Season 2 of The Paper is now streaming on Peacock.
In Season 2 of The Paper, the Toledo, Ohio-set spin-off of the American version of The Office, the sitcom sheds some of its Dunder Mifflin baggage. Although similarities between the two series remain (Oscar’s still there, judging every harebrained scheme and social faux pas), The Paper’s new batch of episodes points to a show that’s working hard to come into its own. Simmering relationships are sped up, office gossip takes a spicier tone, and the fictional documentary crew tries some new tricks.
I sat down for an exclusive interview with series co-creators and executive producers Greg Daniels (King of the Hill, Parks and Recreation) and Michael Koman (Nathan for You) ahead of Season 2’s premiere, where they broke down some of the show’s key moments and revealed a series of very deliberate decisions that went into pushing The Paper beyond the confines of The Office.
From the very beginning of Season 2, main characters Ned (The Toledo Truth Teller’s editor-in-chief, played by Domhnall Gleeson) and Mare (Ned’s right hand and star reporter, played by Chelsea Frei) hit the gas on their romance that had been bubbling since Season 1. Daniels and Koman say that, while there will always be inevitable comparisons to The Office’s Jim and Pam, The Paper’s shorter seasons mean everything gets compressed.
IGN: The spine of the show this season is the relationship between Ned and Mare. I think a lot of folks would say, "Oh, they're the Jim and Pam of The Paper." But you guys very much push past that yearning and longing that Jim and Pam went through for so many seasons. Why did you decide to move forward with the central relationship so much more quickly in this show?
Greg Daniels: Well, you never want to repeat the same stuff that's been done before. And that starts with the fact that they're very different characters. But then also I think the genre's different. This is 10 episodes every year dropped at once. And we've been thinking of it a little bit more like books in a book series than a weekly year-long serialized story. So this was Book 2 for us with the relationship. I think it's probably unrealistic to think that we're going to get 100 episodes to tell the story, so we [sped] it up.
With The Paper living on a streaming platform instead of linear TV, both Daniels and Koman say that they feel more liberated in crafting dialogue that’s more grounded in real-world office conversations. While the results are often humorous, the rationale actually goes deeper, as evidenced by a scene between Oscar (Oscar Nuñez) and Detrick (Melvin Gregg) midway through the season where the two characters discuss a potential love interest for Oscar.
IGN: I wouldn't deem the show risqué, but you guys definitely push it a little further in this new batch of episodes. There's some cursing, there's some blue humor in there. Is it one of the benefits of being on streaming as opposed to network TV?
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/the-paper-season-2-creators-interview-office-spinoff
