Four delivery women on bicycles, Halloween 1988, time travel and purple skies – the images are evocative and at the center of Amazon’s adaptation of paper girls, which opens on Friday. The comic was a sensation upon its release with its mix of sci-fi and coming-of-age drama. According to co-creator (and TV show executive producer) Brian K. Vaughan, the story originated from his memory of actual delivery girls in suburban Cleveland.
“There was just one day where all of our paperboys were suddenly replaced by these tough young ladies who were out at four in the morning delivering bad news,” he explained. “I was never a paperboy. I was just a closeted nerd and just looked at those cool entrepreneurs… [they were] only adventurers.”
Initially intended to be supporting characters in another short story, he and co-creator Cliff Chiang soon realized that the girls were the main characters.
(Photo by Prime Video)
The group consists of (pictured above from left to right) Erin Tieng (Riley Lai Nelet), KJ Brandman (fine strazza), Mac Coyle (sofia rosinsky), and Tiffany Quilkin (Camryn-Jones). They are not friends when we first meet them; in fact, the morning of November 1, 1988, is Erin’s first day on the newspaper route, and the rest of her respond to her with various levels of hostility. But they soon come together, first to protect each other from the people still up to Halloween pranks and then against a weather war brewing in their suburb of Stony Stream, Ohio.
The nature of the time war is one of the most obvious places where the TV series deviates from the book. Some of Chiang’s biggest visual shocks, like a giant tardigrade only time travelers could see, were postponed in favor of stronger emotional hooks as the girls navigate their first time jump into the 21st century. . According to executive producer Christopher C. Rogers, it was largely a conscious decision to rely on emotion.
“We come from Stop and set fire and other shows that are character dramas,” he explained. “And bringing that level of consideration to these four young leads was really our goal.”
The goal was to create a deeper understanding of girls while taking them seriously. Or, as Rogers put it, “Not playing with them like kids, but playing with them at the height of our adult intelligence in a way that I think is really like being 12 years old.
“We felt that if we didn’t get it right, then the rest hardly mattered,” he continued. “[The show] it’s a great adventure that’s fantastic and it’s a thrilling ride, but if you don’t care about the characters and if you can’t get involved in their journey, then at a certain point, it’s a show. That mattered to us first, last and always.”
Vaughn added: “White House It’s my favorite war movie. That’s a war movie where you never see a battle of tanks or planes dropping bombs; They are characters in the foreground. That’s what I love about television. It’s just digging into the characters.”
(Photo by Anjali Pinto/Prime Video)
What does not mean there are not visual clashes with sci-fi elements seeping into the proceedings and occasionally taking the driver’s seat. But one of the fantastic key concepts that the comic and the TV show share is the opportunity for kids to get to know themselves in the future.
“I wonder if that’s what’s so universal about paper girls – we can all, in some way, relate to this idea of what it would be like to find yourself in a different time,” Rogers reflected. “Would you feel disappointed? Would you underestimate them? Would you be happy with how things turned out? I think to the degree that we can disappear into these characters ourselves and they can touch on emotions that we feel ourselves is the success of this show.”
Vaughan was quick to point out that the idea actually came from Chiang.
“Cliff is very much the co-author. When I came to him with this idea, we’re going to have these four twelve-year-old leads. They’re going to go back to prehistoric times. They’re going to go to the far future, he immediately said, ‘Well, they’re going to find themselves too, right? What if they meet their 40-year-old self? … By the time he said I was like, ‘Oh sure, that’s what this story is about.’ So I love that the TV show kind of took an early idea from Cliff and really took it way beyond what we did. Some unexpected cool kids meeting older versions of themselves.”
(Photo by Prime Video)
As seen in the trailers for the show, Erin will meet her future self (played by Ali Wong) in a period of time quite contemporary to ours. And as can also be seen in the trailers, it will be a shock for both.
“Erin has this perception of adults that they always know and adults always know what they’re doing,” Nelet explained. “So when she meets her older self, the reality of her slaps her in the face.”
The other girls will also get glimpses of their future as the season progresses, but, Rogers added, “it’s not like every episode we meet an older me.” Instead, that aspect of the premise will underscore the growing friendships between the characters.
When asked if they would be open to meeting themselves in the future, only Jones said she was ready to do so.
“When I was older, though, I recognized myself as younger,” Jones said, “so I’d dress like a grandma and get prosthetics and everything, and go to Party City and buy myself a wig or something. And then I would go and ask questions just to see where I am in life, because I think that would be great. Also, it wouldn’t affect anything until then. Then it would be fine. He would go talk to me.
As Rogers said, the characters anchor the series and the assembled group of young talent does an admirable job of that mission. Some, like Strazza and Nelet, seem to have come straight off the page, while Jones and Rosinsky add unexpected but welcome dimensions to their characters, and an aspect of the adaptation that left Chiang feeling “we communicated something in the comic.” “.
(Photo by Anjali Pinto/Prime Video)
Rosinksy’s Mac, for example, comes off a bit more abrasive than its comic book counterpart, a detail she attributes to the translation from panel to performance.
“I brought my own interpretation, my own spin… She’s pretty abrasive on the show, but Mac is obviously very cautious. I hope people stay with her long enough to see her journey,” she said.
Nelet also felt that a balance needed to be struck in building the characters from the page and staying true to the core traits established by Vaughan and Chiang.
“I think it was a bit of both,” he said. “I think we definitely embodied the characters very well, but also brought a specific new essence to them on screen, which I think is really phenomenal.”
(Photo by Anjali Pinto/Prime Video)
Jones added that her prep work included writing notebooks to get a sense of the characters’ likes and dislikes. The results are likely to please comic fans as they discover, say, Tiffany more enthusiastic about the girl’s science and sci-fi situation, while KJ’s discovery about herself takes a different form than the comic.
“It’s great that each of the girls has kind of a unique experience seeing how their life turns out,” Strazza said. “[KJ] I just wanted to try it out a little bit to help her with what she was going through…not necessarily what she becomes, but more to find out who she is when she’s 12 and help her find herself in that moment.”
(Photo by Anjali Pinto/Prime Video)
However, all bonding and self-discovery through time travel comes with a threat, represented by adine goalkeeperthe Prioress. Somewhat of a chameleon, she is after the girls for reasons that will become clear. But she also initially appears as a relentless force of nature in her attempts to achieve her goal. “She’s a warrior, she’s a fighter, and she believes in her mission… I have a history of playing people that some people hate, but I always like to bring humanity. So if you hate me, there has to be a reason,” Porter said of the character.
That reason may revolve around Jason Mantzoukas‘Grandpa, a being from the future who apparently has the clearest understanding of time and why all of a sudden these four paper girls are a key front in the time war.
“The stakes could not be higher [for Grandfather and the Prioress],” he said. “It’s not just that we’re parenting a bunch of kids who are misbehaving and scolding them. What’s at stake is the end of everything, the end of time itself.”
(Photo by Prime Video)
But considering this is a time travel show, were the girls always meant to be at the center of the conflict?
“I think it may have started out as some kind of disaster, but I think it was meant to be,” Rosinksy said. “Somewhere in there, it happened for a reason.”
Mantzoukas agreed that it was probably an accident, but “it really is an accident that can’t be undone.”
Porter added, “In life, you say, ‘There are no accidents.'”
And just as there are no accidents, there are things comic book fans may not see in season 1 that may still end in season two. When asked about some of those elements and stories, Rogers offered an enigmatic “stay tuned.”
94%
Paper Girls: Season 1
(2022)
debuts on July 29 at first video.