Op-Ed: The Paper Is Interesting Counterpoint to The Office

Viewers can't quit Dunder Mifflin and The Office, and Monica Hesse of the Washington Post thinks she knows why. What once read as a light jab at cubicle life now plays like a workplace fantasy: predictable 9-to-5 hours, paid time off, benefits, and salaries that support mortgages and family trips. In 2026, she argues, the show's "boring" office is actually a vision of security that many workers no longer recognize. That shift, Hesse writes, makes The Office a useful contrast to Peacock's The Paper, a show by the same creators that's set in a struggling Ohio newsroom owned by a lucrative toilet-paper company.

"I think there's a universality here, one that feels of the moment for many of us," writes Hesse. "While The Office was about finding splendor in the mundane, The Paper is ultimately about finding serenity in chaos. How do you show up to work today, knowing that your job might not exist tomorrow? How can you both insist that your life's work is vital and acknowledge that society will march on without it?" Read the full essay.