The Trailer For 'The Office' Spin-Off Is Here And It's Painfully Bad

Let me say this right off the bat – I'm rooting for ‘The Paper.' For those who don't know, that's the new Office spin-off, coming to NBC this fall. 

I don't love spin-offs, but I do love The Office. It's one of my favorite shows of all time. I'd wager to say it's one of the most influential shows of the last 20 years. So, I want this one to work. I do. It's created and written by the same folks who did The Office, and that's a good start. It also features Oscar Martinez as a recurring character. 

I think that's actually a smart play. You can't bring back someone that played too big of a role in the original (Jim, Dwight, Pam), because then it would just be a spin-off about them. But using a secondary character as a way to bridge the gap? I don't hate it. 

What I don't love is this new trailer we got this morning. It's just not great. And by that, I mean it … wasn't funny. Like, at all. Trailers can obviously be deceiving, and the goal is to leave a lot of meat on the bone. I get it. 

But my God, you have to give us something to latch on to, right? 

Right?!

‘The Paper’ has some work to do

Thoughts? First impressions? 

Maybe I'm wrong? I'm not. But, maybe I am. I just didn't really laugh. At all. Frankly, the only semi-funny part was the Oscar stuff at the end. Like me, it lasted six seconds and then it was over. 

See? That's funny! This wasn't. 

Again, I'm rooting for ‘The Paper.’ It's a decent premise – a dying Midwestern paper. There's stuff we can work with there. But this just didn't give off Office vibes. Now, to be fair, the first season of The Office wasn't great, either. Hell, I'm pretty sure it was either A) almost canceled, or B) was canceled and then revived. 

First seasons of shows generally stink. You almost have to just power through and hope for a pay-off down the road. But in today's world, you don't really have that sort of time. You need to hit right away, or you lose us. Society isn't patient anymore. Not in today's age of social media, at least. There are way too many other options out there. 

This wasn't a great start. Neither is the fact that The Paper is debuting … on Sept. 4. Do you know what else is happening on Sept. 4? 

The NFL season opener between the Cowboys and Eagles. 

Great job, NBC!