Sci-fi that delivers

• Published date: 02 August 2022
• Publication title: Signal

THERE is a lot of science fiction on television these days and a lot of it relies on special effects and/or the built-in advantage of belonging to some extended, mutually promotional universe. Action and mythology can take precedence over character and relationships

That is not Paper Girls, which has premiered on Prime Video. I have no idea whether it will attract the audience it deserves, or even who exactly that audience might be. Developed by Stephany Folsom from a comic by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, and counting Halt and Catch Fire’s Christopher C. Rogers and Chris Cantwell as directors, it centres on a quartet of 12-year-olds. But the ideas are mature, involving identity, memory and youthful hopes coming literally face to face with adult reality, and it is more than usually subtle about loss and death. Between occasional bursts of action, the pace remains leisurely, with room for stillness; there is very little in the way of spectacle. Still, I would rank it as one of the year’s best shows, for what it does right and what it doesn’t bother doing, for the intelligence of the writing and the natural flow of its dialogue, and the impressively deep performances of its phenomenally talented young cast.

Given that it begins in the 1980s — it’s a time travel show, so it doesn’t stay there long — and involves young people caught in the middle of science-fictional forces, the series is sure to be compared to Stranger Things.

Like all time travel stories, it’s useless to try to make logical sense of it; and like all science fiction, it requires a certain amount of just going along for the ride. But the show is emotionally coherent, and the ratio of sci-fi set pieces to ordinary human interaction is, in any case, low; conversation and significant silences are what carry the show. On the whole, its tone and group dynamics remind me more of a show like Reservation Dogs than Stranger Things.

The series starts slowly, even poetically, as the four heroines wake up early to deliver newspapers before dawn, heading out on their bikes into the dark, empty streets. There is Mac (Sofia Rosinsky), a child of poverty who talks tough and is (though not as tough as all that); brainy Tiffany, called Tiff (Camryn Jones), with her sights set on MIT; soft-spoken KJ (Fina Strazza), who carries a hockey stick; and Erin (Riley Lai Nelet), on her first night of work, and who will be called ‘‘new girl’’ for a while. Each actress makes her own kind of music.

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