'The Paper' Season 2 Finally Becomes 'The Office' Replacement Peacock Needed | Review

Published Sep 2, 2026, 12:01 PM EDT

Tania Hussain is an Executive Editor at Collider responsible for creative, editorial, and managerial duties. In addition to leading content ideation and development, she works to generate innovative and compelling ideas for feature articles and reviews with her editorial team across Features, Lists, Reviews, and Interviews. She also serves as the primary editor overseeing Collider’s Signature Series profiles, spotlighting some of the most influential voices in film and television. Tania has helped cover and ideate content for major events for Collider, including the Toronto International Film Festival. She has also conducted more than 100 interviews since her start in the business more than 15 years ago. Some favorites include Joel McHale, Charlie Cox, Jennifer Garner, Tina Fey, Kate Winslet, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Richter, Jordan Schlansky, Jamie Dornan, Yeardley Smith, Rafe Spall, Esther Smith, and a reasonable toss-up between Cookie Monster and Kermit the Frog. She has covered set visits, in-person junkets, and red carpets for several films and TV shows, including most recently, The Sheep Detectives, Masterchef, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

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When The Paper Season 2 returns to Peacock this September, the Toledo Truth-Teller is in a much better place than when we first met it. Thankfully, the same is true of the mockumentary sitcom from mastermind creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman. The sophomore release is faster, funnier, and more confident in the type of sitcom it wants to be. You see that pretty quickly in one of its best episodes, where a routine reporting assignment collides with a tornado and the newsroom’s usual awkwardness turns into complete chaos.

But what makes the ridiculously laugh-out-loud bit work is actually something much smaller. From its premiere last year to now, The Paper has gotten much better at watching people who already struggle to communicate try to do it when everything around them goes wrong. While the jokes are sharper and the pacing is quicker, the cast now feels so comfortable with each other that even a small look can be as funny as whatever weird thing is happening. Better yet, the cringe the series inherits from The Office’s tone and style has something genuine underneath it.

By Season 2, though, it feels less like a show living in The Office’s shadow and more like a workplace comedy that can actually stand beside it. These characters, led by Domhnall Gleeson’s intrepid editor, Ned Sampson, may be walking disasters, but they care about their workplace. But we also learn they care a great deal about journalism, even if each of them is considerably worse at caring about each other.

What Is ‘The Paper’ Season 2 About?

Picking up right after the Ohio Journalism Awards, where the Toledo Truth-Teller took home some trophies, Ned (Gleeson) is eager to build on the paper’s major wins. Of course, that quickly turns into a search for a bigger story following the honor, eventually putting a local private club in his sights and giving Ned something much bigger to chase. But around that, the newsroom remains exactly as chaotic as you’d expect.

Ned and Mare (Chelsea Frei) are still figuring out how to handle that surprising kiss without making things more awkward or complicated at work. Meanwhile, after Nicole (Ramona Young) tells Detrick (Melvin Gregg) that she wants space and out of their “situationship,” he pushes himself to be the best reporter at the paper. Esmeralda (Sabrina Impacciatore) finds new ways to make herself the center of whatever is happening, pulling Ken (Tim Key) into her schemes, reviewing the wrong “haunted house,” or treating a workplace inconvenience like a full-scale coup.

As The Paper gives the staff plenty of assignments that go sideways, from sourcing dilemmas to ethics, Season 2 also tackles journalism issues through local attractions, emergency alerts, and HR problems. But of course, one assignment keeps everyone on their toes, especially as Ned pushes for something more “Pulitzer Prize-y”— even if it means jeopardizing what they’ve built in the past year.

‘The Paper’ Season 2’s Writing Knows When To Let Things Get Weird

Image via NBC Universal, Peacock

One of the best parts of The Paper this season is just how often a normal workplace problem ends up a little more outlandish than expected. Take, for example, a podcast that looks innocent on the surface but becomes a point of contention between two of the paper’s brightest minds; or how an HR requirement somehow turns into a full-blown HR violation, producing some of the season’s biggest laughs. Then there’s the tornado that finds two of its most opposite reporters on a case that becomes uproariously hilarious and awkward AF. But none of these dilemmas feel random, either. Everyone starts with something pretty simple to do before it all spirals completely out of control, which is a strong testament to clever, sharp writing.

With each episode sitting around 20–25 minutes, the pacing helps a great deal too. Rarely do the jokes sit longer than they need to. Instead, they bounce around the newsroom without ever feeling crammed. Last year, the series had to introduce this odd group of people and figure out how they fit together. But Season 2 skips that, giving the writers more room to just have fun with each of them, testing combos for unconventional scenarios. Not to mention, the sitcom understands how things like access, bad reporting, editorial pressure, and the relationships we build in a newsroom can all become part of the joke.

Ned’s “crusade” gives the season a bigger story too, but it’s the smaller stories that let the rest of the staff fail upward in their own quirky ways. Like, the tornado is probably where all of that really comes together. Yes, I’ve mentioned it three times now, but there’s a reason for that. Because what begins as a normal assignment becomes the wildest two minutes you’ll see on TV in 2026. But the funniest part isn’t all the physical comedy that follows. It comes down to watching these people who are already pretty bad at saying what they mean try to do it under some of the worst possible circumstances. Leveling up from Season 1’s dynamics, it’s proof that when the joke gets huge and silly, it still comes from who these people are.

‘The Paper’ Season 2’s Cast Is Even Better This Time Around

Across the show’s first 10 episodes made available for review, it’s clear the cast is having more fun this season, and that vibe goes a long way. Gleeson is still holding all of this together, mostly because he can make Ned’s sincerity funny without ever making him look foolish. And really, that tracks with Gleeson’s background in comedy and writing, which lets him sit comfortably inside a joke without ever overselling it. His co-star, Frei, is just as good, especially when a scene calls for a look that says exactly what Mare is thinking. While Frei is completely owning her character, the back-and-forth the pair share has gotten even better, and Season 2 gives them more room to play with all the feelings brewing between Ned and Mare.

But for everything the two bring, Impacciatore is a real knockout this season. There’s something fearless in how she plays Esmeralda, going big without ever losing control of the joke. Even when the material gets completely absurd (and it really does), Impacciatore commits so hard that you almost start following her logic. She can completely take over a scene without making everyone else disappear, and some of Season 2’s biggest laughs belong to her. Her moments with guest star Andy Richter are also exactly what you’d imagine, and they make you hope he comes back for Season 3.

Meanwhile, rounding out the supporting cast is a sharp performance by Gregg, who gets a chance to stretch a little more this year, while Young most interestingly throws herself into some of Nicole’s wildest moments. Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Duane Shepard Sr., Eric Rahill, and Oscar Nuñez all get their own chances to be ridiculous too, with some of the funniest side plots coming from this group. SNL veteran Jon Lovitz also drops in and is exactly as snappy and curmudgeonly as you’d hope, stealing several scenes along the way, along with some big (often awkward) moments. Comedian Lisa Gilroy is just as funny and unexpected, taking what could have been a fairly standard HR head role and making every interaction weird in exactly the right way.

But Key continues to be one of The Paper’s secret weapons. While the greatest bummer is that Key isn’t in every episode this season, the moments we get are among the funniest. Key can make the strangest line sound totally appropriate with this innocent confidence, and every time his character pops up, you immediately wish he had more to do. But that might actually be the one downside to an ensemble this good: there just isn’t always enough room for everyone. While Key especially feels underused, wanting more of these people is hardly the worst complaint a comedy can leave you with. There are a few things I wanted more of, sure, but The Paper Season 2 is still one of the funniest comedies on Peacock right now and one you’ll definitely hope we get more of.

The Paper Season 2 premieres September 9 on Peacock.

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  Ned Sampson

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  Sabrina Impacciatore

  Esmeralda Grand

Pros & Cons

• Domhnall Gleeson is a terrific anchor for the season, while Sabrina Impacciatore is a knockout.
• The writing is sharper and faster this season, with jokes that rarely overstay their welcome.
• Season 2 finds a stronger balance between ridiculous workplace comedy and the very real messiness of journalism.

• Tim Key is noticeably underused despite being one of the show's funniest performers.
• Some of the season's best supporting players leave you wanting more, which is a good problem to have.