Finally realizing that American teenagers are more than just vapid complainers who only wallow in angst or throw sweet 16 parties that cost as much as most people’s houses, MTV’s new reality show, “The Paper,” follows the driven and academically-minded staff of a Florida high school newspaper as they juggle publishing an award-winning paper while gossiping about each other’s real motivations and backstabbing to try to get what they want.
Imagine “Laguna Beach,” with a marginally more literate cast.
Who? Among the seven “Circuit” staffers featured in the show, the focal point is the new editor-in-chief, Amanda, whose Lisa Loeb glasses and swooped bangs make her seem like a twenty-first century version of that other great editor-in-chief, Andrea Zuckerman. The staff also includes Adam, the drama queen; Alex, Amanda’s friend and editor-in-chief competitor; and Trevor and Giana, the paper’s resident couple who love PDA almost as much as they hate that they have to work under Amanda.
What? Although “The Paper”’s first episode centers around the contest for editor-in-chief, it’s not a competition reality series. It’s just a show about high school kids and their high school paper. But we’re confident MTV can still figure out a way to make a series of “Gauntlet” spin-offs if it’s a hit.
Where? “The Circuit” and its staff are based in Weston, Florida, at Cypress Bay High School, the largest high school in the country with over five thousand students. That’s a lot of papers to distribute!
When? The series opens in the final days of editor-in-chief applications, a not quite nail-biting mystery that’s over halfway through the first episode—but stirs up enough drama for several more.
Why? Because even the smart kids can get pretty catty, evidenced by a display the night before the announcement of the new editor-in-chief: Members of the staff go to dinner to bat around ideas of a coup should Amanda get the nod, ending the meal with a taunting phone call to her. OK, so it’s not exactly Heidi and Spencer caliber, but we’re talking about people who work for the school paper. That's one step up from hall monitor.
In conclusion: Sure, “The Paper” is another guilty pleasure reality show, but it’s a nice change from the plethora of series that focus only on teens partying and spending their parents’ money. “The Paper” kids do that kind of stuff too, but they also know what plethora means.
"The Paper" premieres Monday, April 14 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
