Sat 6 Aug 2022
A Sci-Fi TV Episode Review: PAPER GIRLS “Growing Pains” (2022).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[4] Comments
PAPER GIRLS. “Growing Pains.†Amazon Prime Video, 29, July 2022 (Season 1, Episode 1). Camryn Jones as Tiff Quilkin, an African American girl with a high intellect; Riley Lai Nelet as Erin Tieng, a Chinese American girl on her first day delivering newspapers; Sofia Rosinsky as Mac Coyle, a tomboy who lives in the outskirts of Stony Stream [a suburb of Cleveland]; Fina Strazza as KJ Brandman, a Jewish American girl whose family owns several businesses in Stony Stream. [Thanks to Wikipedia for the preceding descriptions.] Based on the comic book series of the same title written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Cliff Chiang (Image, 2015-19).
The first episode of this SF-nal time-traveling series begins early on the morning of November 1, 1988, with four pre-teen girls working together on their respective newspaper delivery routes (on bicycle) as a means of protection from older boys who continually harass them.
This night is different, though. The sky suddenly turns pink and no one is seen on the street. Have the Russians invaded?
It’s actually worse than that. It takes them the whole episode to realize it, but somehow they’ve landed in the year 2019, where they meet the older version of one of them. They have also escaped from being caught in the crossfire war between two warring factions … of what, it is too early for them to tell, nor of course does the viewer have any idea where the series is going from here.
It’s all very effectively done, and for a small group of four main leads, probably unknown to everyone watching, the acting and dialogue is as top notch as it could possibly be. I’ll probably bail out at this point, though. I tend to do that with recent SF on TV that I start and find myself entertained but with no desire to continue any farther. I suppose it’s me, and I’m not sure why. This is a series that seems to have become quite popular in its short run so far.
August 7th, 2022 at 11:01 am
My interest peaked in episode 3 when (SPOILER) Mac met her brother, then slowly fizzled out. But I stuck with it until the end even through the chaos of the WTF last couple of episodes. The same thing happened in the other recent Amazon series I watched, OUTER RANGE.
August 7th, 2022 at 5:26 pm
Michael, I am often wish-washy when it comes to making decisions and sticking with them. I was starting to reconsider and watch Episode 2 after all. Now I really don’t think I will. Thanks!
I have watched the first episode of many a SF/horror/superhero series and enjoyed it but I can’t tell you why it is I so seldom go on to episode two. There are exceptions: FIREFLY, FARSCAPE and STARGATE, but I can’t think of any others. I may be missing a lot, but somehow my sense is that I really haven’t.
August 7th, 2022 at 5:42 pm
We read the graphic novels for our library science fiction book club. It was good!
Had no idea it was now a TV series.
The finale of the comic hadn’t been published when we read it. Need to go bananas and check it out.
August 7th, 2022 at 7:25 pm
I may check it out after about a dozen others I’m trying to keep up with.