Review by C.J. Bunce
You probably should have just let me have the Wii.
It’s one of those statements that sums up a lot of Hulu’s new series Paradise, which just wrapped its eight-episode first season. And it’s probably going to be one of those catchphrases or future trivia answers.
Imagine the end of the world is arriving with ten years’ notice. Scientists stress that a volcano in the southern hemisphere is going to have such a large eruption that the tsunamis will take out most of the continents, leaving the entire world dead. But nobody listens. When a wealthy businesswoman decides she wants to spend her wealth on surviving, she enlists world experts to build a city under Colorado in a large cave–in secret. If this happened who would you take with you? Paradise is a bit of a play on several Philip K. Dick stories, including Time Out of Joint, the original story of The Truman Show. In fact it tells its story in similar ways to Dick’s way of describing an impossible, but still very human look at the future. More realistic than the end-of-world scenario of The Last of Us (I mean, zombies), and almost as good, and at times just as good, as Station Eleven, this science fiction cautionary tale adds another trope–it leans heavily into the stuff of The West Wing, which may or may not be your thing. With a bumpy middle that rockets to greatness in its final two episodes, Paradise is definitely a series worth trying and talking about.
But why is it “surprisingly” good? It’s because the survival scenario is preposterous, so it may be difficult to get around. Building a city for 25,000 in a cave that looks just like the real world, complete with levels of government including a U.S. President, his secret service guard, and schools, hospitals, neighborhoods (but no dogs or cats or other animals), and all the sounds of nature piped in via speakers, with the sun as a well lit and well masked dome projection–the only word to describe it all could be preposterous (even if the cause of the end of the world may not seem that way). So the fact that the cast and the script keeps your attention is an achievement. The fact that it leaves behind the science fiction origins for TV drama means it’s also another drama in science ficti0n dress (like Arrival, Annihilation, and Interstellar). Yet those final two episodes elevate the show into something you won’t soon forget.
One of those things you won’t forget is Episode 7, which slowly unveils creator Dan Fogelman’s idea of The End. It’s the kind of episode that could come with a trigger warning notice, and it makes end of world scenes in 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact, and IO look like A Charlie Brown Christmas. But the best episode is the season finale, which delivers all the satisfaction you’d hope for after surviving seven hours of a topsy turvy political thriller.
The star and point of view character is the President’s #1 Secret Service bodyguard Xavier Collins, played by Oscar-nominated actor Sterling K. Brown (Hotel Artemis, The Predator, Black Panther, Marshall, Medium, Supernatural). Brown’s ability to juggle all kinds of crazy as a sympathetic husband, father, and colleague is the backbone of the series. Equal to Brown is James Marsden (X-Men: Days of Future Past, Enchanted, Superman Returns, Westworld) in his best performance yet as an incredibly believable U.S. President. Cal Bradford has all the quirks and positives of a normal “aw shucks” brand of President, and his additional duties as friend to Collins and father to an unhappy son flesh out what could have been a canned role.
The wealthy benefactor, who is in the running as top fictional TV villain of the year, is Samantha Redmond, played by Julianne Nicholson (The Outsider, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Blonde, Mare of Easttown). She didn’t build a city-sized bomb shelter by being stupid, but her manipulative nature and misplaced trust could be her undoing. Always a favorite, Sarah Shahi (Life, Psych, Black Adam, Fairly Legal) plays a psychiatrist of more than one key player, Krys Marshall (Supergirl, For All Mankind) plays another government agent, and Jon Beavers (Horizon: An American Saga) and Nicole Brydon Bloom (The Gilded Age) play junior agents that work for Collins. Simon & Simon, Longmire, and Fairly Legal’s Gerald McRaney is back in prime form on TV as the President’s father. By way of pop culture trivia, that’s Veronica Mars’ Percy Daggs III’s son Percy Daggs IV as Collins’ young son.
After this you’ll want to watch for future projects from directors Glenn Ficarra (Cats and Dogs, DC League of Super-Pets), John Requa (I Love You Phillip Morris, Jungle Cruise), and writers John Hoberg (Galavant), Stephen Markley (Only Murders in the Building), and Nadra Widatalla (Mrs. Davis)–they created two of the year’s best hours of TV.
Get ready for some jarring drama. Paradise is definitely a series worth checking out. Its first season is now streaming on Hulu, and its second season is in the works and expected to stream in 2026.
