‘Paper Girls’: Amazon Prime Video’s attractive sci-fi series is a family alternative to ‘Stranger Things’ that is having a hard time taking off

In Amazon Prime Video they’ve been trying to find for a while his new great science fiction series after completion of ‘The Expanse’. Good proof of this is that only in the last few months has it released titles like ‘outer range’, ‘Night Sky’ either ‘Paper Girls’which opens on the platform this Friday, July 29.

Amazon has chosen on this occasion to launch the entire season at once, surely seeking to repeat the success of ‘The final list’. I don’t think it will go that far, but it does seem like a wise strategy, because it’s hard to get the point of this adaptation of the comic by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang and the idea of ​​an imposed break could play against him, because without him it is easier to become attached to his protagonists. There is the greatest strength of a series that, in relation to the story it tells, does not end up hooking.

The characters above the story

I guarantee that you will read countless mentions of ‘Stranger Things’ when you hear about ‘Paper Girls’, something understandable both for being initially located in the 80s and for having minors as protagonists and for the strong science fiction component of the story. Nevertheless, the similarities don’t go much beyond that, because in any case it should be referred to as a more familiar alternative. Or at least that feeling has left me during the four chapters that I have seen so far.

Set at the end of 1988, ‘Paper Girls’ opens with a young teenager starting her new job as a newspaper delivery girl, which makes her coincide with three other girls her age. Something happens – I will not go into details because of the spoilers – and the always attractive resource of time travel enters the scene. From there things get complicated.but the series at all times prioritizes its four protagonists above the rest of the elements.

That can cause a certain feeling of frustration in the viewer, because what is achieved by giving a little more depth to their characters –his most emotional side has a great specific weight-, especially in the case of one of them temporarily flying free, is also lost by the possibility that the more succulent side of its premise is left too much in the background.

Not that they forget about it, but they do they cook it too slow -sometimes it almost seems that they bet everything on the last minutes as a hook so that you continue watching episodes-. I don’t know if it will be a consequence of wanting to be very faithful to the original material, something that those responsible have influenced on several occasions throughout the promotional campaign.

at half throttle

The natural consequence of this is that it is easier to connect with its protagonists, where in addition it is appreciated that there is a purely feminine approach, something that this type of eighties stories has rarely done, and that is if it has ever happened. However, that temporary location is changing and everything is somewhat more monotonous in other places. It’s not that there’s anything wrong, but there’s nothing that stands out either. Even visually it is somewhat flatter when in the 80s, without being anything revolutionary -don’t expect a glorification of those years, mind you-, everything was more colorful.

Also, the characters are well written and their motivations are understandable, but for now they have gone completely emotional instead of exploring in a more varied way what they can bring to the story. That’s partly because the series still has a strong introductory component.. He didn’t expect them to feature everything in the first episode either, but it does lack some punch. It is as if he is a boxer who is focusing on trying to tire out his rival in the hope that it will be easier to knock him out later.

Having said that, the elements that have been expanding the mythology presented in the first episode do leave one curious to see what they do with them, while the four protagonists have enough hook to make it worth continuing to see it for them. Of course, at all times it seems that her ceiling is much more than what they have tried to achieve so far. The question is whether they will want to reach it or whether they will settle for flying low.

In short

‘Paper Girls’ proposes a story striking and works with care to its four protagonists, for which a great casting job has also been done. In return, until now he has not been encouraged to really explore the universe that he presents and the feeling remains that he is holding back more than he should. There will be those who continue despite this, but we live in years in which there are many more series than we can see and that could play against them.

If you are looking for what to see on Amazon beyond Paper Girls, check out our list of the best movies on Prime Video of 2022 wave of the best series of this year’s platform.