They are surrounded by a supporting cast perfectly in sync with the mock documentary style. As in previous iterations of The Office, that approach pulls us into the paper’s world fluently with side-eyed glances caught by the crew and separate comments spoken directly to the camera. Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez), the one character returning from The Office, is the paper’s head accountant, who sees the familiar camera team and says, “Not again!” Nunez expertly delivers Oscar’s sceptical looks and remarks. Stand-up comedian Alex Edelman plays another accountant, so guileless he actually reacts when someone in the room yells “idiot”, not even meaning him. Nicole (Ramona Young), working in circulation, has an air of knowing resignation, especially when she points out that scraping subscribers’ data is much more profitable than news. She, Detrick (Melvin Gregg) in ad sales, Adelola in accounting (Gbemisola Ikumelo) and Travis (Eric Rahill), who is actually employed on the toilet paper side, all chip in as mostly-inept part-time reporters, because Ned has no budget to hire anyone experienced.
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The show also has its comic villains. Tim Key is prickly and used well as the terrible Ken, an Enervate corporate lackey who is imperious with the Truth Teller staff. He is the cringey David Brent figure. Ken is British (his path to Toledo never explained), and he has the same eye-rolls at the camera, the same hokey lines that only he thinks are funny, and the same smirk after he delivers them. “Hello, 911,” he says, pretending to make an emergency call. “My budget just had a coronary.” There is just enough Ken to make the character work as an acidic balance to almost everyone else.
PeacockThe other, unfortunately overdone, villain is Esmeralda Grand, the managing editor who now resentfully works for Ned and is constantly scheming to undermine him. Sabrina Impacciatore (from the Sicilian season of The White Lotus) makes her character deliberately larger than life, a flamboyant, attention-grabbing would-be femme fatale in overdone makeup, who makes big gestures with her long nails. A little Esmeralda goes a long way, and the routine becomes tiresome by the end of the series. It’s the one weak spot.
The show at times seems as nostalgic about old-style journalism as Ned, who watches a documentary about The Truth Teller made in 1971. We see snippets of it in black-and-white, with Tracy Letts as the publisher of the paper and a bustling newsroom. “Is it expensive?” he says to the ’70s documentary camera, answering his own question with yes, but it’s worth it. “We only keep democracy alive, is all.”
That theme is always present in The Paper, but the focus stays on the characters. Will Ned thrive as Toledo’s Clark Kent? Will Esmeralda ever get over herself? And since Ned and Mare’s attraction to each other is evident from the start, how will their will-they-or-won’t-they play out?
