I was skeptical about The Paper. Very skeptical, actually.
Any series connected to The Office walks into an impossible situation. The original American sitcom has been finished for years, yet its characters, jokes, awkward silences, and endlessly quoted scenes are still everywhere. Trying to build another show inside that universe could have been nothing more than a desperate nostalgia play.
Thankfully, The Paper understood the assignment.
Instead of dragging Michael Scott back into the spotlight or pretending that Dunder Mifflin still needs another documentary, Greg Daniels and Michael Koman moved the cameras somewhere completely different. The result is a workplace comedy about a dying Ohio newspaper that feels familiar without constantly begging you to remember The Office.
And now Season 2 is almost here.
The Paper Season 2 premieres September 9, 2026, on Peacock, with all episodes arriving at once. Peacock officially confirmed the date in June, while the returning cast includes Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, Tim Key, Eric Rahill, Duane Shepard Sr., and Oscar Nuñez.
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The Paper Isn’t Another Dunder Mifflin
This is probably the smartest decision the creators made.
The Paper doesn’t try to recreate the Scranton office. There is no fake Dunder Mifflin branch, no endless parade of callbacks, and no new character desperately designed to be ‘the next Jim’ or ‘the next Dwight.’
The documentary crew from The Office has simply found another workplace worth filming.
This time, the cameras arrive in Toledo, Ohio, where the Toledo Truth Teller, a historic Midwestern newspaper, is struggling to survive. The publication is old-fashioned, underfunded and desperately trying to find a reason to matter in an internet-first world.
That premise is almost suspiciously perfect.
The original The Office was about people selling paper while the world increasingly had no use for paper. The Paper takes that idea and pushes it further. Now the characters are literally trying to save a newspaper while social media, digital publishing and shrinking budgets attack the entire business model from every direction.
It’s the same basic workplace absurdity, but the joke has evolved.
Why the Newspaper Setting Actually Works
I expected the newspaper angle to run out of steam quickly.
It didn’t.
A struggling local publication gives the writers a ridiculous amount of material. You have reporters chasing stories nobody cares about, editors fighting over priorities, advertising people worrying about money, inexperienced staff being thrown into journalism and management desperately trying to convince everyone that the paper still has a future.
Then there are the personalities.
The newsroom isn’t polished. It isn’t full of effortlessly brilliant journalists. These are messy people trying to keep a struggling institution alive, sometimes for noble reasons and sometimes because they simply don’t know what else to do.
That’s where the comedy gets good.
And honestly, the best thing about The Paper is that it doesn’t treat every character as a walking punchline. Some scenes are genuinely uncomfortable. Some are surprisingly sweet. Occasionally, the show lets a conversation breathe instead of forcing a joke every ten seconds.
That restraint matters.
The Paper Season 2 Release Date
The official The Paper Season 2 release date is September 9, 2026.
Peacock is releasing all 10 episodes simultaneously, continuing the platform’s binge-friendly strategy for the series. The first season also consisted of 10 episodes.
For viewers outside the United States, the timing can differ by platform. Sky has announced that Season 2 will arrive on September 10 in the UK on Sky and streaming service NOW.
| Detail | The Paper Season 2 |
|---|---|
| Premiere Date | September 9, 2026 |
| Platform | Peacock |
| Episodes | 10 |
| Format | Workplace Mockumentary Comedy |
| Setting | Toledo, Ohio |
| Main Newspaper | Toledo Truth Teller |
| Creators | Greg Daniels, Michael Koman |
| Returning Office Character | Oscar Martinez |
The September release also gives the show a fairly clean annual rhythm. Season 1 arrived in September 2025, and Season 2 follows almost exactly a year later.
The Paper Season 2 Cast
The ensemble remains the biggest reason I’m interested in another season.
Domhnall Gleeson returns as Ned Sampson, the idealistic editor-in-chief who genuinely believes the Toledo Truth Teller can be revived. Gleeson is particularly good at playing a guy who is trying very hard to look like he knows what he’s doing while circumstances repeatedly prove otherwise.
Then there’s Sabrina Impacciatore as Esmeralda Grand, the managing editor. She has exactly the kind of personality a workplace comedy needs: confident, unpredictable and completely capable of turning an ordinary editorial disagreement into something much bigger.
The returning ensemble also includes:
- Chelsea Frei as Mare Pritti
- Melvin Gregg as Detrick Moore
- Gbemisola Ikumelo as Adelola Olofin
- Alex Edelman as Adam Cooper
- Ramona Young as Nicole Lee
- Tim Key as Ken Davies
- Eric Rahill as Travis
- Duane Shepard Sr.
- Oscar Nuñez as Oscar Martinez
And yes, Oscar is back.
Oscar Martinez Is Still the Best Link to The Office
Oscar Nuñez returning as Oscar Martinez is exactly the kind of crossover I want.
Not Michael.
Not Dwight.
Not Jim and Pam having a random cameo for five minutes.
Oscar makes sense.
His presence connects the two shows without swallowing the new series. He’s no longer simply an accountant at Dunder Mifflin; his circumstances have changed, yet the documentary crew has followed him into another strange workplace.
There’s also something inherently funny about Oscar being forced to deal with cameras again.
Imagine spending years trying to escape the nonsense of Dunder Mifflin only to discover that the documentary crew has somehow followed you into your next job.
That is the kind of continuity The Paper should be doing.
New Guest Stars Make Season 2 Look Even Wilder
Season 2 is also adding some recognizable comedy names.
The guest-star lineup includes Jon Lovitz, Andy Richter, Lisa Gilroy, Matt Braunger, Toks Olagundoye, and Phil Hendrie.
I’m particularly curious about what the show does with these appearances.
The danger with a large guest cast is obvious: suddenly every episode becomes a parade of famous people waiting for their turn to make a joke.
Hopefully The Paper avoids that.
The first season worked best when the comedy came from the newsroom itself. Famous guest stars should complicate the characters’ lives, not replace them.
What Happens in Season 2?
This is where things get more interesting.
After the Toledo Truth Teller’s success at the Ohio Journalism Awards, Ned becomes considerably more ambitious. He isn’t satisfied with simply keeping the newspaper alive anymore.
He wants a story.
A big one.
According to the official Season 2 synopsis, Ned begins pursuing a journalistic crusade involving a local private club, a move that could put the newspaper itself at risk. At the same time, Ned and Mare have to figure out what exactly is happening between them, while Esmeralda struggles to establish her place and the rest of the staff gradually become more capable reporters.
That sounds like a much more confident second season.
Season 1 had to introduce the world. Season 2 can finally start breaking it.
And that’s important because workplace comedies become stale when nothing changes. If the characters spend five seasons arguing about the same office printer, eventually the joke dies.
Give them consequences.
Give them ambition.
Give them things they can actually lose.
That’s what this storyline seems ready to do.
My Problem With The Paper
I’m not going to pretend the show is flawless.
The biggest weakness is obvious: it’s still living in the shadow of The Office.
Even when The Paper does something original, part of your brain is comparing it to Scranton. You notice the documentary camera. You notice the awkward pauses. You notice the ensemble dynamics. You wait for somebody to look directly into the camera.
That isn’t necessarily the show’s fault, but it is the reality of making a spinoff from one of television’s most recognizable comedies.
There are also moments where the mockumentary format feels almost too carefully engineered. The Office could make awkwardness feel accidental. The Paper occasionally reminds me that somebody in the writers’ room deliberately constructed the awkward moment.
It’s a small distinction, but fans will feel it.
Still, I’d rather watch a spinoff struggling to develop its own personality than another reboot desperately recreating jokes from 2006.
Why I’m More Excited for Season 2
The first season had the hardest job.
It needed to prove that The Paper wasn’t just The Office with different wallpaper.
By moving the story into local journalism, the series found a surprisingly strong modern subject. Newspapers are fighting declining readership, digital competition, shrinking budgets and the increasingly chaotic relationship between journalism and social media.
That gives the comedy something underneath it.
The jokes aren’t just about annoying coworkers. They’re about people trying to preserve something that may already be disappearing.
That’s much more interesting.
And the writers now have a functioning ensemble. Ned, Esmeralda, Mare, Detrick, Nicole, Adam, Ken, Oscar and the rest don’t need to be introduced anymore. Season 2 can actually mess with them.
Good.
Mess with them.
Make Ned screw up. Let Esmeralda make the wrong decision. Give Mare something she desperately wants and then make getting it complicated. Let Oscar question why he is even there.
That’s how a workplace comedy grows.
My Honest Review So Far
If you’re expecting The Office Season 10, forget it.
That isn’t what The Paper is.
And that’s precisely why I think it has a chance.
The show has enough DNA from The Office to feel like it belongs in the same universe, but the newspaper setting gives it a different rhythm and a different set of problems. It can be awkward without copying the original. It can be sentimental without turning into a reunion special.
My biggest compliment is simple: I actually want to see what happens next.
That’s more valuable than nostalgia.
The cast is strong. The premise is clever. The documentary format still works. Most importantly, the creators seem to understand that the original The Office cannot be duplicated.
Season 2 now has an opportunity to prove that The Paper isn’t merely a successful spinoff.
It can be its own show.
And with the September 9, 2026 premiere date locked in, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out whether the newsroom can survive its next disaster.
For me, that’s one of the more promising comedy returns of fall 2026.
Not because it’s The Office.
Because it finally looks comfortable being The Paper.
