![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/The-Paper-Key-Art-scaled.jpg\")
THE GOOD \u2013 Well-acted and harkening on familiar beats that spark nostalgia. An easy, bingeable watch for those who miss the comedy of the past.<\/p>\nTHE STORY \u2013 Following up on the story from \u201cThe Office,\u201d the documentary crew that immortalized Dunder Mifflin\u2019s Scranton branch discovers a disappearing Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it with volunteer reporters. This mockumentary follows the daily lives and struggles of dreamers in love with journalism, and their less-than-competent co-workers, trying to deliver accurate news without the resources or training to do a great job.<\/p>\n
THE CAST \u2013 Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Oscar Nu\u00f1ez, Ramona Young, Melvin Gregg, Tim Key, Alex Edelman & Gbemisola Ikumelo<\/p>\n
THE TEAM \u2013 Greg Daniels & Michael Koman (Creators)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Are mockumentaries back? In a world as unsettled as ours in 2025, many of us (including myself) retreat to old, familiar comfort shows to ease anxiety and quiet the noise. But plenty of us hold these old comforts in sacred, almost deity-esque light. Much like\u00a0\u201cSeinfeld\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cFriends\u201d\u00a0before them, shows like\u00a0\u201cThe Office (US),\u201d \u201cParks & Recreation,\u201d\u00a0and \u201cBrooklyn Nine-Nine\u201d\u00a0occupy an unspoken, almost sacred space when it comes to remakes \u2014 if it\u00a0ain\u2019t\u00a0broke,\u00a0don\u2019t fix it. As hypocritical as it sounds to say\u00a0\u201cThe Office\u201d\u00a0shouldn\u2019t\u00a0be remade, considering its source material,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0sure\u00a0I\u2019m not alone in being wary of another rendition of a show so near and dear to our hearts.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0with this skepticism that I entered into the first season of\u00a0\u201cThe Paper.\u201d While\u00a0it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0strike all the high notes of those that came before it,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0an easy familiarity and sense of comfort that longtime fans will recognize, even if it never fully rises to their heights.<\/p>\n
Created by Michael Koman and Greg Daniels \u2014 the latter,\u00a0who\u2019s\u00a0the risky genius responsible for adapting\u00a0\u201cThe Office\u201d\u00a0to\u00a0US\u00a0audiences \u2014\u00a0\u201cThe Paper\u201d\u00a0makes a strategic attempt to separate itself from its source material, but not enough to seem fresh out of the gate. No longer slinging office paper, employees of the company that purchased the now-defunct Dunder Mifflin sell anything that uses paper, including toilet and news varieties. Both Softees Toilet Paper and the Toledo Truth Teller, or TTT, share an office and management team that is inept, inexperienced, and unmotivated to drive any needed change. The only holdover from Dunder Mifflin is Oscar, and\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0used\u00a0about as much as he was in the original series. There are a few references from his time at Dunder Mifflin, and one original cameo, but Daniels and Koman make it a point to establish\u00a0\u201cThe Paper\u201d\u00a0in its own world, its own city, with its own quirky, subtly absurd group of employees.<\/p>\n
The first few episodes rely too heavily on the exposition needed to develop lovable characters. Still, the season picks up steam in the second half once it settles in and decides who each of these characters is. Unfortunately, many of these characters, and even some plot points, feel recycled and stale from the mid-2010s mockumentary style shows we\u2019ve come to know and love. The series\u2019 comedic force is light and leans heavily on a few key players, including Tim Key as Ken Davies, the second-in-command eccentric and socially awkward leader, plagued by the gift of incessant chatter. If that sounds familiar, it\u2019s because it\u2019s a different flavor of the same utterly endearing character he played in \u201cThe Ballad of Wallis Island,\u201d and you know what? It totally works. More Tim Key, please; he\u2019s made for the \u201cThe Paper\u201d world.<\/p>\n
Making a sporadically humorous but generally awful pairing as\u00a0Davies\u2019s\u00a0offbeat leader is Esmerelda Grand, played by Sabrina Impacciatore, whose name lives up to her demeanor. Grandiose and attention-seeking in all the wrong ways,\u00a0Impacciatore\u2019s\u00a0narcissistic Grandiose attempts to steal scenes, but\u00a0mostly\u00a0becomes a distraction. When reserving a bit in the tank, she serves the ensemble better than trying to be the star of the show. Filling out the\u00a0squad\u2019s\u00a0punchline player is Eric Rahill as Travis, used just sparingly enough not to overdo it, landing almost every joke\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0given.<\/p>\n
The humor may leave you wanting more, but the heart lies with the straight-man characters in\u00a0\u201cThe Paper.\u201d\u00a0Chelsea Frei plays Mare, or the Jim Halpert of this series, fully aware of her ridiculous surroundings yet unwilling to apply herself enough to get out of it. Frei sparks strong chemistry with both Ramona\u00a0Young\u2019s\u00a0Nicole and Domhnall\u00a0Gleeson\u2019s\u00a0Ned, a dynamic that deepens in the second half of the season, where the series puts most of its chips. The writers stake the anchor of the story on\u00a0Gleeson\u2019s\u00a0Ned Sampson, the cautious yet ambitious newcomer to both Toledo and the TTT who, much like the writers themselves in the early episodes,\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0quite sure what to make of it all.\u00a0Gleeson falls into gentle familiarity by the end of the season, seemingly made to play the klutz of a man you\u00a0just\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0help but root for.<\/p>\n
As with the original\u00a0US\u00a0series (and many others), the first season is still\u00a0trying to find\u00a0its footing, even 10 episodes\u00a0in. Unfortunately, we live in a world where patience is thin and decisions\u00a0are made\u00a0after a few short episodes, potentially dooming this series early on. Look what happened after the first season or two of series such as\u00a0\u201cParks & Rec,\u201d \u201cVeep,\u201d\u00a0and, yes,\u00a0\u201cThe Office (US).\u201d\u00a0A slow burn to start, but each show found its voice by evening out the tone, sharpening the jokes, and leaning into the soul of the series. The team behind\u00a0\u201cThe Paper\u201d\u00a0only slightly learned from each of these: they might have recycled material, but you can already spot the same spark of heart and humor that powered the greats before it.<\/p>\n
As an aging millennial in a daunting world,\u00a0\u201cThe Paper\u201d\u00a0is a welcome sigh of relief. It rarely breaks convention, but try to give it the respect of those that came before it by sticking with it. Hopefully,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0worth it, because lord knows we need it.<\/p>\n
THE GOOD \u2013 Well-acted and harkening on familiar beats that spark nostalgia. An easy, bingeable watch for those who miss the comedy of the past.<\/p>\n
THE BAD \u2013 Far from new and creative, many plot points and characters feel derivative from the peak of mockumentary-style television of the 2005-2015 era. Most jokes are met with slight giggles vs. laugh-out-loud, quotable lines like its predecessor.<\/p>\n
THE EMMY PROSPECTS\u00a0\u2013 None<\/p>\n
THE FINAL SCORE \u2013 6\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE STORY \u2013 Following up on the story from \u201cThe Office,\u201d the documentary crew that immortalized Dunder Mifflin\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[82382,82383,4,450,82384,82385,82386,43945,451,82387,82388,3,82389,220,82390,73803,1505,82391,452,453,92],"class_list":["post-129998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-6-10","tag-alex-edelman","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-chelsea-frei","tag-domhnall-gleeson","tag-gbemisola-ikumelo","tag-greg-daniels","tag-headlines","tag-marvin-gregg","tag-michael-koman","tag-news","tag-oscar-nunez","tag-peacock","tag-ramona-young","tag-sabrina-impacciatore","tag-television","tag-tim-key","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}