paper girls is the name of a new series by and on Amazon, and you really wish it had existed when you were 15, well, but that’s what it was for back then Five friends, which was equally gorgeous. And would be the basic idea of paper girls real, it would be possible under certain very special circumstances to watch this series again as a teenager. Because that’s what it’s about: time travel. And from girls. Who can master everything, without any boys (formerly: boys) or possibly even a dog. It’s an absolutely enchanting story about four 12-year-olds who go through incredible adventures.
It begins on November 1, 1988 in a fictional suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. It’s the day after Halloween. It’s still dark, but four girls are already out on their bikes. They deliver newspapers. They are: papergirls – Newspaper delivery women. For one of them it’s the first day in this job, the others already know each other, if only fleetingly. Suddenly, and it’s really very sudden, the supernatural bursts into their lives and the four of them find themselves locked in a war involving time travel.
The four newspaper delivery women will also end up in other times in the course of eight episodes. First they end up in 2019. Then 1999. And the ending should not be revealed. They’re always the 12-year-olds they were in 1988, but here and there they encounter older versions of themselves, and it’s worth revealing here that the inner logic of the plot, similar to that in StrangerThings or the German series Dark, appears correct for exactly as long as you see it on the screen. If you try to retell them, nothing makes sense anymore, lots of questions arise to which there is no plausible answer. But that doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter at all, because this series is told with so much panache and, yes, love, that you just want to step into this fairy tale, logic or not.
The four will go through changes that were not seen coming
The series is based on a comic, “Paper Girl” by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, which ran monthly from 2015 to 2019. The four main characters are therefore comic book heroines in their origin. Their names are Mac, KJ, Tiffany, and Erin, and they’re so different that it’s easy to tell them apart. Each one has its own character. Mac comes from a poor and violent family, she is tough and rebellious, with a short haircut that always hangs across her face and a soft core that only gradually reveals itself. KJ is Jewish, about to have her Bat Mitzvah. She grew up in a nice house to wealthy parents and is quite an introvert. Tiffany is black, smart, inquisitive and not easily impressed. Erin is Chinese American. Her mother barely speaks English, and Erin is very careful, at least initially, not to offend. It’s four clichés, if you will, but all of them will take turns that you didn’t see coming, which is partly due to the pace of the storytelling – it all moves so quickly that you don’t even have time to see anything big coming .
The names of the main actresses should be noted, you will hear a lot from them: Sofia Rosinsky, Fina Strazza, Camryn Jones and Riley Lai Nelet. They were all born in 2006 or 2007. They play their roles believably and with great inner seriousness, even when it comes to the introduction of a tampon in all theoretical details. This scene, which begins with Erin having her period for the first time, is notable in that it has arguably never been seen before in a mainstream series. Or has the topic of menstruation ever been a storyline lasting several minutes? The most touching scenes belong to the tough Mac, who meets her brother when he is three decades later.
The role of the older Erin is played by Ali Wong, who may be known to many as a stand-up comedian from several Netflix specials. Otherwise there are no big names. Directed exclusively by women. The position of showrunner was also held by a woman: Stephany Folsom, known as the author of “Toy Story 4”. Your script draft for paper girls also ensured that Amazon got the rights to the film adaptation. In 2021, however, she left the project without knowing why and her co-showrunner took over. Music also plays an important role. There are many hits to be heard in the series, as is now known from series that are said to have something to do with the 1980s. Interestingly, they often do not correspond to the respective season. Who knew the Soulwax remix of Marie Davidson’s 2018 “Work It” would look so pretty on a dark 1980s November morning?
In the course of the series, the girls get caught between the fronts of an absurd war on different time levels. They get to know each other better and better – each other, but also themselves. It’s about friendship. About the relationship between freedom and fate. And perhaps to say it a tad smaller, it’s a very well-crafted entertainment series that will delight anyone who still remembers what it was like to be young. Or who are just young.
Paper Girls, on Amazon Prime.
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