NOW ENTERTAINMENT
Aug. 31 00 - Sept. 2025 Month - 00,6,2023
Your Weekly TV Entertainment Brought To You By Olean Times Herald & The Bradford Era
From the creator of “The Office” comes “The Paper,” a new mockumentary sitcom premiering Thursday, Sept. 4, on Peacock. Domhnall Gleeson stars in “The Paper”
Cover Story On deadline: Mockumentary ‘The Paper’ dives into a drowning local newspaper By Sarah Passingham Breaking news: a familiar mockumentary crew have picked their cameras back up and settled into a new office. From the creator of “The Office” comes “The Paper,” a new sitcom premiering its first four episodes Thursday, Sept. 4, on Peacock, with two new episodes streaming every Thursday through September 25. Set in a struggling Midwestern newspaper office, “The Paper” follows the news team and office staff as they try to keep the Toledo Truth-Teller alive. Domhnall Gleeson (“The Patient”) stars as Ned Sampson, the paper’s new editor-in-chief, whose desperate, earnest attempts at reviving the paper yield Michael Scott-esque (Steve Carell, “The Big Short,” 2015) awkward moments in the newsroom. Reprising his role from “The Office” is Oscar Nunez (“The Lost City,” 2022) as accountant Oscar Martinez,
who has left Scranton, Pennsylvania, behind for the slightly more cosmopolitan city of Toledo, Ohio, and a new kind of paper business. Also starring in “The Paper” are Sabrina Impacciatore (“The White Lotus”), Chelsea Frei (“Animal Control”), Melvin Gregg (“Nine Perfect Strangers”), Gbemisola Ikumelo (“A League of Their Own”), Alex Edelman (“Unfrosted,” 2024), Ramona Young (“Never Have I Ever”) and Tim Key (“The Ballad of Wallis Island,” 2025). Guest stars include Eric Rahill (“Friendship,” 2024), Tracy Letts (“Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”), Molly Ephraim (“Perry Mason”), Mo Welch (“Life In Pieces”), Allan Havey (“Billions”), Duane Shepard Sr. (“American Crime Story”), Nate Jackson (“Young Rock”) and Nancy Lenehan (“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”). In an official trailer for the upcoming series, Ned intro-
duces himself to the staff, who are largely unimpressed by a new regime at their floundering paper. The office exudes an energy that says, “Why try?” The company is more proud of its custodial paper products than the Truth-Teller, which is used in-house as a bird cage tray liner. Undeterred by the general malaise he’s stepped into, Ned knows what he’s working with. “It sucks,” he honestly tells one of the reporters when asked for his appraisal of the Truth Teller. “But we are going to make it better,” Ned promises. With a vision for the paper and a set of volunteers who don’t quite have the skills to execute it just yet, Ned takes stock, saying, “Seven highly motivated, tenacious Buckeyes are out there hunting for news. You’d be a fool to bet against that.” The Truth Teller’s volunteer reporters gather their
experience writing middle school essays, tweeting and participating in group chats, and set out to find stories worth telling across Toledo. Over 10 episodes, Ned hopes to transform the paper from something that’s most useful as a janitorial product to a — readable at minimum, must-read at best — source of community news. The new series comes from television legend Greg Daniels, who adapted the original British series for the American version of “The Office,” created beloved and recently rebooted animated sitcom “King of the Hill” and produced five seasons of “The Simpsons” and the whole run of “Parks and Recreation.” Co-creator of “The Paper” is Michael Koman, who also co-created “Nathan for You” on Comedy Central with Nathan Fielder (“The Rehearsal”), so expect expert cringe comedy in the upcoming series.