A Preview of ‘Paper Girls’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

One thing that we can all agree upon, is that time travel stories have become a touch stale as of late, and it makes sense as to why. After all, they have become a staple in science fiction now, which wasn’t always the case, and becoming a part of the everyday pantheon of storytelling… brings forth formula. The kind where unspoken rules about time travel have been established to make life easier for writers and audiences and while that has indeed made everyone comfortable in what they are about to read and see… it really has pulled some of the magic out of this kind of story. For now, we have an idea of what is going to happen, and the subgenre doesn’t really challenge itself by constantly sticking to those familiar rules.
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But thankfully, we are living through a revolutionary era of storytelling. Where formula is being rejected and derided and writers and creatives in general are pushing themselves to reinvent stories that are stale in nature, so that audiences can once again be wowed by what they read or see on the screen and thankfully, the time travel story is about to get a wonderful facelift on television. For the magnificent comic book, Paper Girls, is about to become a television series on Prime Video. One that is outright going to blow people away and revolutionize the time travel story, thanks to several key elements. Such as the fact that this particular tale breaks free from formula through its fascinating plot line. Because while most of these stories focus upon scientists and their adventures through the timeline, this series offers up a different kind of time traveler. 

In fact, it provides us with four, that all happen to be teenage girls, and Mac, Tiffany, Erin, and KJ find themselves dealing with quite the wild morning in 1988. For when they assemble to deliver newspapers as they do every morning to make a little cash, the rowdier kids in the neighborhood that are still riding a Halloween high, cause them enough trouble to engender a need for revenge. So, the girls can be left alone to do their jobs and go about their lives… but their attempts at payback, go terribly wrong. Because just like that, they’re plunged into a world that is both familiar and alien and it doesn’t take long for them to learn… they’re now caught up in something chaotic and dangerous, something that involves time travel, and their lives will never be the same.

Which really is a fantastic way to shake up the time travel mythos, since these are everyday people caught up in a temporal nightmare, and you just don’t see that anymore, and it makes for some refreshing moments for certain. The kind that draws the viewer into the chaos surrounding them, so they too can learn what’s going on. But what’s truly amazing about this series, is that its wonder and originality extends well beyond its refreshing plot line. Because this is a story that also offers up some refreshing notions as to why people would be traveling through time, and it also breaks a lot of the established rules along the way, giving rise to moments that we’ve wanted to see in these types of tales but have been denied… because of the rules. 

As to how exactly it pulls off those feats, we won’t reveal here. Because this is a magnificent story that needs to be experienced firsthand. So, you can properly savor in every twist and turn and wild visual this story sends your way, and the best news of all… is that you don’t have to wait all that much longer to experience what this series has to offer. For Paper Girls arrives on Prime Video on July 29, 2022, and we here at NTG are so excited for this series, that we will be counting down to its release all week with more pre-release coverage. By way of interviews with the cast and of course, our standard recaps and, we certainly hope you check all of that out and the series as well. Because this really is quite the refreshing science fiction show, one that will hopefully influence change in the subgenre by showing everyone out there… that time travel stories can be so much more.

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