Spoiler Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Paper Season 1. If you haven’t finished all 10 episodes, please be careful.
A lot of the best sitcoms of all time have one thing in common: a great “will they, won’t they” dynamic, and it’s no different for The Paper. Just like The Office and Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly’s relationship, the new 2025 TV show features two humorous and heartfelt love stories throughout its first season. One of those, which ends with an up-in-the-air feeling, is something I was drawn to the most while watching.
Ahead of The Paper’s release, which is streaming with a Peacock subscription, I sat down with Melvin Gregg and Ramona Young to talk about the “will they, won’t they” dynamic shared by their characters, Detrick Moore and Nicole Lee, respectively. When I asked them how they pulled it off (both in the beginning and the Season 1 finale), Gregg put it like this:
Dating is hard. Like it's hard. And I think our relationship is honest in a way of acknowledging how awkward and hard it is. Typically, in a rom-com there is a similar format: They hate each other, they love each other, then they hate each other, then they realize they can't live without each other. And it's not that simple. … So many other factors come into play. And I think our characters were affected by outside factors in an amazing way.
When I asked the pair about how they approached Detrick and Nicole’s relationship, both said they wanted to pull off something authentic and honest. Jumping off a comment her co-star made about being open to what was happening during their characters’ relationship, Young added:
Yeah, I think as a show we're trying to like create something super original and authentic and in its own lane and with new characters and new dynamics. And so we knew that going in, and just playing the honesty of this situation and playing the honesty of the script that was given to us.
As those who have finished The Paper’s freshman season know, Detrick and Nicole’s relationship isn’t always front and center like the one teased for Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson) and Mare Pritti (Chelsea Frei), but it does lead to one of the show’s most tender and emotional moments. In the finale, after playing games, both characters discover just how real the office relationship has become.
So, Where Could Dedrick And Nicole’s Relationship Go From Here?
Unlike Ned and Mare, who finally expressed their feelings for one another after 10 episodes of flirting, the status of Detrick and Nicole’s romance is a little bit more up in the air as the credits roll. Young wasn’t sure about the couple’s future, but she did have an idea when I brought up the subject:
I honestly have no idea. And I think it could go so many ways. Like, maybe they both hate each other. I don't know. Or like, maybe there's other people involved. But I feel like there's so many different ways that it can go, which also does make it kind of different than like a more predictable ‘will they, won't they, won't they’ situation.
Though Gregg was a little more optimistic about Detrick and Nicole’s prospects of a happy future together, he admitted that things would inevitably change for the two:
I mean, logically speaking, they both feel strongly about each other. Even if those feelings aren't like, ‘I love you, I like you,’ it's like, ‘I hate you.’ It's still strong feelings. And they’ve got to work together. So they have to address it. So I think there's going to be another iteration of Detrick and Nicole. It's going to be different. But it'd be better because of what happened already.
How that relationship changes and how it impacts the Toledo Truth Teller newsroom is anyone’s guess.
We will get to find out how things shake out for everyone on the Truth Teller staff, as Variety has reported that Peacock is picking up The Paper for a second season. More on that later…
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