Juicy number: the TV series "The Office" has received a sequel about journalists

The source of memes, jokes, and aphorisms, The Office series celebrated its twentieth anniversary this year and got a sequel. The same film crew worked on it as on "The Office", it was created in the same way in the format of a pseudo-documentary film. And there are familiar actors from The Office. Also starring in the new series are Domhnall Gleeson, who gained fame thanks to "Star Wars", and award-winning "White Lotus" star Sabrina Impaccatore. In Russia, the Peacock series is available entirely legally on the 24TV online platform, critics and viewers are delighted with it.

What's going on at Gazeta

The first season of Gazeta consists of ten episodes. He directly continues the plot of the sitcom "The Office", which is put on a par with the most popular TV series of our time: "Game of Thrones", "Friends", "Breaking Bad". The novelty was shot in the mockumentary genre, that is, in the format of pseudo-documentary films, with the main emphasis on ridiculous, funny and tragicomic situations. This sitcom, like The Office, was created by director and screenwriter Greg Daniels, also known for the show Parks and Recreation and the animated series King of the Mountain.

The sequel to "The Office" is timed to coincide with its twentieth anniversary. The series aired from 2005 to 2013 and told about the fate of office workers at the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, specializing in the sale of paper. That's what the sequel is called.: The Paper, which translates primarily as "paper". The plot revolves around a decaying local newspaper, the Toledo Truth Teller, which they are trying to save by hiring a former toilet paper salesman as its editor-in-chief.

The main actors of the series are Domhnall Gleeson ("Black Mirror", "Survivor", "Star Wars. Episode VII: The Force Awakens") and Sabrina Impaccatore ("The White Lotus", "The Passion of the Christ"), there is a constant conflict between them in the struggle for power over the printed word. The duo was also joined by Oscar Nunez, one of the key actors of The Office, who played accountant Oscar Martinez. For fans of the old series, there are a lot of references and quotes, including quotes from Steve Carell, a man who was literally disassembled into memes by fans. At the same time, Sabrina, in her own words, on the Jimmy Kimmel show, once again plays herself: a strong woman, not devoid of a thirst for adventure and intrigue.

The first season of Gazeta received high ratings from viewers, and the final episode of the season has a rating of 8.6 out of 10 on IMDb. The series was renewed for a second season even before the launch of the first. In addition to obvious fans of both the British and American versions of "The Office," the series is suitable for those who like sarcastic and clever works about industrial collapses: leisure ("Parks and Recreation"), journalism ("Life after Death") and cinema ("Film Studio"). He doesn't try to make you laugh too much, remaining ironic and slightly detached thanks to the mockumentary genre. Although, perhaps, fans of more traditional TV series will find this format boring and insipid.

Why watch the series?

In the story, Ned Sampson, played by Gleason, comes to a provincial newspaper as editor-in-chief and tries to restore its former greatness. In the first episodes, harsh but ironic criticism of the print media in the United States is given: publications prefer to copy materials from the paid Wire Service Stories feed, and gullible reporters follow quadrober teenagers and pass it off as sensational investigations.

Gazeta is conservative in a good way, she jokes about classic and understandable things: from ticktockers to the #MeToo movement, from corporate culture to the trend of reckless consumerism that seized the States back in the 20th century. The main focus is on the chemistry of the characters, as in a reality show, they are constantly "followed" and "spied on" by the film crew. And in the rare breaks between the situation comedy, the characters give, like the characters of the show "The Last Hero", their caustic remarks about the events in which they have just participated. And these jokes don't stop with the fourth wall.

The main highlight is that these journalists do not know how to work. In addition, Sampson's efforts to rehabilitate the dying publication are disrupted by the actions of the emotional and impulsive Italian Esmeralda Grand. Her role was brilliantly portrayed by Sabrina Impaccatore, who parodies the behavior of Italian-Americans no worse than the entire cast of the original Rocky starring Sylvester Stallone.

The first episodes may seem long-winded, but the magic of the Office is working again.: as soon as the characters become more or less clear and the main favorites appear, it becomes really exciting to follow the new tricks of the journalistic craft. The topics relevant to the United States that are raised in the plots, for the most part, will make the audience smile. However, not all and not all. The series about the LGBT community (the movement is recognized as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation), which is going to be promoted with the help of rainbow toilet paper and its advertising in the newspaper, was criticized by users and undermined the ratings of the entire show.

Whether Ned Sampson will eventually be able to return the "Truth Teller of Toledo" to its former glory and at the same time avoid falling into corporate hell with a culture of cancellation is the intrigue for which you want to watch the season to the end. In the end, everyone will be able to decide for themselves: has there been a worthy replacement for the comical and sometimes insane leader that was Michael Scott in The Office, or has all the steam gone off the whistle, and Gazeta is just another optional sequel that no one asked for.