Review: The Paper Parodies Work Life at a Struggling Local Newspaper

Peacock attempted to recapture the magic of The Office in The Paper, a spin-off series set at a local newspaper. The mockumentary follows the travails of the Toledo Truth Teller, a once-thriving paper that now shares an office and staff with a toilet paper company. Both are owned by the same paper-products firm. An idealistic new editor in chief, Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson), has arrived to turn the newspaper from a clickbait mill into a proper journalistic outlet.

Current and former reporters will bitterly enjoy The Paper‘s depiction of a struggling newsroom. I had a strong moment of déjà vu during a scene where Sampson tours the empty floors of the old news building. (On my first day at a regional newspaper, the guy who gave me a tour said there’d been a round of layoffs the day before and he’d just taken a buyout.)

The Paper apes the format of The Office, but while The Office focused on employees in purgatorial jobs that emphatically didn’t matter, the reporters of the Truth Teller believe their work means something.

The Paper is at its best contrasting many journalists’ self-important self-image as a pillar of democracy with what journalism often constitutes in practice: asking a sanitation worker what substance caused a giant sewer clog. But much of the first season misses the sweet spot for humor, and only a couple of characters consistently generate laughs. Good reporters remember to grab the audience’s attention from the start.