Paper Girls Season 1 Episode 1 “Growing Pains” Review

Prime Video is something I believe that has grown in their TV content this year. From Jack Reacher to Night Sky to The Terminal List, they have been killing it. They have a brand new series Paper Girls set to come out and I review the pilot of the series today.

Plot: A few hours after 1988 Halloween night, four 12-year-old girls have to face a mission. Trapped in a complicated conflict, they will travel in time to save the world.

The show starts with Erin (Ali Wong) lying in her bed, and some strange things start happening, making her think someone has broken into her house. As she walks into the room, the show pans to credits, and we get a young Erin waking up to the sound of her alarm. Then, we rewound to 1988, where we see a bunch of kids doing their things, including young Erin, heading to deliver her morning newspapers.

As she delivers her papers, we run into Tiffany, who helps Erin out of a pinch with an old racist man. The two have a conversation which leads to Tiffany giving her a walkie-talkie so they can keep track of each other. Next, Mac pulls up and lets the duo know that some bullies are going after another paper person and need their help. Mac isn’t afraid of these kids and shoots off a firework at them to get their friend out of that predicament.

The fearsome foursome decides they will ride together since it is Hell Day, a.k.a. Halloween. On the ride, they all get to know each other a little more, sharing their last Halloween costume they wore and some fun little banter between the four. Then, out of nowhere, two kids snag Erin off her bike, throw her to the ground, and talk her walkie-talkie. Again, we see Mac announce she ain’t scared of anything and decides they need to chase down the guys who did this to Erin.

When they go into a house where they think the kids are, some strange events happen, and we start to see random electricity and the skies turning pink. Mac’s family isn’t home, and they all decide to wait inside her house until they figure out what is happening. The crew is sitting down, and a massive loud noise hits with lights flashing into their house, unsure what to do. Mac begins to freak out, goes to her dad’s closet, and gets a gun. K.J. and Tiffany tell her that she needs to put that away, and the gun goes off, and she accidentally shoots Erin.

Everyone freaks out EVEN MORE, and now Mac hopes in her dad’s car to rush Erin to the hospital. Unfortunately, at this point, they run into what looks like men in hazmat suits. Next, we see things go awry for Erin as she starts to see a man talking to her in this dream-like sequence where he tells her that “not everyone that gets shot dies.” Then, they ran into a team where it looked like they may have time travel of some sort.

As the episode closes, these robotic bees land on Erin, which cures her gunshot wound and leads to mass confusion amongst the crew about where they are. Then, a man jumps out at them, and K.J. knocks him out, and they run for Erin’s house. Finally, when they enter Erin’s home, young Erin meets older Erin, and EVERYONE loses their minds.

Overall Thoughts:

I am sure many people will attempt to share some thoughts on this being Prime Video’s Stranger Things, and they wouldn’t be precisely wrong. However, I quite enjoyed this pilot because of the excellent acting we got from the little kids. They all were really good at selling us what was happening, and the episode ended with a nice little bang making me want to watch the next one.