Based on the comic of the same name, Paper Girls Season 1 is a sci-fi coming-of-age adventure following four small town paper girls whose lives change forever when they’re drawn into a time war. 

Paper Girls Season 1 is adapted for television by Stephany Folsom and stars Riley Lai Nelet as Erin Tieng, Camryn Jones as Tiffany “Tiff” Quilkin, Sofia Rosinsky as Mac Coyle, and Fina Strazza as KJ Brandman. Other important characters include Adina Porter as Prioress, Nate Corddry as Larry, Ali Wong as adult Erin, Sekai Abení as adult Tiffany, and Jason Mantzoukas as Grandfather. Paper Girls Season 1 is produced by Amazon Studios, Legendary Television, and Plan B Entertainment. 

It’s 1988; Halloween has only been over for a few hours. It’s what the paper girls refer to as “hell night” because teenagers are still out roaming the streets. And if they run into one of the paper girls, they have no problem harassing them. Four paper girls, Erin, Tiff, Mac, and KJ, decide to team up and finish their routes together; safety in numbers. But the nickname “hell night” becomes even more fitting when the girls run into mysterious travelers, the rest of the town disappears, and the girls are transported forward in time. 

Over the course of 8 episodes, the four girls travel forward and backward in time, meet their future selves, and become pawns in a war between two mysterious groups; the STF (Standard Time Fighters) and the Old Watch. And as things continue to spiral out of control and the girls remain lost in time, they learn that all they really have during this adventure is each other. 

    There were many things I enjoyed about Paper Girls Season 1. The entire cast did a phenomenal job. The standouts are the four paper girls themselves, as well as Adina Porter’s portrayal of Prioress and Jason Mantzoukas’s portrayal of Grandfather. Mantzoukas as Grandfather was the perfect casting for the character; he gives quirky and offbeat but threatening at the same time. 

As an adaptation of the comics, Paper Girls Season 1 contains many of the essential plot points and character traits but goes off book quickly. And as the series continues, it goes in a very different direction than the comics- however, I don’t believe this is a problem. While the debate of “which is better, the book or the movie/show” is a contentious one, I think that from what we’ve seen so far, the Paper Girls show is better than the comics; the events of the first story arc of the comic are slowed down and altered, allowing viewers to spend time with the girls as a group and develop their personalities and relationships more.

My biggest criticism of Paper Girls, and the one that impacted my enjoyment of the series the most, was the lighting choices. Many scenes within the show take place in dark locations or at night- and unfortunately, the lighting does no favors for visibility. I found myself repeatedly checking the brightness setting on my laptop to see if it was as high as possible; because even when it was, I struggled to clearly see what was going on. 

Show lighting being too dark is most famously represented by the Game of Thrones episode “The Long Night,” which was widely, and understandably, criticized by fans all over the internet. Paper Girls isn’t nearly that bad, but I still wish the showrunners would take a page from late cinematographer Andrew Lesnie’s book, who, when asked where the lighting for The Battle of Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers movie came from, responded, “Same place as the music.” If I can suspend my disbelief for there being a portal between time periods, I can certainly suspend my disbelief for a scene in the middle of the night being bright enough to be fully visible. 

Another problem I had with the show was the sound design. Often I had to turn the volume up to try and hear what characters were saying, only to quickly turn it back down when a loud sound effect played. This problem would easily be solved by closed captions, but unfortunately, the network did not offer closed captions for the screener I watched. Whether or not the show will have closed caption options when it becomes available on Amazon Prime is unknown at the time of writing. 

Ultimately, the show stays true to the spirit of the comics and a lot of the plot points and details, but it adds enough to fill out the screen time. Paper Girls Season 1 will satisfy comic fans while keeping new fans enthralled, and everyone will be begging for the next season. 

Paper Girls Season 1 is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. 

GRADE: B+

Paper Girls the comic is written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Cliff Chiang, colored by Matt Wilson and Dee Cunniffe, and lettered by Jared K. Fletcher. 

Paper Girls Season 1 is written by Cliff Chiang, Stephany Folsom, Fola Goke-Pariola, K. Perkins, Brian K. Vaughan, Christopher Cantwell, Christopher C. Rogers, Lisa Albert, K.C. Perry, and Kai Wu. Paper Girls Season 1 is directed by Mairzee Almas, Georgi Banks-Davies, Destiny Ekaragha, and Karen Gaviola.