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.
All Charlie Cooper wants to do with his life is write love songs that change the world.
OK, that’s a pretty tall order for a recently graduated, guitar-playing 18-year-old. But with a little help from his newly formed band, the Runarounds, and a little inspiration from Sophia Kinney, the girl he’s been in love with since freshman year, Charlie just might make his dream come true.
But he only has one summer to make it happen. After that, the Runarounds will be forced (mostly by their parents) to go their separate ways.
Charlie himself turned down a college option to pursue music full time. Neil, who sings and plays guitar, is being encouraged to join the family business: painting houses. Lead guitarist Topher is being pressured by his parents and his girlfriend, Amanda, to go to Princeton. Drummer Bez—who only joined the band to help his buddy, songwriter Wyatt, make new friends—plans to ditch the Runarounds as soon as he can get a gig with a real band.
And Wyatt, well, he perhaps needs the band the most. His mom has made it clear that unless he gets a job and starts contributing to the household, he’ll be out on the street.
The stakes are high and the band is higher: Seriously, these guys love their weed. This will either be a summer they never forget or one they hope to never remember.
Did I mention that the Runarounds like to smoke marijuana? And drink? And party? Perhaps that’s not such a surprise. After all, these teens have gone full ham on the “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” mindset.
Granted, we don’t see much of the “sex” element onscreen, but Sophia initially tells Charlie that she’s not interested in him, since she “personally knows two girls who have had the ‘Charlie Rockstar Experience.’” Later on, love triangles (with sex implied) cause some serious teenage angst and drama. One teenage girl comes out as gay to her longtime boyfriend (obviously ending their romantic relationship) and kisses a female friend to confirm her same-sex attraction. Charlie discovers that his dad—the one who raised him—isn’t his biological dad, which creates quite a bit of tension in his family.
The underage smoking and drinking, on the other hand? Well, suffice it to say that in the first episode of this Prime Video series, the band’s manager, Pete, gets into some serious heat with his dad and stepmom after wrecking their house during an unsupervised graduation party where just about everyone was intoxicated. Neil, we’re told, believes that everything should be done in moderation—including moderation. As such, he’s frequently seen rolling joints and passing them around. And just about everyone else onscreen is smoking or drinking at some point, too.
There’s also an absurd amount of foul language. The Runarounds original name? A twist on an explosive profanity. But even without that immature spoonerism, the show has plenty of standalone f-bombs to make up for it, along with a slew of other profanities.
I’ll give The Runarounds this: It is well-written and relatable. But given the age of its main characters (and the age of its intended audience), it’s a complete disaster. So if you have your own 18-year-olds heading off to college, maybe advise them not to check this series out. And if your kids are younger, definitely engage those parental controls to block this one.
(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.)
As graduation approaches, Charlie, Neil and Topher drop Pete from the band and secretly add Bez and Wyatt, renaming themselves “The Runarounds.”
Most of the teens we see here are rude to authority figures. They lie frequently, including about serious, life-changing stuff. And just to put it bluntly, they tend make immature (and sometimes illegal) decisions—namely underage drinking and smoking/vaping marijuana, which we see onscreen repeatedly.
While under the influence, Charlie rides a bike off the roof of Pete’s house into an above-ground pool, destroying the pool and the lawn, all while his classmates cheer him on. Elsewhere, Pete trips, breaks his nose (resulting in quite a lot of blood) and manages to set his house on fire after drunkenly trying to start a fight with a band heckler. After getting grounded for that incident, Pete sneaks out and falls off a wall.
At a party, Sophia says she doesn’t drink, making some condescending remarks about schoolmates who do. Quite pointedly, a girl consumes a beverage called a “horny zombie” as Sophia is talking. However, Sophia later recants her comments, using her valedictorian speech to tell her classmates that she wishes she had gone to more parties.
Charlie is genuinely sweet to Sophia, going out of his way to be kind to her. Sophia returns his kindness but not his romantic feelings. The pair flirts sometimes, but Sophia tells Charlie that he has no shot with her, since he’s been a bit of a player in the past.
There are multiple jokes about sex, hormones and male-and-female body parts. A girl lifts her skirt and puts her rear on a classmate’s car window, pseudo-mooning the passengers inside. She then pantomimes having sex with the car while making a crude and incestuous joke. Elsewhere, women and teen girls wear revealing tops. A guy rips open his shirt to reveal that he has had a near-profanity (and the original name of the Runarounds) tattooed on his chest.
Some of the parents here are doing their best, trying to lead their kids on paths to success. Others are downright awful: Wyatt’s mom clearly sees him as an inconvenience. (Wyatt has an anxiety attack after imagining what his mother would say if she knew he was trying to become a musician.) Sophia has been taking care of her alcoholic father since her mom died, forcing her to take on adult responsibilities and pressures, such as calling the insurance company after her dad crashes their car while drinking and driving.
Amanda, Topher’s ambitious girlfriend, is quite mean to him. She clearly hates the band and his bandmates. After he misses an interview for an internship, she tells him that she wishes he had been in a car accident, since that would be preferable to him playing music. And she eventually gives him an ultimatum between the Runarounds and herself. (Shamefully, his friends use the strained relationship to their advantage sometimes.)
The Runarounds are good friends to one another, supporting each other through thick and thin. That said, they neglect to tell Pete (their original drummer) that he’s been replaced by Bez. When Pete discovers the truth, he’s heartbroken but understanding, telling the guys that if he can’t be their drummer, he’ll be their biggest fan.
We hear the f-word more than 30 times, plus multiple uses of a near-obscene spoonerism. There are also several uses of the s-word, “a–,” “a–hole,” “b–ch,” “c–k,” “d–n,” “d–k,” “h—” and “p-ss.” God’s name is abused about seven times, once paired with “d–mit.”
Neil is nicknamed “Buddha” by his classmates, and he tells someone to breathe in through his “chakras.” A man talking about his deceased father says, “rest in peace,” while looking skyward. The Runarounds frequently mention “rock gods.”
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
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