“The Office,” a 30-minute mockumentary sitcom that premiered in 2005 (based on a 2001 British show of the same name), is a global sensation. In 2020, it attained the record for total minutes watched on streaming in a single year, with 57.1 billion minutes streamed worldwide, a record it held for three more years. The show has spawned a large fanbase and too many memes to count. It’s characters and their relationships are loved by many around the world. For all those reasons, creating a spin-off series based on the hit show is a tall order.

Greg Daniels and Michael Koman, co-creators of “The Paper,” did not let this daunt them. The new show, released on the streaming service Peacock on September 4, 2025, is a follow-up based in the same universe, with a different setting and cast of characters (save for one, Oscar Martinez). “The Paper” follows the staff of the unfortunate Toledo Truth Teller, a local paper for the town of Toledo, Ohio that used to be great, but has now become obsolete and relies on advertorials and stories off the wire for content. 

Daniels is no stranger to the world of “The Office”—he developed the show all the way back in 2005. Even with his experience, however, people were naturally still hesitant about this show. When has a spin-off series ever been good? 

Well, it’s not impossible, and I’m happy to report that “The Paper” far exceeded my expectations. I didn’t originally enjoy it, though. The pilot episode was quite jarring, and though “The Office” didn’t have the strongest pilot, either, it still left a bad taste in my mouth. The characters and their interactions were stiff and only a few of the jokes really landed, which is less than ideal for a joke-a-minute comedy. It mostly served to establish the status quo of this world, which made it very disjointed as it didn’t have much of a plot.

In episode two, “The Five Ws,” things started to pick up. The plot begins moving and new life is breathed into the characters. One of my concerns going into the show was that the writers would try to shoehorn each new character into fulfilling the same roles as iconic characters on “The Office.” Luckily, this is not the case, as is made obvious by this episode. At the beginning of the episode, I wasn’t yet convinced of the show’s quality coming off of the rough pilot, but by the time the credits rolled, I was all in.

Episode three, “Buddy and the Dude,” sags slightly, but it’s still decent. However, episode four, “TTT vs the Blogger,” starts a hot streak that lasts for another four episodes. By this episode, the writers have come into their own, and it shows. The characters’ individual personalities develop more and their relationships are furthered. The comedy is on point, too. The style of humor is not quite as cringe as “The Office” (save for most jokes involving Esmerelda, the demanding managing editor of the Toledo Truth Teller). It manages to establish its own comedic voice, akin to its predecessor, but still unique.

Disappointingly, the penultimate and final episodes are slightly weaker than the previous five. Now that the drama between the characters has had eight episodes to develop, these two episodes take more of a narrative focus and tie up some loose ends. This couplet of episodes reveal a weakness of “The Paper”: it has difficulty striking a balance between diegesis and jokes. This is one of the things that “The Office” did so well—it was able to realistically progress its overarching storylines without ever forcing the comedy to take a backseat.

Even though it falters at the end of the season, “The Paper” was a pleasant surprise. It was renewed prior to its release, which shows that studio executives were feeling positive about it, too. Hopefully the public give this show a chance. 

Oh—and they nailed the theme song.