|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
24
Mixed:
14
Negative:
1
|
Critic Reviews
IndieWireSep 3, 2025
Season 1 Review:
The bingeable first season will leave everyone from “Office” diehards to new viewers wanting more — which is just as well, since Peacock ordered a second season a day before its debut. While we hope for a bigger episode order and quick turnaround, the “Truth Teller” staff will be reporting for duty, available to stream and make us laugh any time.
Read full review
Sep 3, 2025
Season 1 Review:
By the time of the first season’s halfway mark, though, the rough edges are smoothed out, the cast camaraderie feels locked in, and the series proves to be a joyride. .... The Paper also feels like it’s forging its own path here, mixing those comforting mockumentary vibes with material that’s funnier and timelier than expected.
Read full review
Sep 4, 2025
Season 1 Review:
It seems as if the show is taking the piss out of a profession that remains full of itself despite how ragged it has become. But as the season progresses, we come to understand that these images are a sly and affectionate way to show that local news was once so useful, in so many ways, that people took it for granted.
Read full review
Sep 4, 2025
Season 1 Review:
Several of the series’ secondary characters could use more fleshing out, and Nunez deserves the chance to play an Oscar who does something besides serve up The Office Easter eggs every episode or two. But these are eminently solvable problems, and the show’s already charming enough to assume that it’s likely just going to get better from here.
Read full review
RogerEbert.comSep 3, 2025
ColliderSep 3, 2025
Sep 3, 2025
Season 1 Review:
Ironically, a show about the place of ink-and-paper journalism in a social media era is weaker because it’s clearly wanting to be a 20+ episode season kind of show that fell victim to dropping in the binge-and-stream era. The tried and true formula creator Greg Daniels has honed across a handful of successful series is on full display in The Paper. The character archetypes you’d expect from an Office spin-off are here, as is the easy sense of positivity and that change for the good is possible that you might expect from the creator of Parks and Rec. Maybe it moves a little too briskly for its own good, arriving at places we can all see coming, but they’re satisfying places and it’s funny the whole trip.
Read full review
Sep 3, 2025
Season 1 Review:
Once "The Paper" gets going on its own plots and jokes – which have very little to do with the actual state of smalltown papers newspapers in 2025, but we'll give them a pass – the cast and scripts start to gel into something original and worthwhile. You won't forget it's part of "The Office" world, but you won't be thinking of the original constantly, either.
Read full review
Sep 3, 2025
Season 1 Review:
The jokes are well-timed and reliably funny, but like “The Office,” it’s all down to the characters, which are wonderful company. [Lloyd] .... It starts off strong. The first two episodes are filled with sharp writing and build a strong foundation for what we expect to see: the hilarity of an inexperienced, underdog staff turning a local rag into a real source of news. But the momentum doesn’t quite sustain. [Ali]
Read full review
Sep 3, 2025
Season 1 Review:
The cast could benefit from more screen time and the writers could probably use more episodes to fully wiggle their way out of the initial premise. That, more than sheer potential, could be what limits this show from keeping up with The Office and Parks and Recreation, but at least it’s off to a faster start.
Read full review
Sep 3, 2025
Season 1 Review:
The Paper starts to find its footing around midseason. Not only does the relationship between Ned and Esmerelda become less adversarial, the supporting cast — which, like The Office, includes several writer/performers — starts to break through as their characters get more comfortable with one another.
Read full review
The IndependentSep 4, 2025
Season 1 Review:
The Paper will inevitably be compared to The Office, and in largely unfavourable terms. But the question of whether it is good enough to survive on its own is moot. It doesn’t have to. Fans of The Office will give it a go, and over the course of a slow-burn first season, come to feel some affection for the denizens of the Truth Teller Tower.
Read full review
Sep 3, 2025
Season 1 Review:
The show itself struggles to match what it seems to think viewers want from it, and is best when it goes in its own direction. (Kudos to the cameos from the great Tracy Letts as the former editor, who shows up in newsreels from back in the day, when the paper was mighty.)
Read full review
Sep 4, 2025
Season 1 Review:
A show like “Parks and Recreation” abandoned that formula altogether and I respect that “The Paper” also wants to change things up by putting a dedicated but somewhat hapless Jim Halpert equivalent in charge. A worthy experiment. But one that ultimately doesn’t work.
Read full review
Sep 3, 2025
Season 1 Review:
The Paper doesn’t really work as a direct Office replacement, since even at its strongest, it never remotely approaches the comedic levels of its parent show. But it may at least function as a methadone-like substitute for fans who love the original but feel like they need to stop rewatching “Casino Night” and “The Lover” over and over again.
Read full review
Sep 3, 2025
Season 1 Review:
Starts fast, funny and competent, with an easy command of its mockumentary template. But the template is also a problem; the show feels too much like a Mad Libs version of the characters and dynamics from “The Office” and similar shows, without a firm identity of its own.
Read full review
The TelegraphSep 5, 2025
Season 1 Review:
When the show forces the characters into something approaching a comic scenario – Ned and Mare ad-libbing badly as a married couple in a mattress shop to try to get a scoop – it allows the gifted cast to shine. Otherwise, it’s a tepid mockumentary about a gaggle of cutesy weirdos.
Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score