I haven’t seen this yet, in fact I only just learned today it was turned into a TV show, but I read the comic it is based on and enjoyed it. I don’t want to give too much away but assuming the show is like the comic, it is basically Stranger Things but Sci Fi rather than horror/fantasy and the kids are all girls. Anyone see it? Spoilers should be masked for now but curious for opinions especially if you read the comic.
Here is a review–which gives away too much:
Currently 87% at RT (86% top critics) and 76% audience rating.
Interesting. Set in the 80s, sounds almost familiar. But do they film in the same mall that my kids hung out at in the 80s?
What service is it on?
From the title: “Paper Girls on Amazon Prime”
Ah, but the title is Paper Girls on Amazon Prime, the service is Hulu.
I have never read the comic (was aware of it, always meant to give it a look, never got around to it). I have watched the first five episodes of the series. I would say that is almost nothing like Stranger Things. It is okay, it has a bit of hammyness to it that I’m not sure is actually supposed to be there, mostly in the acting of the main villain (the one without the t-shirt).
It is interesting that they are saying it is set in the 80s (in the review I didn’t read) because in the first five episodes maybe 10 minutes take place in the 80s. The majority is in 2019, with a little at the end of episode five in 1999. Even if they immediately jumped back to the 80s at the beginning of episode six, close to 5/7ths of the show would have been in 1999.
I’m getting very whooshable in my old age. I actually believed that for a minute.
Five word summary: Girls accidentally join time war.
Yeah my comparison to Stranger Things was just an elevator pitch for people who knew nothing about it. I honestly hadn’t seen ST since its first season. The main comparison ends at " Weird stuff happens to a group of kids in the 80s".
So did I. Thanks for the heads up, I definitely have to check this one out if it is getting passable reviews.
For anyone who hasn’t read the comics (or “graphic novels” if you want to seem grown up), do so. Here’s a review.
(An early review of the comics here).
The writing is crisp, the art award-winning, and the coloring inspired.
I hadn’t bought a graphic novel in decades, but happened across Paper Girls issue #6 and was hooked. Mostly by the chemistry between the girls and the time-traveling.
My currently favorite line from literature?
Context: Erin and the other Paper Girls are found by grown-up Erin, who’s immediately taken to task by her younger self (“I can’t believe I grow up to have a crappy car like this.” Are you telling me I still live in this dumpy neighborhood?").
At one point 1999 Erin swears, and younger Erin says…
“Could you not swear? It just sounds like we’re trying too hard to be cool.”
Finished it. The plot didn’t really move that much further by the end of episode 7 than it had by the end of episode 5. They definitely want to draw this out across several seasons.
So it is like Goonies!
Okay, I started the comic, am around 170 pages into this version. So far the comic and the TV adaptation are hitting very broadly similar beats, but the details are extremely different. Those 170-ish pages have just reached the…um…“setting change” that took place around 10 or 15 minutes into the first episode of the TV series. (Among other changes is the TV series has a distinct lack of pterosaurs.)
Finished the comic. Pretty huge differences between the comic storyline and what has been in the TV series so far.
I’m just about to finish the series tonight- I’m on the last episode. One thing that’s done particularly well is it shows the girls’ absolute frustration at how none of this is their fault because the adults keep fucking everything up.
Same here. Maybe “The Goonies” might be a better comparo?
Thanks for the rec, I will give it a try.
In the comic the subtext was text—the rival groups were the “Old Timers” and the “Teenagers”, not the Watch and the Underground. It isn’t subtle.
No, it would not. (I know I mentioned that, but I did it sarcasticly.) It isn’t just the OP referencing Stranger Things, I’ve seen other sources do it, too, but there really is no similarity other than 1.) kids and 2.) a connection to the 1980s. You might as well compare it to Stand By Me or The Lost Boys.