Most children dream of being Superman. Not Ned Sampson, he tells the camera in the first episode of ThePaper, a spin-off of the ‘mockumentary’ (fictional documentary) TheOffice. Ned, played by Domhnall Gleeson, knew as a little boy that he wanted to be Clark Kent. A journalist who fights evil in the world by exposing it.
Ned’s dream comes true when, after years of selling toilet paper, he is appointed editor-in-chief of the Toledo Truth Teller. It doesn’t bother Ned that the regional newspaper in the Midwest of America now mainly publishes local sports results and online consists of clickbait articles about movie stars. Just like the fact that the newspaper only employs two journalists; former soldier Mare (Chelsea Frei) and the flamboyant Italian Esmeralda (Sabrina Impacciatore, known from The White Lotus) who actually has no media experience except that she was once a contestant on the reality show Married at First Sight.
Ned is determined to take the newspaper back to its previous level, to a time when the journalism carried out in the Truth Tower building still won prizes. It is therefore a nice coincidence that the documentary crew that previously investigated the ins and outs of the paper company Dunder Mifflin in Scranton and its cringey manager Michael Scott captured just the offices of the Truth Teller has found. Just in time to witness Ned’s ambitious plans.
The Paper is not just a spin-off from TheOffice, but also comes from the mind of Greg Daniels, the television maker who created the original British film in 2005 TheOffice of comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to America. There is still debate about which of the two series is better. Although the American version is a bit warmer, and manager Scott (Steve Carell) in particular has been made a bit more friendly. Something that comedian Gervais once explained with the fact that the Americans prefer to be served their discomfort with a little hope, and the British like to drown in even more misery.
Daniels TheOffice ultimately ran for nine seasons, and launched several careers, including those of Carell and John Krasinski. The comedy series ended in 2013, but remains as popular as ever. Especially during the lockdown days of the pandemic, many people discovered TheOffice (again), perhaps out of a kind of nostalgia for their own office, which at that time only existed in virtual form.
Chelsea Frei as Mare in ‘The Paper’.
Aaron Epstein/Peacock
Risk
That there is now a new series in the universe TheOffice is therefore not remarkable. Logical even. In a crowded streaming landscape where several new things are released every week, ‘the sequel to TheOffice‘ immediately more attention than a brand new series. Who has warm feelings for TheOfficewill be curious about The Paper.
Although it is of course also a risk to want to repeat such a success story again. Because it is possible The Paper measure up to its predecessor? Now that is an almost impossible task anyway, especially when you consider that TheOffice came out in a completely different television era. In 2005, Netflix had yet to be launched. Series simply appeared on television every week and a new show was often programmed so that it was broadcast immediately after an existing hit series, in the hope that viewers would stick around. Above all, there was room for a title to grow. Classics like TheOffice but also Friends and Parks and Recreation were not at all the solid hit from the start that we now remember, but took a number of episodes to find their final form.
That time is almost non-existent these days. Today, a series not only has to stand out, but also have to pop from episode one. Otherwise, the viewer’s attention has already shifted to another title presented by the algorithm.
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That’s probably why then The Paper was released in America in September, media company NBCUniversal decided at the last minute not to release the series weekly, but to put the entire first season in one go on the streaming service Peacock. A second season of the series was also announced before the first was even released. A decision that was probably intended to signal to the viewer that investing in this new group of TV characters is not a waste of time and effort. Something that is not an unnecessary message in a time when TV series are being canceled with great ease.
As usual
In the Netherlands The Paper not released all at once. SkyShowtime will first put three of the ten episodes on the platform and the rest will follow weekly. Luckily you know The Paper in those first few episodes you can already clearly establish what it is. What also helps is that it is immediately recognizable. Because in addition to the documentary crew – and the familiar style in which the series is shot, with actors who regularly look into the camera – Dundler Miffin accountant Oscar (Oscar Nunez) also works in Toledo these days (he is shocked when those damn cameras also enter his new workplace).
Although it is mainly the setting that is as usual. An office with a collection of characters that sometimes feel so realistic that they could be your own colleagues, until they do something so idiotic that you want to look away. Michael Scott would be right at home there.
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