The success of Netflix Stranger Things will not be noticed by its competitors in the streaming space, and now Amazon Prime Video has released something very similar, in which 80s children deal with the supernatural.
But while that may sound like a flimsy imitation, Paper Girls – based on a comic of the same name by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang – has impressed critics with its first season, earning itself an 87% fresh rating (opens in a new tab. ) on Rotten Tomatoes during its first eight-episode run.
“It has the great energy of Stranger Things (or should that be the meta-energy of The Goonies and Stand By Me?) But everything feels fresh,” says The Guardian (opens in a new tab) in its four-star review. “They are united at first against the onslaught of men, and this awareness of the common dangers that unite them, even when they differ greatly and challenge each other, gives the whole thing an unusually solid foundation.”
Although the show tells a time-traveling science fiction story, it often serves as a backdrop to explore the girls’ characters in more depth, as Keith Phipps at TV Guide (opens in new tab) points out.
“The mind-bending time contradictions haunt him,” he writes. “The inner lives of the characters give it heart. But it’s the combination of both – and the willingness to stop focusing on the latter – that makes Paper Girls stand out.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Dan Fienberg has this to say (opens in a new tab): “While Paper Girls has great features that give it its hook, what’s great about the eight-episode series is its unexpectedly beautiful production. of preteen female friendship.”
Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com agrees (opens in a new tab). “A great time-travel coming-of-age story that overwhelms most with nostalgic needle drops and visuals, but makes you care about every 12-year-old girl and her life,” he writes.
It seems to work, mainly because of the performances of the main stars, which USA Today (opens in a new tab) described as “great talents executing thoughtful scripts.”
Praise is not universal, however, and there are five ‘rotten’ reviews in the barrel of ‘fresh’ ones – although these are more in the mid-range than actively bad.
“The comics were a dizzying time punk war across the wide spectrum of the cosmos, featuring multiple versions of our heroes,” says Clint Worthington at Consequence TV (opens in a new tab). “But this show only has the budget for a few different timelines, only a few decades apart, and it struggles to fill that time.”
Meanwhile, Richard Roeper at the Chicago Sun Times (opens in new tab) believes it could be “a less nostalgic kind of Stranger Things”, but “they’re going to have to kick things into gear faster and more strong. convince us that this is a worthwhile story.”
The cliffhanger ending suggests that Amazon is planning for that long run with multiple series, which is a brave move in a year when Netflix cancellations are already in double figures. But the general consensus is that it does enough to justify the plan, and we hope to see it flourish in the show that could scratch the sci-fi resemblance when Stranger Things season 5 ends the saga.
So if you enjoyed the retro sci-fi of Stranger Things, it looks like Paper Girls could be a must-watch on Amazon Prime Video.
Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about technology for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. He was previously the Deputy Editor of the technical site Alphr, and his words can be found all over the web and in occasional magazines as well. When you’re not weighing the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you’ll likely find yourself struggling with its ever-growing backlog of games. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.
Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about technology for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. He was previously the Deputy Editor of the technical site Alphr, and his words can be found all over the web and in occasional magazines as well. When you’re not weighing the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you’ll likely find yourself struggling with its ever-growing backlog of games. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.
