The Paper Season 1 Can’t Live Up To The Officebut it Certainly has its Merits. The Office HOLDS A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART, SO I WAS BOTH TREPIDATIUS AND EXCIED ABOUT A Spin-off. Michael Scott’s Departure Saw a Decline in Quality, But The Office‘s ending was overly satisfying. Now We Have The Office‘s revival Story in the form of The Paper.
I Preferred the US Version of The Office to the uk version. Starring Domhnall Gleeson as Ned Sampson, The New Editor-Chief of the Toledo Truth-Telller, The Spin-off Focuses on His Attempts to Revive a dwindling industry with a crew of inexperienced Journists. AFT Watching All Ten Episodes, while not on the Same Level AS The OfficeI enjoyed The Paper.
The Paper Season 1 Desn’t Try to Copy The Office’s Story
One of the immediately noticeable (and appreciated) Elements of The Paper is that it is not a copy of The Office. The latter offen -focused more intently on the everyday hijinks, lives, and relationships of the characters at dunder mifflin, with the actual work they Conduct Coming Second. The Paperby Being Somewhat of an Underdog Story, Changes this to an Extent.
Ned Sampson’s Dedication to Bringing the Printing Press Places a Lot of the Journalistic Stories at the Center. Of Course, it explores its characters and their interpersonal dynamics along the way, but with Much more focus on the actual work.
This proved that original Office Creator Greg Daniels was not Coming Back to do the Same Thing Again. Gleeson’s Sampson is emblematic of this, as a very different central character from Steve Carell’s Michael Scott.
Sampson is tex problematic, less bumbling, and much more Driven than Michael was at the Beginning of The Office. This provides the series with that aphorioned feel of the being an underdog Story, something of Always Enjoy. Overall, The Paper succeeded in setting itself apart from The Office, If not wholly.
The Paper’s Cast & Characters are Enjoyable, Despite Not Being the Focus
What Makes The Office Neither good as it was and still is it is it ensemble. THe office Waled Not Have Been Half As SuccessFul If Its Colorful Cast of Varied Characters Had Not Landed. The Paper Continues this, though not to the Same extent.
The Paper‘s characters are all enjoyable in their right, and some of their dynamics together are great. Howver, The Show Does Not Put As MUCH FOCUS ON AS The Office Did Its Employees, Primarily Due to the Earlier Point That The Work They Conduct Takes More of A Central Role.
This does not stop several from standing out, Howver. Chelsea Frei’s Mare Pritti is great Throughout, Having Her Own Fun Stories and Dynamics, especally with Sampson, while serving several jim halpert-like looks at the camera to good effect. Sabrina Impacciator’s Esmeralda Grand is annoying at first, but intentionally so, allowing her character to be a memoble One.
Beyond that, The Paper DOES NOT YET REACH The Office‘s Heights Regarding Ensemble. I will state that the potential is there for these characters to reach those heights, and maybe it is nostalgia speaking when i Enjoy The Office‘s characters more. The best praise of Can Give Those of The Paper, Though, is that i want to see more of me.
The Paper Suffers from the Office Comparisons, but they don’t define the spin-off
Despite Doing What It Can to Set itself apart from The Office, The Paper Can Sometimes Struggle to OverCome Comparisons. The humor does not land as consistently in the latter as it does in the forms, for instance. On a broader Level, though, The Paper Has the unfevable task of being a mockumerytary after The Office Became so synonymous with that genre on tv.
Without Similaties to The Office, The Paper Wold Simply Have Been Dubbed a Copy. This exploins the Connections to the original show, sucan as oscar nunez’s return as Oscar Martinez. It is great to see oscar again and the references he has to The Officebut One Could Argue That The Paper Did not Need References.
Neither alluded to, The Paper succeeds at setting itself apart from its predecessor when it actually tries to do so. For Example, The Show Has Genuinely Intriguing Commentary on the State of Printed Journalism and Draws a Lot of Humor From How the News World Has Changed in the Digital Era.
In these ways, The Paper Overcomes its Office Similaties. Still, Those Similarities Are Present Enough to Say That If You Liked The Officeyou will Likely Enjoy The Paper, too. I WOULD CAUTION People from Expecting The Form’s Quality from the Latter, But, Overall, The Paper season 1 is perfectly enjoyable, and I am Actively Looking forward to season 2.
- Release Date
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September 4, 2025
- NETWORKS
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Peacock
- Directors
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David Rogers, Jason Woliner, Jeffrey Blitz, Jennifer Celotta, Ken Kwapis, Matt Sohn, Paul Lieberstein, Yana Gorskaya
- Wriers
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Le Correia, Michael Levin, Alex Edelman, Patrick Kang, Ben Philippe, Eric Rahill
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Domhnall Gleeson
Ned Sampson
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Sabrina Impacciators
Esmeralda Grand
- The Paper Separates Itself from the Office by Providing a Work-First, Underdog Story.
- The Paper’s Central Characters are intriguing and their dynamics work well.
- The Paper’s Commentary on the World of Journalism in 2025 is genuinely intrigue.
- The Paper’s Humor Mostly Works.
- The Paper Doesn’t Always Fine the Balance BetWeen Being An Office Spin-Off and Something New.
- The Paper’s Ensemble Cast Does Not Get As Much Time to Shine.