With the groundbreaking series The Office, NBC created one of the most beloved and acclaimed sitcoms in American TV history. Now, in its new spinoff, The Paper, it has recreated the same hilarity in a different setting: a startup newsroom in Ohio, where a quirky bunch of volunteer reporters are trying to save local journalism.
Since all 10 episodes of Season 1 debuted in early September, The Paper has already been a smash hit on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service.
The Paper opens with the documentary crew that filmed the employees of Dunder Mifflin returning to the company’s Scranton branch 20 years after the pilot of The Office. They then travel to Toledo, where Oscar, the Dunder Mifflin accountant, is working for the Toledo Truth Teller as head accountant and arts-and-leisure reporter.
Domhnall Gleeson plays Ned, the Truth Teller’s new editor-in-chief, who is determined to pull the struggling paper back from the brink. Ned has to cultivate the talents of a volunteer staff who have little to no experience in journalism. “He takes the ad salespeople and the accountants and the people who drive the trucks,” said co-creator Greg Daniels, who also created The Office, “and turns them into reporters.”
Ned clashes with Esmeralda, the managing editor, who is content to fill the paper with clickbait, and Ken Davies, a corporate strategist for the parent company, who is more concerned about profit-making than fearless truth-telling.
