Andrea and I finished up season 1 of The Paper.
The Paper is set in the same universe as The Office.
The documentary crew that chronicled events at the Dunder Mifflin Scranton PA branch has moved on to Toledo OH.
The new series follows the struggling staff of the Toledo Truth Teller newspaper which is owned by a company called Enervate. In addition to buying out Dunder Mifflin, Enervate produces the best selling toilet tissue Softies.
Ned Sampson, a top level salesman for Softies, has taken the job of Truth Teller editor.
Back in the day, the Toledo Truth Teller occupied several floors of a tower in downtown Toledo. Today, the newspaper holds down the fort in a corner of one floor that it shares with the Softies sales team.
Ned makes do with who he has at hand.
About 4 actual staffers and some volunteers from Enervate's Softies accountants.
Which includes Oscar Martinez. Yep, Oscar Nuñez is back to reprise his role from The Office. Reluctantly. Oscar makes it plain to the documentary crew he has no intention of cooperating with them or have anything to do with this silly newspaper.
Except...
OK, it may be a stereotype that Oscar is gay AND into theater but he can't resist taking on the role of the Truth Teller's correspondent for arts and culture.
Mare Pritti (Chelsea Frei) is the only person on the paper's staff with any real writing and editing experience. Which makes her invaluable to Ned as Editor of the paper. AND she's got a sexy-cute thing going on which rattles Ned a bit.
(Will The Paper have it's version of Jim & Pam from The Office? Yes and it's Ned & Mare.)
If dealing with a limited staff and an even more limited budget is not enough, Ned has a nemesis.
Esmerelda Grand (Sabrina Impacciatore, who was nominated for an Emmy for her role in Season 2 of The White Lotus) was the interim managing editor before Ned came along. Her approach to the paper was to fill up it's online platform with clickbait. She has an over the top flamboyant wardrobe and an invasive narscisitc personality and is determined to sabotage Ned at every opportunity.
And she has help from Enervate’s head of strategy, Ken Davis (Tim Key) to undermine Ned and his efforts to restore the Toledo Truth Teller to prominence.
The final 3 episodes of season 3 compose an arc that shows the paper and Ned succeeding. An Ohio press association comes calling with recognition of Truth Teller's work exposing Enervate clogging Toledo's sewers with their new "man wipes". (It's toilet paper in the form of a glove.)
The paper, Ned and Mare are nominated for several awards.
Which they win. (Yay!)
And Ned and Mare share a big damn kiss to close out season 1.
The Paper is a viable successor to The Office but it got off to a bit of a shaky start, not really find it's rythmn until those the last 3 episodes of the season.
The Paper ran on Peacock earlier in 2025 but NBC ran the episodes later on the broadcast network.
I hope NBC runs the 2nd season because I'm not ready to pony up any dough for yet another streaming service.
Coming up next on the Touchbase (in no particular order):
- High Potential
- Brilliant Minds
- Peacemaker
- Fallout
And more! So much TV, so little time!
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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