TV Review: Paper Girls – Season 1

Paper Girls Season 1

Creator: Stephanie Folsom

Starring: Camryn Jones, Riley Lai Nelet, Sofia Rosinsky, Finna Strazza, Adina Porter, Nate Corrdry, Ali Wong

Runtime: 8 Episodes

I’m a big fan of Brian K Vaughn and Cliff Chiang’s Paper Girls book. It’s a completely off the rails romp that never lets it’s foot off the gas for a second. It’s miraculous the way in which it was able to maintain a comprehensible story despite the speed at which it jerks the reader this way and that. Naturally, I was excited at the prospect of an adaptation, but that excitement comes with what I find to be a healthy side of cautiousness. Television structure is quite different than that of a comic book’s given that there’s much more space and time to fill, and the idea of slowing down Paper Girls is not one that’s very appealing. Paper Girls as a book was all about it’s intense forward momentum, while the show is more than content to hang out on the couch for a couple of episodes.

Paper Girls of course is nothing without the coterie of paper girls themselves. Their bond and developing friendship is key to the show’s success and by far the strongest attribute. Through the course of eight episodes we see the girls grow and learn about who they are as individuals, which in turn allows the friendship between them to blossom in a way that is both natural and feels true to life. It’s a show that, at it’s best, allows the viewer to relive that wonder and whimsy of a childhood friendship. It makes your time as a kid feel a bit like an untouchable bubble unable to be burst by the sharp realities of your future. It’s interesting because it takes these kids and forces them into literal confrontations with their futures, and it is undeniably compelling to watch them decide between an outright rejection of said futures that could only derive from their childlike perspective, or the less enticing and more ‘adult’ acceptance of it.

I specifically want to throw praise towards Sofia Rosinsky and Fina Strazza’s performances as standouts. Both characters present a unique challenge from an acting standpoint, as Mac’s confrontational and brutish personality requires a louder, in your face performance while KJ is a tough one to sell for the opposite reasons, being that her struggles are often internalized and rely on Strazza’s nuance to sell that character’s arc. Those two little girls brought tears to my eyes a couple of times, and that’s not nothing. I don’t want to say the other two girls bring nothing to the table, because they certainly do, but unfortunately their plotlines do not hold the same weight and their performances suffer as a result. It’s things like this that make me so torn on the show, because at times it’s a great one; at others, a middling one.

There are multiple plotlines that are completely unique to the show. Sometimes this works in the shows favor, but oftentimes they gut the pacing and don’t carry enough narrative weight to justify it. The greatest and most glaring exception to that is Mac’s subplot with her brother that forms early in the season. The dynamic between her and Dylan (Cliff Chamberlain) is outstanding. The relationship is complex, and the exploration of that is what begins to peel back the layers of Mac’s character and force her into some growth. It hits hard if you have siblings, but it’s going to hit close to home regardless, assuming you’ve ever lost someone close to you. If I were to level any criticism toward it, it’s only that I wish it were longer and had slightly more breathing room.

The same, however, cannot be said of every character’s personalized subplot. For example, Erin Tieng (Riley Lai Nelet) stumbling across her future self (Ali Wong) and finding safe haven with her is perhaps the weakest section of the show.  There are a lot of things that play into that, like the lack of any sort of compelling back and forth between the two of them which is exemplified by the fact that Riley Lai Nelet’s performance is easily the weakest of the bunch. She’s not bad, but she is quite wooden for the most part. On top of that, to get someone as likable and charming as Ali Wong on your show and hardly giving her any opportunity to have fun or be charming is a huge missed opportunity to inject some life into what is, at times, a dull series.

When I think of Paper Girls, I think of imagination. Knowing Christopher Cantwell is one of the driving forces behind this adaptation is the reason I know the showrunners don’t lack imagination, so based on what we are given I can only assume they instead lack a sufficient budget. It does not lack substance, but it does lack style. Though it obviously has heart, it sometimes loses out on fun.

At the end of the day I think Paper Girls is a good show, but just barely. I find myself torn because there is much to like in here, but it drags it’s feet to an irritating degree and does not deliver on an appropriate tone. At it’s best, it’s a series that makes you nostalgic for childhood whimsy and friendships, and at it’s worst it is meandering and shuffles toward a largely unsatisfying finale. Despite that, I still ended the show crossing my fingers for a season 2 because the bones of greatness are there, but so far there is little success at digging them up. I fear this may be the one and only outing for our beloved Paper Girls on television, and it will be a shame if this wider audience never gets to experience it the way the property deserves.