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Veteran Reporter Responds Forcefully to Peacock’s ‘The Paper’ Teaser

Peacock’s newsroom comedy premiering on September 4, which will act as a sequel to NBC’s “The Office.”

However, I must emphasize that although this new mockumentary is crafted by the same creators who transformed “The Office” into a nine-season comedic masterpiece, there’s a crucial detail to mention: This time, the storyline unfolds within the dreary newsroom of a mid-sized Rust Belt city, unlike the office of a regional paper supply company in Scranton. Additionally, apart from the involvement of Dunder Mifflin accountant Oscar Martinez here (along with “The Paper” sharing the same creative lineage as “The Office”), it’s evident that this new Peacock original is not a sequel or continuation of that original narrative.

It is positioned nominally in the same narrative realm, but it is also designed to stand entirely on its own. As a journalist who began my career in the trenches of a local newspaper — the type of establishment where the compensation is pitiable, the tasks are unappreciated, and a writer can only aspire for a life beyond the mundane — I can already sense that I won’t be chuckling much during Peacock’s series. But let me clarify, this isn’t intended as a critique.