Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Paper Season 1.It’s been said that all good things must come to an end, and nowhere is that more true than with Dunder Mifflin after The Office ended twelve years ago. Given its own status as a sequel, The Paper naturally follows up on where the old company left off, and the results are sad to see. We only spend a few minutes inside what little is left of the Scranton branch, but it feels almost foreign to look at, and its quiet decline reflects the real changes both small towns and the workplace have experienced over twenty years. Thematically, it’s also a way to grieve before the new series actually begins, reminding us how nothing will be the same again, even as the world quickly changes into something different.
Where Did We Last See Dunder Mifflin in ‘The Office’?
As absurdist as the show can often be, featuring situations that would be pretty extreme for any workplace, The Office still tries to sell itself as being a mostly realistic portrayal of American work life. By extension, that also means people come and go with regular frequency over such a long period of time. Most of the crew has moved on to other things when the series comes to an end, with an ever loyal Dwight (Rainn Wilson) being among the last of the employees left standing. Both within the show itself and outside of it, the world of Dunder Mifflin became a source of fame for almost everyone who was involved with it from the start, and the question of “Where are they now?” has lingered for a long time. Well, it turns out that our favorite fictional documentary crew had the same question, so they returned to Scranton nearly a decade later to see what has become of the paper printing company. What they find left of it should not shock us, and yet, it does.
When the camera crew walks into the old building, almost nothing we know of the workplace remains. A small group of people still work there, but none of them have a clue about what Dunder Mifflin used to be, much less that the company was subject to a film crew for nearly a decade. There is no sign of Dwight or anyone who stayed behind at the end of the original show, and in its place are other groups, including the refrigeration company that Bob Vance (Bobby Ray Shafer) still owns. The old man explains that Dunder Mifflin was purchased in 2019 by Enervate, which closed down the branch in Scranton, and the curious filmmakers follow the new company as the new show begins.
The Decline of Dunder Mifflin Speaks to One of ‘The Paper’s Main Themes
One of the most important distinctions between The Office and The Paper is the setting and timing of when and where each show takes place. The original show is perhaps best exemplified by the title of the fictional documentary, The Office: An American Workplace. Simply put, it was meant to showcase the everyman and the kind of corporate culture that was so incredibly common, but it’s also about the decline of an old industry that has been made obsolete. Fast-forward 20 years, and the new series takes that concept to its logical extreme in our virtual world, one that has changed so drastically since 2005. The fact that Scranton has an entire obituary list for defunct companies has the effect of making the small town feel empty, just like many others that have been wiped out by two large economic crashes and the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, closing Dunder Mifflin helps serve as a blunt mirror to where we are today.
In the same way, while The Paper may place more emphasis upon journalism as a craft rather than corporate culture itself, the show continues that theme. Like so many smaller newspapers, it’s very clear that the Toledo Truth Teller is a shadow of what it once was, and the flashbacks to old archival footage of the old paper at its height serve as the perfect contrast to its sorry state today under Enervate, who could not seem to care less about the value of journalism. Unlike its predecessor, however, The Paper is also about renewal, and the perfect combination of faith and realism needed to help sustain it, and now it’s up to the editor-in-chief, Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson), to get us there. The glory days might have become a distant memory, but we can still move forward, and there is always room for potential improvement.
The Fall of Dunder Mifflin Reminds Us of How Things Will Never Be the Same
One could argue that there is some kind of self-awareness hidden in the concept of The Paper as a series. After all, it’s a sequel to arguably the most popular NBC sitcom of the 21st century, and a staple of network television, but now it’s on a streaming service with shorter seasons, shakier foundations, and no weekly releases, much less time slots. They might share the same style and a few characters, but these are two very different shows in equally unique eras, and the opening forces loyal viewers to reckon with that fact. In some ways, Dunder Mifflin is left frozen in time, like an episode of The Office on rerun that proves endlessly rewatchable, and it’s surprisingly sad to watch the place go so quietly.
Returning to Dunder Mifflin for one last visit allows the audience to grieve a show and place that felt like home to longtime fans, accepting its loss while also moving forward. Just as it’s OK to miss the glory days, it’s important to accept when things are gone. Having to bid farewell to Dunder Mifflin might be Greg Daniels forcing viewers to grow up, but that does not take away from the wonderful group of people who made lifelong friendships there. Now, as the documentary team lasers in on a new subject, the Toledo Truth Teller faces many of the exact same challenges, and it’s up to an unlikely team of Buckeyes to see if they can avoid the same outcome.
All episodes of The Paper are available to stream on Peacock in the U.S.
