The Paper's Esmeralda Grand is a lot. Is she too much?
Love her or hate her, Toledo Truth Teller's second-in-command is impossible to ignore.
The Paper (Photo: Aaron Epstein/Peacock)
“I react strongly to everything,” Esmeralda Grand (Sabrina Impacciatore) declares in The Paper‘s delightful fifth episode. It’s a brief moment of self-awareness in the middle of her denial about being tricked online by someone who looks exactly like Lost‘s Josh Holloway. “Scam Alert!” finally reveals a more vulnerable side to Esmeralda because, halfway through season one, Toledo Truth Teller‘s managing editor has proven herself to be a funny but overbearing drama queen. If the documentary crew’s camera isn’t pointed at Esmeralda, she finds ways both infuriating and entertaining to steal the spotlight, particularly through the relentless attempts to embarrass and take down the new editor-in-chief, Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson), so she can get his job and keep publishing clickbait to TTT Online. (Her favorite post by far is the lengthy article about how much Ben Affleck tipped his limo driver.)
At first glance, her traits harken back to those of various employees of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch, from the rude Nellie Bertram (Catherine Tate) to the boastful Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) to the self-obsessed Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling). As a foil for Ned and the newsroom, Esmeralda borrows from Dwight Schrute’s (Rainn Wilson) playbook and, in classic Michael Scott (Steve Carell) fashion, she tends to disrupt the workday with personal problems, like bringing her pre-teen son in to help him out with an audition for a commercial. Series co-creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman tip their hats to the previous NBC hit while dialing up her antics. Over 10 episodes, her loud personality becomes a litmus test for how much abrasiveness the audience can actually tolerate from her. Esmeralda Grand will likely make or break The Paper for most people.