I was excited to watch MTV's "The Paper" last night -- I was a high school journalism geek. I didn't become editor-in-chief until college, but I wrote opinionated pieces on why we shouldn't have grades, the benefits of vegetarianism and U.S. foreign policy in Central America. Ah youth. I probably made the mistake of watching "The Office," which I missed being on the road last week right beforehand. Going from top notch sitcom writing to reality television made me enjoy "The Paper" less than if I hadn't watched anything else.
As an aside, did anyone else notice how Amanda was like a wired, musical theater version of "90210's" Andrea Zuckerman? It's funny, because when I edited my college paper, my managing editor was similar to Amanda -- a little off-putting to some, super jazzed about all the details, over confident, cocky even, and yet, I couldn't publish without her. Anyhow, the premiere introduces us to the staff of juniors, all competing for the coveted EIC position at The Circuit. Spoiler alert: Everyone is annoyed by Amanda (who gets the job) and a coup is in the works.
I didn't love the show, at least not yet. For MTV, having access to its vast music library is both a blessing and curse -- a new recognizable piece of music seemed to be playing every 30 seconds to accompany the choppy editing and propel the drama forward. They perfected the formula of creating characters out of "real people" and heightening conflict and drama on "The Real World" and now apply it to every series that features a group "cast." "The Paper" is no exception. So while it's refreshing to watch a series about something other than sororities, "Super Sweet 16s" or Tila Tequila taking yet another shot at love, I wanted something more "True Life" than "Real World" for this particular series. I hope we get to see the staff deal with controversial stories, censorship and maybe make some sort of comment on journalism and media in general in addition to the inner-paper drama.
Did anyone else tune in?
Posted by anastasia
TV
Comments
I watched "The Paper" this morning. I was pretty excited because I still work at a newspaper and the trailer was surprisingly funny and refreshing.
I think it is edited to heighten drama. But I like that they all seem more real than the other MTV reality shows.
I also felt really bad for Amanda, although if I were in high school with her, I'd probably hate her too.
I thought she looked like Ashley Tisdale (pre-nose job, but surprise! Amanda gets a nose job in the next episode.)
I am hooked.
Posted by: Scott | April 15, 2008 12:34 PM
I liked the show. I caught it this evening. I didn't want it to end since I wanted to continue watching to see what happens once they showed the spoilers and what will happen in upcoming shows. Pretty awesome show.
Posted by: Kelvin | April 15, 2008 6:54 PM
I was Feature Editor of my high school paper, so I was also excited to check out "The Paper." I was struck by a few things, the most pronounced was the cheesy production. It's definitely like many reality shows, where it's clear that they are compensating for lack of drama by attempting to construct a story through editing and music choices.
On the plus side, there were some great juvenile/bitchy moments when staff members were talking trash essentially to Amanda's face. Ouch!
But, maybe most of all I felt old, since much of the drama at my high school paper in the 1980s centered around "paste up," where (in the days before we had a computer on every desk) we actually pasted up our pages and used things like T-squares and glue sticks. Nightmares ensued when corrections were glued upside down or slipped en route to the printer.
By the way, the best journalism-related reality show that I've seen was MTV's I'm From Rolling Stone, in which writers competed for a position at the magazine. It was more documentary-like than most shows on MTV and actually gave some insight into music journalism.
Despite its flaws I'll certainly keep watching The Paper, if nothing else to see how it compares to my own experiences at my high school paper.
Posted by: Jennifer | April 15, 2008 9:46 PM