'The Paper' pokes fun at press

If we can laugh about the state of journalism in this 'Office' spinoff, then you can too.

- ROBERT LLOYD and LORRAINE ALI

JOHN P. FLEENOR Peacock CHELSEA FREI, from left, Ramona Young, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Eric Rahill and Oscar Núñez make up "The Paper" ensemble.

"'The Paper,' streaming now on Peacock, is a belated spinoff of 'The Office,' much as Peacock is a sort of spinoff of NBC, where the former show aired on Thursdays from 2005 to 2013. In the new series, Dunder Mifflin, the office in "The Office," has been absorbed into a company called Enervate, which deals in office supplies, janitorial paper and local newspapers, "in order of quality." The newspaper at hand is the Toledo Truth Teller, sharing space with the toilet paper division.

Created by "Office" developer Greg Daniels with Michael Koman, "The Paper" is shot in the same documentary style, ostensibly by the same fictional crew, and imports "Office" player Oscar Núñez as head accountant Oscar Martinez, not at all happy to be back on camera.

In the first episode, Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson), a starry-eyed journalism school graduate turned cardboard salesman turned toilet paper salesman, arrives as the new editor in chief of the Truth Teller, not exactly taking charge of a staff that consists entirely of narcissistic interim managing editor Esmeralda Grand (Sabrina Impacciatore), whose sole prior media experience is as a contestant on a dating reality show called “Married at First Sight”; ad salesman Detrick Moore (Melvin Gregg); subscriptions person Nicole Lee (Ramona Young); compositor Mare Pritti (Chelsea Frei), who wrote for Stars and Stripes; accountants Adam Cooper (Alex Edelman) and Adelola Olofin (Gbemisola Ikumelo); and Duane Shepard Sr. as Barry Stokes, the only official reporter, whose beat consists of high school sports and falling asleep.

In the sitcom logic of the show, they will all be drafted as volunteer journalists, joined by Travis Bienlien (Eric Rahill), from the toilet paper division.