Sometimes a sitcom plot line comes along that’s so misguided, so confounding, so utterly ill-conceived that you stop and think, “Surely I hallucinated that in its entirety, right?”
In The Paper Season 2’s case, that dishonor falls to literally everything the show does to Nicole (Ramona Young).
Season 1 of The Office spinoff paired circulation staffer Nicole up with ad salesman Detrick (Melvin Gregg) in one of the show’s main romantic storylines. Nicole consistently told him their dates and hookups were casual and that there were no feelings involved. She actively encouraged Detrick to see other women, but he didn’t. Their differences led to a breakup in the Season 1 finale. (Even if Nicole would insist there was nothing to break in the first place.) However, the aftermath of their split suggested Nicole was more emotionally attached than she wanted Detrick to believe, as she went to cry on journalist Mare’s (Chelsea Frei) shoulder.
The storyline was a fun play on attitudes around commitment and casual dating, with its ending set the stage for a potential slow burn to bring Detrick and Nicole back together on more official terms. That is, until The Paper‘s second season comes along and wrecks Nicole’s character.
Throughout Season 2, Nicole is a vengeful harpy out to get Detrick. She gets a promotion, then tries to use that extra power to give him extra work. (It backfires.) She reports their now-over relationship to HR rep Lisa (Lisa Gilroy), searching for any legitimization of the connection she mourned. When Lisa begins to show interest in Detrick, Nicole dresses as her — complete with dyeing her hair blonde — and rams her car into Lisa’s. She also follows Detrick to Cincinnati, leading to an unsettling sequence where Detrick genuinely seems to believe she’s going to do him harm.
This bizarro arc robs Nicole of any nuance or interiority, trading any meaningful development around her approach to relationships for unfunny crazy ex-girlfriend stereotypes. (In a post Crazy Ex-Girlfriend world? Really?) The main joke here — that, at her own insistence, Nicole was never really Detrick’s girlfriend — is nowhere near funny enough to warrant such a prolonged storyline. Nor is it in keeping with The Paper‘s more optimistic tone. Even though The Paper is a spin-off of The Office, it shares more thematic DNA with shows like Parks and Recreation, Abbott Elementary, or St. Denis Medical: mockumentaries with an eye for people trying to make a difference in struggling institutions. Given that angle, The Paper‘s treatment of Nicole feels far too malicious, not to mention out of left field.
Really, it feels like The Paper is trying to recreate the dynamic between The Office‘s Kelly (Mindy Kaling) and Ryan (BJ Novak), which featured its fair share of Kelly being vindictive. But crucially, Ryan wound up also being a jerk in that on-again, off-again relationship. The pair fed off one another’s toxicity. In The Paper, Detrick mainly just reacts to Nicole like anyone else would: with bewilderment, then horror. His arc is primarily focused on his burgeoning reporting skills, while her arc is all about him. To borrow a phrase from Kelly herself, I have a lot of questions about these story choices. Number one, how dare you?
The horrible mishandling of Nicole speaks to The Paper Season 2’s broader issue of barely knowing how to handle its ensemble. The Paper‘s team of amateur journalists gelled exceptionally well in Season 1, but they’re as fragmented as can be in Season 2. While the show focuses the brunt of its energy on Ned (Domhnall Gleeson) and Mare’s love story — which it handles wonderfully! — the rest of its reporters are left to flounder. Adam (Alex Edelman) is a non-entity. Ken (Tim Key) disappears for episodes at a time. Oscar (Oscar Nuñez), Adelola (Gbemisola Ikumelo), and Travis (Eric Rahill) feel like a thin Greek chorus, with the latter two finally receiving the beginnings of a fulfilling story in the season’s final episodes.
If you’re in The Paper and your character isn’t named Ned, Mare, or Esmeralda (Sabrina Impacciatore), you appear to have two choices. Wind up with a paper-thin storyline, or get saddled with a nightmarish arc like Nicole’s. Given how out of character (and out of line) the latter is, The Paper Season 2 might be the one time fading into the background is a good thing.
The Paper Season 2 is now streaming on Peacock.
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