Intro for August 8, 2025

Dear Gossips,   

The Office is one of the most popular TV shows of the millennium so far, a monster hit when it was originally airing in the 2000s and early 2010s, and perennially popular on streaming ever since it ended in 2013. But it is, of course, a spin-off, an American adaptation of a British sitcom, the similarly titled The Office, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, which was also a monster hit. 

So with this pedigree, surely another spin-off will be a success? That is the hope for The Paper.

 

Set in Toledo, Ohio at a dying local newspaper, The Paper is “brought to you by” the same documentary crew that made the in-universe documentary about Dunder Mifflin in The Office. The Paper stars Domhnall Gleeson as Ned Sampson, the new editor-in-chief charged with reinvigorating the Toledo Truth-Teller. The cast also includes White Lotus alumna Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelse Frei, Timothy Key, Melvin Gregg, Ramona Young, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Oscar Nuñez—providing connective tissue with The Office—and Alex Edelman, lately of Anna Kendrick dating gossip. (He is very funny, don’t sleep on Alex Edelman’s standup special, Just For Us.)

Domhnall Gleeson got his start doing comedy on TV in Ireland, so though we know him best in North America for roles in films like About Time, Ex Machina, Brooklyn, and Star Wars, starring in a sitcom is well within his wheelhouse. It’s just…like…what’s the cultural currency of a sitcom these days?

They still exist, and occasionally they do take over the zeitgeist, most notably in the post-prestige era with Abbott Elementary, Schitt’s Creek, and Ted Lasso, but it is harder and harder for sitcoms to break through the noise of a TV landscape dominated by drama. Case in point, the comedy categories at the Emmys have been dominated by The Bear, a show in which everyone is miserable and unhappy and never telling jokes. But The Paper is an honest to goodness situational comedy, with farcical situations, comedic setups, and actual punchlines (what a concept!). 

Will nostalgia and goodwill for The Office be enough to drive people to watch The Paper? It will be streaming on Peacock starting September 4—Peacock is famously one of the lesser used streaming platforms. Will the lure of an Office spin-off get more people on board? Or is The Paper too late, the TV landscape too fractured, a little too much time gone by between it and The Office? I’m always rooting for Domhnall Gleeson, but he can break through with The Paper?

Live long and gossip,

Sarah