The Paper, the mockumentary spin-off of the American version of The Office, has returned for a second series on Sky One. All ten new episodes are available on the Now streaming service, alongside last year's opening run.
The show follows Ned Sampson, played by Domhnall Gleeson, as the eager editor of the Toledo Truth Teller in Ohio. Critic Christopher Stevens reviewed the new series for the Mail, calling it a gag-filled comedy worth trying for fans of Ted Lasso.
From The Office to The Paper
The Paper is the latest link in a long chain of British sitcoms reworked for American audiences. The trend dates back to the 1960s, when Johnny Speight's savage British comedy Till Death Us Do Part was turned into the US hit All In The Family, with the bitter, misanthropic Cockney bully Alf Garnett replaced by the curmudgeonly but lovable Archie Bunker.
The same thing happened to Ricky Gervais's mockumentary The Office, which debuted in Britain in 2001. American producers saw the appeal of the format but not of David Brent himself, replacing him with the gauche and sweetly needy Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell. The Office US went on to run for nine seasons, far longer than the original British series, and eventually spawned The Paper as its own spin-off.
Stevens argued that Ned Sampson bears little resemblance to David Brent at all. Instead, he wrote, Ned is closer to a carbon copy of Ted Lasso, the Apple TV comedy about an American football coach who instils team spirit in a struggling Premier League club.
Jokes about journalism
Stevens said he enjoyed The Paper, admitting that anything sending up his own profession is likely to make him laugh. He singled out a scene involving a junior reporter trying to get his head around the practice of drafting an election story before the results are actually in.
Scratching his head, the character demanded: "So, whatever we write here, just happens tomorrow?"
Tim Key's one-liners
British comedian Tim Key, a master of the one-liner, plays his usual fish-out-of-water type in the show, according to Stevens, who noted that Key is nonetheless very much at home with the rapid-fire pattern of American sitcom dialogue, where there is a joke in every line.
Stevens highlighted one exchange after a colleague died suddenly while cooking a batch of methamphetamine, a hobby none of his co-workers had suspected. Key's character mused: "I'm ruminating on the shortness of life, but also how long it always feels between breakfast and lunch."
Stevens called it a philosophical conundrum that makes sense on both sides of the Atlantic. The full second series of The Paper, along with the first, is streaming now on Now.
