Comedy
The Paper
This sequel to The Office features the same setup, crisp writing and cringe-worthy jokes of its forbear. But The Paper’s content issues can be significantly worse.
Andrew feels more lost than ever. After getting fired from the tech company that he cofounded, he needs a job, a project, a hobby—anything to lift him out of spending all his time with his sister Eunice.
As Andrew plots how to get his job back, low-achieving Eunice is going after an internship herself, which is more than enough on her plate.
Then their overachieving older sister, Ruthie, stops by unannounced with a big secret: She had an affair with a coworker, and now’s she pregnant. Ruthie messed up big time, and now she needs her younger siblings’ help.
This could be an opportunity for Andrew and Eunice to finally rub it in Ruthie’s face that she’s not as perfect as she pretends to be—or the situation could lead to some much-needed family bonding.
Netflix’s business model often seems to favor quantity over quality. With the streamer releasing up to 15 original movies and shows per week, the goal seems to be to throw everything at a wall and just hope something sticks. For every I Think You Should Leave, Netflix also releases dozens of comedy series that get quietly axed after a season or two.
I would imagine that Dang! will suffer a similar fate as many other shows on the site.
Dang! is raunchy and unfunny; it lacks almost any sense of sincerity. The first episode alone is stuffed with so much language, innuendo and same sex-affirming content that my hand got tired from furiously scribbling it all down in my notes.
The added bonus of bad here comes in the form of constant “jokes” about the current, ultra politically correct society that social media can promote. Characters make comments about microaggression and accidentally misgendering someone, for instance. Andrew is gay, so the show frequently discusses his relationships. It would seem the series upholds the exact same politics that it is loosely attempting to satirize, so it ends up not feeling like satire at all.
Furthermore, the plot doesn’t aid these issues. Andrew is portrayed as lazy and dishonest. Eunice “works” as a streamer showcasing her feet to any viewer that will pay money to tune in. And Ruthie demands her siblings feel bad for her after she nuked her career and marriage with ongoing acts of infidelity.
The two younger siblings clearly have a contentious relationship with their older sister—something that Andrew pushes Eunice to work at, preferring they be unified as a family for once. That’s a nice sentiment, but other than that sweet notion, the series doesn’t give viewers any likable characters or much to chuckle at.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Andrew begins to work out how he might get his job back after being sacked from the company that he cofounded. Meanwhile the arrival of older sister Ruthie becomes a project that’s more interesting than doing anything else productive.
We hear uses of “b–ch,” “d–k,” “d–n” and “h—.” A few misuses of God’s name pepper the dialogue. And crude language to describe male and female body parts are used as well in near-constant sexual jokes.
Characters drink margaritas over dinner, with a few mentions of times they went out drinking before. Two people make a habit of testing a random assortment of pills from a bag, a decision that causes a man to pass out after taking something without knowing what it would do.
Along with some animated slapstick violence, the episode features multiple bizarre jokes about people being diagnosed with or dying from cancer. There is mention of a dog needing medicine so its kidneys won’t explode. An influencer puts a mineral in her coffee that extends her life but puts her in “excruciating pain.” A man has a passing thought of murdering his sister. A character in the tech world talks about the large number of deaths that occur every year as a result of self-driving cars. Eunice recalls faking her own death to get out of a date.
Andrew initially got fired due to his habit of spending hours in the company bathroom, overhearing coworkers’ private conversations, and then tweeting them online. Andrew is gay and makes multiple mentions of boyfriends and hookups with other men. His lawyer is one such ex who still has feelings for him and throws up multiple offers to reconnect physically. In a recollection of his former paramours, Andrew says his sexual activities with one man were “over the pants stuff.”
Eunice spends the episode wearing a tight tank top that shows her midriff. Her “job” involves streaming provocative content of her feet. We get a glimpse of that content, as well as the lewd comments that her, um, invested viewers post. Eunice insists that what she does isn’t pornography, even though her male audience gets a sensual pleasure from her streams. When asked to pack up some essentials, Eunice adds multiple sex toys to her list of items. She says she thinks her female therapist might be into her.
Ruthie’s situation is the most visually explicit content here. She cheats on her husband with a coworker. In the scene, the pair is covered by a blanket, but noises and movements tell us exactly what’s going on. Her lover crudely comments on the size of her private parts. Ruthie herself explicitly describes the affair to her siblings with more detail than anyone would probably care to know. When her husband catches her in the act of infidelity, he offers to provide the couple with towels—and Ruthie is bothered by this reaction to the situation.
We see a nude woman from behind. We also see a rat in an intimate moment with a cockroach.
It feels like every other line of dialogue involves a sexual quip of some sort. We’re told that multiple characters are gay, nonbinary or pangender. A character reports her own pronouns. Someone pays Eunice a small reparation after accidentally committing a microaggression against her. A character mentions that she has consistent urinary tract infections; another frequently discusses his irritable bowel syndrome.
Jonah Parker’s first interaction with Plugged In came when he was just five years old, after his parents read a review for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and deemed the content too intense for him. What started out as a contentious relationship between Jonah and a staff of reviewers who knew not of his existence would later turn into an appreciation for the site’s ability to present media content in a way that was accurate and fair. Jonah enjoys analyzing how our entertainment echoes the creativity of our Creator while finding glimpses of Biblical truths within every genre. He believes that Robert Pattinson’s Batmobile is the perfect mix of cool and practical.
This sequel to The Office features the same setup, crisp writing and cringe-worthy jokes of its forbear. But The Paper’s content issues can be significantly worse.
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