It’s difficult to watch 'The Paper' as a show independent of 'The Office'. This is the thing with the big spin-offs and spiritual sequels – they must stand alone but, in deference to the hallowed original (and to franchise economics), must also retain that spirit. Imagine a studio exec’s margin note where the show-runners are asked to create afresh, but without straying too far from what has already worked.
The new mockumentary comedy, co-created by Greg Daniels ('The Office') and Michael Koman, has the setting to work with that brief. The Toledo Truth Teller is a has-been Ohio newspaper, now reduced to wire report drag-pastes, a crew of indolent amateurs and misfits, and a clickbait-run web edition (Sabrina Impacciatore is good as Esmeralda, who almost reaches 'Office'-standard comic-cringe).
It’s still early for a like-for-like, but some of the characters do play like composites from the original show. Barry (Duane Shepard Sr) – the slothful veteran with questionable skills and sensibilities – could be, at once, Creed and Stanley. There are bits of Pam, without her self-doubt, in Mare Pritti (Chelsea Frei). The people grow on you over 10 shortish episodes, and at its best, the show tries to channel an inherited quirkiness that makes 'The Office' what it is: an iconic workplace sitcom where the eccentricities and the innate meanness of its characters hit you as relatable, even likeable.
But what 'The Paper' may find (it was renewed even before the Season 1 premiere) impeding is its lack of nervous energy – that potent unpredictability of 'The Office', which was largely brought in by Steve Carell’s Michael Scott and Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Schrute. Domhnall Gleeson is a fine actor. His Ned in 'The Paper' is a good man with perfectly honourable intentions: a new editor-in-chief who wants to turn the Truth Teller around; a boy scout-idealist who probably sees himself as one too. But Ned and some of his co-players are also too habitual and one-note for us to engage enough. 'The Office' hit right because, over multiple seasons, we could make sense of its madness – it was also an acquired taste.
Sure, there is time, and the consistency with which the original peaked in its middle seasons makes you want to back 'The Paper' as a worthy successor. Now, the show plays a bit like one of its characters in the season finale – she misses the attention; we know she can get downright ridiculous to get it, but where would she draw the line? S2 will probably tell us more. Till then, the Dundies can wait.