‘The Paper’ is worth a subscription as it nails modern journalism

“The Paper” (Peacock) isn’t breaking new ground with style: It’s precisely like “The Office” (2005-13), from which it spins off. But it’s also so precisely on point with the personalities that inhabit modern newsrooms, and those personalities are already interacting so well for the sake of humor through its 10-episode first season that it has become my favorite new sitcom of the fall. (A second season has already been announced.)

I should be depressed by “The Paper,” as it documents familiar experience of seeing your newsroom get decimated, shoddy technology becoming the status quo, and journalism skills becoming devalued. A prolog indicates that the Toledo Truth-Teller had more than 1,000 employees at its peak, and now has the less than 10 we are following.

(In the show’s world, the Toledo Blade doesn’t exist and the TTT is instead the only daily. In the real world, the Blade has about the same staff size as the TTT, but presumably all are full-time and none have to double as toilet-paper salespeople.)

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The documentary crew from “The Office” has Mare (Chelsea Frei) show them her job, which involves shoveling click-bait wire content into a module, and her computer freezes. (Hashtag relatable.) Mare is the only TTT employee with reporting experience, but it’s not used, since no reporting is done there; the focus is on clicks.

“The Paper” should be depressing to me, but it’s actually refreshing that the writers and creators – fronted by “The Office’s” Greg Daniels – know newspapers so well. And oddly, the show ends up being hopeful. Not because I believe it’s as simple as new editor Ned’s (Domhnall Gleeson) plan of reinstating local reporting. But because this staff now knows that if the TTT goes down, they’ll at least be proud of their work till the end. If – as a viewer who works in journalism — your hope has been driven out, that’s OK, too, because Ned’s hope can be read as endearingly naive.

Versatile uses for paper

The real world of newspapers is so absurd that it’s hard to parody, but the writers come close with the notion that the TTT is owned and more or less subsidized by the Softees toilet paper company. Though the building once housed the 1,000 TTT employees and nothing more, now one corner of one floor – primarily housing the Softees sales staff – is used as the newsroom. The press is in the basement, but it’s defunct; the paper is printed somewhere else.

I’m impressed by how fast these characters/actors and their comic rhythms have jelled. They’re doing the thing of inflated egos and side glances at the camera – and indeed, “The Office’s” Oscar Nunez (Oscar Martinez) is the head accountant – but mostly these are modern newsroom cliches made into awkward-pause comedy.

We have the managing editor with no reporting background, the over-the-top glamorous, thickly accented Esmeralda Grand (Sabrina Impacciatore, a wonderful Italian import); Barry (Duane R. Shepard Sr.) the ancient sports reporter who has somehow avoided all the layoffs through the decades even though he does no work; shy circulation manager Nicole (Ramona Young); and overly enthusiastic (especially about Nicole) ad man Detrick (Melvin Gregg).

Oscar, two other Softees accountants and one salesman are allowed to do a couple hours of reporting per week as part of their job, so the TTT staff seems more substantial. But honestly, this approach is plausible; as staffs get decimated, remaining employees are increasingly asked to do jobs they have no background in.

One area where “The Paper” smartly dodges the absurd is to have the publisher, Marv (Allan Havey), be a straight-shooting businessman. If the TTT makes money, he’ll let it live; he gives Ned free reign to try whatever. Marv’s micromanaging second-in-command, Ken, might be the closest “Office” parallel other than Oscar himself, as actor Tim Davies brings a not-unwelcome Ricky Gervais Lite quality.

Papering over their problems

I like how the writers have kept the storylines true to the real world (small-time government corruption being easy when there’s no light shined on it; Ned’s search for a trendy multi-part series to boost sales; the ethics of reporting on Softees products, positively or negatively) and let the details provide the inanity, from unfortunately misplaced commas (the TTT of course has no copy editor) to the characters themselves.

My favorite is Esmeralda, the ultimate example of someone who fakes it till she makes it; but we can see her façade cracking. When she believes she’s being libeled by a high school blogger (who regularly scoops the TTT), it’s not because of any claims about her actions, it’s because the report says she’s 51 instead of 37. (Of course, she actually is 51.)

“The Paper” captures that weird vibe wherein you work with these people closely every day but form a lot of your views of them via guesses. This is nicely illustrated when Ned – lightly crushing on Mare – believes Esmeralda’s claim (for the sake of causing a rift) that Mare is asexual. (Other humorous crushes are Detrick toward Nicole and Ken toward Esmeralda, but the show isn’t in a rush to push its Jim-and-Pam.)

“The Office” derailed for me in later seasons because of inertia more so than anything it did wildly wrong. Yes, the “documentary” format is knowingly silly, but when the crew points its cameras into places that aren’t as dryly funny as they used to be, and instead gets caught up in the Michael Scott Show or other sidelights, we can get disconnected.

I think it’s important that “The Paper” continues to keep the storylines small and the characters’ sense of importance inflated, yet constrained by the scope of this tiny paper. So far, the TTT team falls into that sweet spot of people who are simultaneously grounded in reality yet delusional enough to stay at a newspaper; they are pathetic and lovable, with the percentage of each always fluctuating.