I want to like The Paper, the upcoming Office spin-off premiering on Peacock next month, but it sure knows how to make a bad impression. The show’s first trailer was miraculously devoid of jokes, but I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and hope that its true brilliance would shine in sequences too long to come through clearly if shoved into a two-minute teaser. Well, we now have our first clip of the show, and unfortunately The Paper continues to come across like the work of people trying desperately to emulate The Office without understanding what made it work.
The scene Peacock put out today shows Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson), the new editor-in-chief for the Toledo Truth-Teller, trying to impress people on the newspaper’s office floor by looking like he and his staff are having a very enthusiastic meeting in one of the private rooms. Important people are watching, and Ned wants them to think that things are going swimmingly and that the team is energized and synergized. But instead of just actually having a meeting, he instructs his employees to pantomime a productive one so the suits outside will think he’s running a productive ship.
As unfunny as it is, it works. Good for him. I hope he can follow up that content meeting with actual content. But what is the joke here? The Office had absurd sequences that lasted long enough to be uncomfortable, but they were laced with one-liners, had pointed criticism of its office of assholes, or at least made you cringe from second-hand embarrassment. This whole charade doesn’t go anywhere. It’s just a couple of people being confused, most of the group playing along, and a suit being successfully hoodwinked. No punchline.
The Paper’s 10-episode season premieres next week on September 4, and I really hope that Peacock is just holding back the good stuff. I don’t need the spin-off to be exactly the same as the original, but it would be nice if it didn’t feel so sauceless.
