General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Paper Girls (2022 TV series)

Paper Girls is an American science fiction drama television series adapted from the Image Comics series of the same name by writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Cliff Chiang. It premiered on Prime Video on July 29, 2022, ran for eight episodes, and was canceled by Amazon after one season in September 2022.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Source material	Image Comics series Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, launched in 2015 and ended with its 30th issue on July 31, 2019³^•⁴
Premiere	July 29, 2022, on Prime Video; eight episodes, TV-MA, about 44 minutes each¹^•⁵
Production	Legendary Television, in association with Plan B and Amazon Studios¹
Showrunners	Stephany Folsom, Christopher Cantwell, and Christopher C. Rogers, with Vaughan and Chiang as executive producers⁶
Main cast	Camryn Jones (Tiffany Quilkin), Riley Lai Nelet (Erin Tieng), Sofia Rosinsky (Mac Coyle), Fina Strazza (KJ Brandman); Ali Wong as adult Erin, Nate Corddry as Larry, Adina Porter as Prioress¹
Critical reception	87% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (71 reviews) and 89% audience score; Metascore of 70 on Metacritic⁷^•⁸
Cancellation	Cancelled by Prime Video after one season, reported September 9, 2022; Legendary TV was reported to be shopping the show to other outlets²

Spoilers

Premise

The story begins in the early morning hours of November 1, 1988, the day after Halloween, known to locals of Stony Stream, a fictional suburb of Cleveland, as Hell Day. Four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls, Erin, Mac, Tiffany, and KJ, are out on their route when they become caught in the crossfire between warring time-travelers. Transported into the future, they must find a way back to the past, a journey that brings them face-to-face with grown-up versions of themselves.¹^•⁹

The girls are hunted by a militant faction of time-travelers known as the Old Watch, who have outlawed time travel so they can stay in power. Their opponents are the STF, a resistance group also called the Teenagers, who want to use time travel to fix humanity's worst mistakes; the Old-Timers are led by a figure called Grand Father, played by Jason Mantzoukas.¹^•¹⁰^•¹¹

The four leads. Erin (Riley Lai Nelet) is a Chinese-American girl on her first paper round, the designated translator for her Chinese-immigrant mother. Mac (Sofia Rosinsky) is a tough-talking girl from a troubled home who idolizes her delinquent older brother. KJ (Fina Strazza) is a privileged private-school field hockey player whose family name is on many of the town's public buildings. Tiffany (Camryn Jones) is the tech-savvy resident genius, focused on studies she hopes will take her far from her hometown.⁹^•¹¹

A central device is the confrontation with future selves. Erin discovers she did not become president but works as an anxious legal aid reeling from her mother's death; Tiffany was admitted to her dream school only to be expelled; KJ faces an adulthood in the closet; and Mac glimpses a destabilizing future of her own.¹⁰

Development and production

Amazon formally ordered the series in July 2020, with Vaughan and Chiang attached as executive producers and Stephany Folsom, Christopher Cantwell, and Christopher C. Rogers as co-showrunners.⁶ Vaughan had originally believed the comic to be unadaptable, and Folsom, who created the series for television, convinced him otherwise.¹² The show was developed for television by Folsom, with Christopher C. Rogers serving as showrunner on the finished series.¹³^•²

Vaughan and Chiang shared notes detailing extensive backstories and visual inspirations early in the process but encouraged the production team to make changes and make the story their own.¹³ Chiang provided the production department with a document of his designs, the thinking behind them, and their inspirations.¹⁴

Although the story is set in the Cleveland area, filming took place entirely in Illinois, in locations including the Southport Corridor, Willow Springs, Joliet, Prospect Heights, Thornton, Wheeling, and Glenwood.¹⁵

Changes from the comic

The first episode follows the comic closely, and later episodes diverge, adding characters and backstory. Larry Radakowski, a character created for the show rather than the comics, belongs to the STF underground and is first met by the girls in 2019.¹³ In the comics, Prioress is one of the "old-timers" (called the Old Guard in the series) who believes history and time should not be tampered with.¹³ KJ's self-discovery takes a different form on screen than in the comic: she sees a vision of herself kissing another girl and processes what that means on her own.¹³ Reviewers noted that the show leans more heavily on interpersonal drama between the girls than on the comic's twists and turns.¹⁶

Reception and cancellation

The season holds an 87% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes from 71 reviews, with an 89% audience score, and a Metascore of 70 on Metacritic based on 20 critic reviews.⁷^•⁸ Critics frequently compared the series to Stranger Things, which also follows 1980s pre-teens in a small midwestern town; the comic predates the start of the Netflix series by about a year.¹⁰^•¹⁷ TIME's review called it a more focused, character-driven story, praising the young leads, the soundtrack, and production design that resembles Chiang's artwork.¹¹ The BFI's Sight and Sound review found the well-acted confrontations between the girls and their older selves affecting but judged that they slowed the narrative, and questioned whether the infrequent action sequences reflected a limited budget.¹⁰

Prime Video canceled the series after one season, reported on September 9, 2022. The show had not appeared on Nielsen's weekly U.S. ranking of streaming originals in its first three weeks of eligibility. Legendary TV was reported to be shopping the show to other outlets, and the first season ended on a cliffhanger.²^•¹⁸ No second season was produced.

The source comic

The comic launched from Image Comics in 2015 as an ongoing series, Vaughan's second for the publisher, reuniting him with Chiang, whom he had last collaborated with on a Swamp Thing short story nearly 15 years earlier.³ It ran from October 7, 2015 to July 31, 2019, ending with its 30th issue, and won 5 Eisner Awards.⁴^•¹⁹ Vaughan, an Ohio-born writer also known for Y: The Last Man and Saga, has said the story drew on his recollection of actual paper girls in the suburbs of Cleveland.¹⁷^•²⁰ According to Chiang, the idea was his: the plot might center on encountering yourself at another point in your life.¹²

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026