Looks alright
The Tim Key bits look funny because itās Tim Key
The rest looks rubbish
People complain that the trailer isnāt funny, but I think itās almost impossible to make a short trailer that introduces the concept of a show and is also funny
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First episode of The Paper. Surprisingly decent
@tkc not to me
I didnāt realise Eric Rahill is in this. But then I was watching and there he is. Not thought about him for years. I thought he was just a man who tweeted
Iāve now watched all of the first season of The Paper. I liked it.
First off - the trailer is a pretty poor reflection of what this is and thatās understandable because you just canāt condense 5 hours of a TV show into a minute or whatever. Thereās a lot more to these characters that the trailer or even the first episode can deliver.
Secondly, this is not really comparable to any of the international remakes of the Office. Obviously itās a sequel, but itās its own thing.
The first episode I thought was pretty ropey, but thatās mainly because thereās a lot of lore building and introducing a lot of characters we donāt know, and itās the only episode apart from one line in the last episode that really references The Office, unless I missed a couple of references. I mean obviously Oscar is there as a character, but Iām so happy about that because Oscar was my favourite character in the original US series, but itās not like Ryan the temp and whoever Catherine Tate played are popping in going āremember me?ā.
I read a review that said that the pacing of this is similar to the first two seasons of The Office, in that they really race through some of the plot lines, but itās also similar in that it takes some time to find itās feet, but it gets to the stage where we know who all the characters are and can just do episodes much quicker, so the last 5 episodes are more like traditional Office episodes.
Personally, Iām not that invested in story arcs. I find the Tim and Dawn / Jim and Pam stuff a big boring, and the office politics and muscling for position stuff a bit boring, and I much prefer one-off jokes, character moments that are done just for jokes, and what I like about this universe are straight man reactions to someone else saying something ridiculous. So I felt some of the arcs were a bit rushed and boring, but thatās not what I watch the show for.
There are no, it appears to me, any characters that are carbon copy version of characters from the Office, itās more like some of the characters share multiple traits from The Office - like one character some people are saying is the āJimā of The Paper, but I would argue they also have elements of Daryl, and Pam, and others. Itās fun trying to spot these elements and go āoh, thatās something that Creed would sayā rather than think āoh, this character is just Creedā
The acting is excellent - Gleeson as the lead is not Michael Scott - heās funny for different reasons and in my opinion, really good for the role. Tim Key is also great, and not playing a ājuiced up David Brentā as I saw one review saying, heās British and in the first episode he does give little tour of the office like in the UK version, but after that, heās really nothing like Brent. I think people are just saying that because heās not doing an accent. The other actors I had never seen before (apart from Oscar) but theyāre all good. Thereās one character who I think some people might find grating because they are clearly taking the āpeople are filming me, so I must be a STAR!ā thing a bit too far. Iāve never watched The White Lotus so I donāt know if this is par for the course for this actress. But I really liked Chelsea Frei and she has so many good moments.
I donāt know how this is being shown in the UK - is it being done weekly, or in one big drop, like it is where I am?
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Heās also one of the writers, consistent with having one or more of the actors on the writing team, or vice versa (however they worked it out)
In the uk
she was very broad in The White Lotus and seems similar in interviews iāve seen with her, so thatās about what I expected.
I cant believe the Christmas special still makes me cry. Its mental how good every single performance in it is
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I didnāt realise Rainn Wilson was a prick irl
I think I had forgotten. Quite like that everyone has had a pop at him using clips from the office
He seems like a fairlyā¦ eccentric person. Lifelong Baāhai adherent, very into spirituality and stuff. There are famous stories of him being rude to Office fans who would tell him how much they loved the show but didnāt know his real name (stories which he has proudly told!) but his colleagues on the show rave about how lovely he is (which isnāt the case for everyone). I get the impression he has that classic frustrated actor thing of being famous for one role that has undermined the rest of his career.
I think what heās saying in the article is pretty bland. Like obviously the show would be different if it were made today. That hardly needs expressing. But heās not exactly screaming about cancel culture either
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His comments in the actual video interview donāt seem too bad - obviously in the text Fox described it as railing against cancel culture, but he says heās not that involved in comedy anymore and that when comedians say āyou canāt say anything these daysā that he doesnāt agree with that (he then starts going on about republicans and democrats and a nazi tattoo? Iām not bothering to investigate that part)
If heās been asked ācould you make The Office these daysā then I just wish that he, like every other comedy actor whoās been asked similar, could point out what a daft question it is. Is someone trying to make The Office these days? Are people submitting scripts or making television episodes like The Office that are being met with āyou canāt say that these daysā, and if so, are they meant to be good or is a more significant reason that some perceived edginess is all the material has to it?
If people were able to point to any kind of rejected material that was actually good then it might help their case that we live in overly censorious times - if on the millions of hours of podcasts and stand-up shows someone could say ācan you believe they rejected this?ā
But of course the reality is just that the goalposts on what is acceptable are and always have been shifting, yet generation after generation finds it surprising that itās happened to them.
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Part of me thinks he is looking back on the show and is now simply embarrassed at some stuff they had in it and when heās saying, āyou couldnāt make that todayā he maybe means āyou wouldnāt do it, not like that, and if you did, I wouldnāt agree because now I think this stuff is the wrong side of acceptableā.
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Thought as a massive nerd Iād know pretty much all of these, surprised by how many I didnāt.
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There was a show on last night with Freeman and Crook discussing 25 years of it, decent. Good pilot footage
Apparently Gervais has done his own on youtube which is just an hour of Brents best bits and not a single mention of Stephen Merchant
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Was noticeable on Twitter that SMerch put up a tweet with a clip from the pilot marking it and put āwe didā
Shame it wasnāt mutual.
Gervais was on a Radio 4 show talking about it a couple of years ago and likewise neglected to mention Merchant. Sort of interesting that theyāve clearly had some sort of falling out and this is the only reason we know they have. (Maybe around Life On The Road?)