The Paper's Esmeralda Grand is a lot. Is she too much?

Esmeralda’s arc is intentionally crafted to challenge an earnest Ned, who hopes to train volunteer reporters, chase after meaningful stories, and revive Truth Teller‘s reputation. It’s a noble crusade that could work—if only Esmeralda would let him “save journalism” in peace. In the process of fighting him, she emerges as both an antihero and a one-liner delivery machine. (“Ned accuses me of sensationalizing stories,”she tells the camera. “Since when is sensation a bad thing? Ask a box of condoms.”) At every step, she threatens to spoil his plans: messing with Ned’s first print issue, lying to him about his love interest (Chelsea Frei’s Mare Pritti), and making him miss important meetings. She even finds a co-conspirator in bumbling corporate lackey Ken Davies (The Ballad Of Wallis Island‘s Tim Key). The question “Why in the world hasn’t she been fired yet?” comes to mind often while watching The Paper. 

Since she’s initially painted in broad strokes, it’s easy to write off Esmeralda as a problematic figure who gets on everybody’s nerves. This attention-seeking, crafty, and hilarious archetype is a staple in a lot of workplace sitcoms. Just look at Abbott Elementary‘s Ava Coleman (Janelle James), Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti), 30 Rock‘s Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), Parks And Recreation‘s Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), or Superstore‘s Dina Fox (Lauren Ash), to name a few. But with time, their narcissistic tendencies softened to make room for emotionally complex development without losing the humor. Thankfully, much like The Office pulled off with Michael and Dwight, The Paper‘s writers start to deepen Esmeralda already while maintaining her specific brand of jokes. 

A single mother and outcast, she wants to fit in and bond with her colleagues, as seen in “Churnalism,” when she begrudgingly teams up with Mare to investigate why a local park bathroom was shut down and actually does a decent job. Even her increasingly jarring attempts to get her kid cast in the Softees commercial come from a good place, with “Church And State” establishing the close bond between mother and son after he refuses to take advice from Oscar (The Office‘s Oscar Nuñez). To contrast those signs of improvement, she incessantly bullies co-workers like Nicole (Ramona Young), spitefully cancels subscriptions to wire services that help the newspaper, and gleefully tries to one-up everybody at the Ohio Journalism Awards in the season finale. 

Impacciatore seems to be having a blast bringing Esmeralda’s extreme behaviors to life. After a quietly intense, Emmy-nominated performance in The White Lotus‘ second season, she revels in this chaotic role. The actor crafts a fairly distinct character, nailing everything from her amusing malapropisms to overt expressions, standing out amid the rest of the ensemble’s more relatively grounded work. She believably sells that Esmeralda doesn’t want to give up her position of power for the greater good, which makes it easy to start rooting for her to change her tune. If its predecessor is any indication, The Paper likely will aim to make that change next. Until then, you can relive the glory of her impromptu song during the awards’ “in memoriam” segment, which had lyrics like “Sad dead journalist / You made your final deadline / You are gone.” They’ll either leave you clutching your stomach or detesting her guts.