Impressive young actors made an enjoyable show out of a terrible plot.


Highlights:

- The setting made for a graceful addition to Stranger Things, rather than a cheap knock-off. Surely there were at least a hundred times as many kids riding bikes in the Midwest in the late 1900s as there were men herding cattle in the West in the late 1800s — if latter can be a genre, why can’t the former?

- Some scenes had dialogue that was exceptionally realistic for any movie.

- Refreshing attention to mental health ([spoiler]each death rattles the protagonists, as does harm they cause in self-defense[/spoiler]).

- [spoiler]Charming pterosaur[/spoiler].


Lowlights:

- Criminally negligent treatment of time travel. Diving into the complexities (á là “Interstellar”) or ignoring them altogether (á là “13 Going On 30”) are both great ways to play with the idea, but “Paper Girls” dipped into the topic sporadically and answered its questions inconsistently (e.g. [spoiler]couldn’t make up its mind about whether timelines were looped, parallel, or branching[/spoiler]).

- The plot unraveled with each episode. [spoiler]By the penultimate scene, multiple people were risking death for unintelligible reasons[/spoiler].

- Whoever was on futuristic costume design clearly started their assignment the night before. Not only unimaginative, but also inconsistent with the script ([spoiler]characters repeatedly refer to “armor” that no one ever wore[/spoiler]).