetermined to revitalize the paper, but without any financial resources to speak of, Ned invites the paper\u2019s staff, plus any interested parties from the toilet paper company, to serve as volunteer writers.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ll notice several problems off the top. By treating the paper business as antiquated and doomed, The Office probably offended some people in that industry, one that\u2019s less capable of turning that irritation into platformed discontent like a passel of ink-stained wretches. So The Paper treats journalism as aspirational \u2014 Ned describes over-romanticizing as one of his main faults. But in a business on real-world life support, how idealistic is it to suggest that it\u2019s a job that can be done by volunteers? So, after the pilot, The Paper glosses over the \u201cvolunteer\u201d part of its plot, briefly acknowledging several ethical bugaboos before returning to its Bad News Bears \u2014 emphasis on \u201cnews\u201d \u2014 underdog story. If you have a premise you have to run away from, that isn\u2019t ideal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCould this story be told without Oscar? Completely, which isn\u2019t a great sign either. Other than the prickly familiarity of his interactions with the documentary crew, Oscar is least funny when he\u2019s being most directly referential to the original series, when he\u2019s referring to his conversations with Stanley or directly quoting Michael Scott quoting Michael Jordan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat Oscar allows, I suppose, is for The Paper\u2018s nods to The Office to feel like homage and not theft. It\u2019s the difference, in Star Wars terms, between J.J. Abrams\u2019 The Force Awakens and Zack Snyder\u2019s Rebel Moon. The former was saluted for giving fans what they wanted within a familiar and comforting genre universe and the latter was accused of ripping off that genre universe. The Paper panders, but it panders with affection.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Paper can\u2019t just write The Office and call it something new, but it can be savvily aware of the things that worked on The Office and supply them to viewers directly and with variations to see what sticks. None of the characters has a precise Office counterpart, but there are ample adjacencies, with Ned coming across as privileged and cheery in a way that recalls Ed Helms\u2019 Andy; Ken and Esmeralda taking several of Michael Scott\u2019s worst traits; Barry offering hints of Creed, etc. If the slow-burn romances between Jim and Pam and, eventually, Dwight and Angela gave the original series heart, The Paper establishes several workplace pairings immediately and plainly, accelerating their advancement.<\/p>\n

\n\tFormally, the all-star team of mockumentary-trained directors \u2014 from Daniels to Ken Kwapis to Yana Gorskaya to Jason Woliner to Jeffrey Blitz \u2014 makes effective use of the nonfiction aesthetic, maintaining jittery energy whether episodes are contained entirely within the ultra-familiar office environment or venture out into a washed-out version of the Midwest. Plotlines generally involve a story or two that our intrepid near-volunteers are pursuing, including a serial catfisher who targets Esmeralda, a regional farm that may also be a cult and Ned\u2019s rivalry with a local high school blogger. A finale that echoes in several ways the iconic \u201cCasino Night\u201d episode of The Office offers a reminder that these 10 episodes burn through several seasons of ideal narrative and character arcs.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth holding the show together and offering hope that The Paper might eventually go from good to great is the cast which, like The Office, features several overlaps with the writing staff, an asset for efficiently targeting performing strengths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tExpect Impacciatore to be a little polarizing, because the White Lotus veteran is working in a broad register that nobody else is attempting. It isn\u2019t exactly her fault, because Esmeralda has been drafted as too obvious an adversary to always be believable, but when it comes to laugh-out-loud moments in this season, Impacciatore scores a disproportionate number, possibly more than the rest of the cast combined. She\u2019s so funny, and the humor emanates so thoroughly from her impeccable timing and off-kilter line-readings, that I hope the writers will realize they don\u2019t need to lean so heavily into \u201cforeign character who speaks impeccable English except for when we need a malapropism-driven punchline\u201d clich\u00e9s (not that the writers on Modern Family ever learned that lesson with Sofia Vergara\u2019s Gloria).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe writers are still trying to find the elements that will make Gleeson more than a likable straight-man, though his\/Ned\u2019s tendency toward happy-dancing is a good start. He and Frei, the best at non-verbal interactions with the camera crew, have an utterly appealing chemistry, which is undone for a while by a subplot in which Ned thinks Mare is asexual, which is even less amusing than it sounds.<\/p>\n

\n\tVeteran scene-stealers Young (Never Have I Ever), Gregg (American Vandal<\/a>) and Key (Alan Partridge) need very little material to make vivid impressions. Ditto British writer-star Ikumelo and expertly uncomfortable stand-up favorite Edelman, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAiring on Peacock, where seasons aren\u2019t likely to expand beyond 10 episodes, may be a liability for The Paper. The cast could benefit from more screen time and the writers could probably use more episodes to fully wiggle their way out of the initial premise. That, more than sheer potential, could be what limits this show from keeping up with The Office and Parks and Recreation, but at least it\u2019s off to a faster start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first season of The Paper, Peacock\u2018s sorta kinda demi-spinoff of NBC\u2019s The Office, is better than the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,35703,75,65493,5250,58074,18292,35683,348],"class_list":["post-117248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-domhnall-gleeson","tag-entertainment","tag-greg-daniels","tag-peacock","tag-sabrina-impacciatore","tag-the-office","tag-the-paper","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}