By Nick Nitkowski

It’s been twenty years since that film crew documented the workers of a paper product selling company spearheaded by Michael and making household names of Dwight, Jim, Pam, Stanley, and many others. “The Office” ran from 2005 and closed its doors in 2013. Now, twelve years later, that same film crew is back at the same building only to find that Dunder Mifflin is no longer there and a new company is now occupying the space, a struggling newspaper company called the Toledo Truth Teller who just hired a new Editor-in-Chief to try and help make the business thrive. Hence, we have our new spinoff series “The Paper”!

I’ll admit, I never watched “The Office” at least not as religiously as most others. For me, it was one of those shows that if it happened to be on cable while I was out of town, I’d watch it. And I did enjoy the many episodes that I saw. But I never had the need to seek it out from the very beginning and watch every episode all the way through to the end. I got the gist of what it was from the few episodes that I saw, and it was enjoyable. I can easily see how this show was so popular and had a strong run for so long. But now we have a new spinoff version called “The Paper” and I was interested to hop on board with this show just to start at the beginning and see where it goes. So, how is this new Spinoff series?

In my personal opinion, with the small amount of reference I have towards “The Office”, “The Paper” is every bit as enjoyable as “The Office”. It provides the same style with the same brand of humor as before. The only difference is that all of the characters are entirely new (except for Oscar Nuñez, he’s back), and that can be a challenge for audiences to gravitate towards new and unestablished characters. But I thought this new batch of characters was enjoyable to watch, except for one who kind of got on my nerves after a while.

This new series focuses on Ned, the newly hired Editor-in-Chief played by Domhnall Gleeson, who’s trying to help fix the failing newspaper company run by Ken, played by Tim Key. Also among these new characters are Mare, Esmeralda, Adelola, Derick, and Nicole, all of whom try to adjust to the new workings of Ned’s guidance and help make the company successful again. While they all do a great job in this show, I feel that it doesn’t fully match the dynamic and chemistry between characters of “The Office”, but they try their best to recapture that same lightning in a bottle.

This series is a little difficult to review because it is basically a carbon copy of “The Office”, which some could consider to be a good thing because it could make you nostalgic for what that series provided and scratch that ten-year-long itch from its absence. Or vis versa, it’ll just make you want to rewatch “The Office” again. Like I said before, it provides the same documentary style as its predecessor, and the humor is very similar as well. It just lacks that special chemistry that “The Office” provided, such as the pranks between Jim and Dwight. It’s hard to capture that magic.

Overall, I still found enjoyment watching “The Paper”. It certainly attempts to recapture the magic of “The Office” with some mild success, but since it’s only one season so far, I can’t help but feel that the one most important thing that it’s lacking is meme-ability. “The Office” has plenty of meme-able scenes and lines, but it also had a very long run on the air for its audience to pick their favorite moments and share them around online. Perhaps it’s too early to tell if this series is meme-able, but I’m sure that fans of “The Office” will be able to find some enjoyment in “The Paper” when the first four episodes start streaming on Peacock on September 4th. Read all about it!

3 ½ star