What’s Paper Girls Season 1, Episode 4 about? What do the Paper Girls get up to?
If you missed the other Paper Girls episodes then head here:
- Paper Girls Season 1, Episode 1: Recap and Review
- Paper Girls Season 1, Episode 2: Recap and Review
- Paper Girls Season 1, Episode 3: Recap and Review
Paper Girls is Juggling Too Many Tones
Stories, science fiction specifically, can run into trouble when it tries to juggle too many things at once. That’s not to say it can’t be done, and science fiction can tend to get very crazy, which is why it helps to have a focus. Stories need to have a goal in mind, a purpose or mission that grounds the direction of the narrative.
The first episode of Paper Girls seemed to have that more or less under control. It did a decent enough job of balancing it’s wild and crazy sci-fi, time traveling adventure with its more character-oriented pathos. Unfortunately, episode four tends to lean too far in one direction and loses sight of what made the source material so great.
Paper Girls, Season 1 Episode 4: Recap and Review
This episode mainly leaned into the character side of Paper Girls as it began to set up it’s next big story arc. With Mac still trying to make a life for herself in the future with her brother, they try to work out a lot of the angst and emotional trauma the two went through in the past. This is also contrasted against Erin, who is trying to understand where her life went wrong in adulthood. Her sister manages to track her down to Larry’s farm. In order to keep the time travel aspect under wraps, Larry and adult Erin pretend to be in a relationship so that her sister will leave her alone.
This leads to a confrontation between Erin and her younger self, who believes the older version completely ruined her life and has nothing to show for it. Also, Tiff does an internet search on herself, which leads her to believe that she’s actually successful and should be the one masterminding their return back to their own time. This all plays out while Prioress is still hot on their trail and adult Erin has to learn how to pilot the giant mech time-machine that was revealed in the previous episode’s closing moments.
Deep Time-Travel Drama
The character moments by themselves are actually quite profound. Mac’s journey is quite heartwarming and traumatic at the same time. The thought of not only learning that you’ve died but that your brother used your death as an inspiration to become successful in life is quite a story. Seeing them reunite and trying to have Mac integrate into his family offers hope that everything will turn out okay for her. Of course, she’s not going to achieve her happy ending and that leads to a tragic outcome.
The same could be said for Erin. She had such hopes and such dreams that to see her future failed to capitalize on them is tough to watch. It’s hard coming to grips with a future that doesn’t measure up to your expectations. It’s even more difficult having to confront your older self about it. It’s a great tale and message about the realistic expectations of life and how people grow, evolve, and change over time, especially in terms of family as Erin also gets to see how her sister turned out.
Reconciling Character With Adventure
However, Paper Girls was never supposed to be a profound character drama. While the book certainly had great character arcs, it didn’t allow the pace of the story or the science fiction adventure to suffer because of it. In this show, it does. The plot essentially came to a snail’s crawl in order to allow a lot more room on the characterization side of things. This means that by the time the sci-fi craziness picks back up, it feels disconnected.
The strong emotional arcs just inherently have a different style and tone than the adventure. Some shows are able to reconcile the two well with each other. By moving away from the source material’s more light-hearted approach, these two aspects don’t work so well in tandem. Of course, the season is half-over, so there is plenty of chance for the plot to course correct on the science fiction side of things. But as of right now, Paper Girls seems to try and be two things at once and would be better off simply picking one or the other.
Who’s part of the ‘Paper Girls’ Cast?
The actors who appear in Paper Girls include:
- Sofia Rosinsky as Mac
- Fina Strazza as KJ
- Camryn Jones as Tiffany
- Riley Lai Nelet as Erin
- Ali Wong as Adult Erin
- Adina Porter as Priora
- Nate Corddry as Larry
- Jason Mantzoukas as Grandfather
What did you think of this episode?
Did you enjoy this episode? What did you think of this adaptation of the Paper Girls comic?
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