As An Office Fan, There’s One Big Thing About The Paper That I’m Relieved About

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I’m at the point as a fan of The Office that I believe if I haven’t gotten tired of rewatching the NBC series, I doubt I ever will. I was elated when we learned a spinoff/sequel series was coming to the 2025 TV schedule. More from the world of The Office? Sign me up. And with that sentiment in mind, I’ve watched all ten episodes of The Paper, and the thing I like most about it is that I don’t think it’s trying too hard to be The Office, which is a relief.

First, general spoiler warning: I’ll be including some details about The Paper, so if you haven’t finished Season 1, you can check it out with a Peacock Subscription and check back in here when you’re done!

Setting My Expectations

It was clear to me when the trailer for The Paper dropped that the tone, or maybe the rhythm of the humor, was going to be a bit different. That was helpful for me to set my expectations going into my binge-watch. With each episode of The Paper, I could feel myself getting more acclimated to the general vibe of the show. There is a cringe-element to the humor that reminds me of The Office, for sure, not to mention conference room meetings. But these aren’t the same jokes or stories being told in a new setting. At least some of that can presumably be attributed to The Office showrunner Greg Daniels working alongside co-creator Michael Koman on The Paper this time around, which surely adds different layers to the humor, pace and tone.

So Let’s Talk About The Characters

While The Paper brought Oscar Nunez’s Office character back to our screens, its focus is once again on a workplace, but with a new ensemble of quirky characters, led by Domhnall Gleeson as newspaper editor-in-chief Ned Sampson, and Chelsea Frei as compositor-turned-reporter Mare Pritti.

Does that make Ned and Mare the Jim and Pam of The Paper? Honestly, no. I mean, sure, Season 1 sees awkward and occasionally adorable sparks begin to fly between the two characters, but beyond their potential to be the series’ core romantic couple, their stories and even their dynamic are so different from Jim and Pam that I don’t even want to compare them.

In fact, I don’t even want to compare any of the characters in The Paper to those of The Office. Esmeralda Grand (Sabrina Impacciatore) and Tim Key (Ken Davies) both achieve varying levels of cringe every time they’re on screen, but neither of them is Michael Scott. From Alex (Adam Cooper) to Ramona (Nicole Lee) to Detrick (Melvin Gregg) to Adelola (Gbemisola Ikumelo), to the recurring characters, everyone in this initial ensemble makes an impression by the end of the first season, and none of them struck me as The Paper‘s version of Pam or Ryan or Darryl or whoever. Even Oscar feels a little bit refreshed in this series, but that’s a whole other topic I’d like to talk about another time.

It’s A Relief

I’m a bit of an elder Office fan, in that I was around when Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s The Office was still a recent and the buzzy U.K. show you just had to watch (on DVD because this was before you could just stream stuff). I tuned into NBC’s The Office in 2005 as a fan of the U.K. series, wanting the remake to be good so badly.

The tone of Season 2 of The Office shifts quite a bit from Season 1, both in the humor and the way the characters are portrayed. I actually liked the first season of The Office when it aired, but I do think those first few episodes attempted to mirror the humor of the original series, and it just wasn’t the same.

I’m sure I’m not alone in having concerns about how this new spinoff series would be, especially by comparison to The Office. Sure, The Paper is a sequel/spinoff and not a remake, so we were never going to get an exact replica. Still, I’m relieved that this new series didn’t make the potential mistake of trying too hard to appeal to The Office fans by mimicking stories and character dynamics of its predecessor.

The Office barely managed to get renewed for Season 2. Fortunately, The Paper has already been renewed, because after this first season, I can’t wait to see where the story goes. And as a fan of The Office, I’m genuinely optimistic that this series will grow on me and become another comfort show.