Hulu’s Paradise Is a Pulpy, Action Packed Delight

Spoiler Alert: This review contains a spoiler about the major plot twist that is revealed at the end of the first episode of Paradise.

In the best possible way, Dan Fogelman is a master at emotional manipulation. He knows how to get into viewer’s heads and immediately procure their investment. We cry when he wants us to cry. Laugh when he wants us to laugh. Get mad when he wants us to get mad. Many fans of This is Us cannot even hear the word “crock pot” without getting a little misty eyed. Fogelman brings that same gift of weaving a compelling story while pulling at viewer’s heartstrings to his new Hulu series Paradise.

Sterling K. Brown, who played Randall in Fogelman’s former NBC hit, stars as Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins. (Brown also serves as one of the show’s executive producers). Xavier is assigned to protect President Cal Bradford (James Marsden), whose secret service code name is “Wildcat.” Cal has a drinking problem and, for reasons that will be revealed over the course of the series, a tenuous and fraught relationship with Xavier.

Xavier lives in the idyllic community of Paradise with his two children (Aliyah Mastin and Percy Daggs IV). In the pilot, entitled “Wildcat is Down,” Xavier reports to Cal’s residence to find him murdered. Suspects are immediate. There’s the mysterious and extremely rich Samantha Redmond (Julianne Nicholson), who has the codename “Sinatra.” There’s rough around the edges Secret Service Agent Billy (Jon Beavers) and his girlfriend Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom), whose priority seems to be keeping their clandestine romance a secret. Nicole Robinson (Krys Marshall), the agent in charge, has a less than professional relationship with Cal. Therapist Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi) has an unusual take on the patient/therapist dynamic. Cal’s father (Gerald McRaney) is cranky, demanding and struggling with dementia. But he also may know a lot more than he’s letting on.

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But, just as the end of the pilot of This is Us pulled the rug out from viewers by revealing that the family drama was occurring in two different time periods, Paradise has quite a doozy of a plot twist brewing. The community they all live in seems too wonderful because it is. It’s a perfectly calibrated underground society—the result of an apocalyptic event that destroyed the earth’s population. Like This is Us and Lost before it, the eight episode series plays with time, flashing back to show viewers the events leading up to this life changing moment and introducing us to who the characters were before viewers first meet them. Those scenes show the characters dealing with everyday life problems—aging parents who won’t listen to your advice, children who get in trouble in school and doctors who cannot change a fatal diagnosis. This juxtaposition of family drama amid a sci-fi mystery makes Paradise pop.

TV series about an apocalypse with survivors forging a new world for themselves aren’t new. Apple TV+ just wrapped up the second season of its drama Silo where, that’s right, survivors live in a silo. Prime Video’s Fallout has them all living in vaults. Shows like HBO’s The Last of Us, Peacock’s Twisted Metal and AMC’s The Walking Dead have characters trying to survive against death and destruction. What sets Paradise apart is that, at its heart, it’s a pulpy popcorn thriller. Episodes zip along, dropping hints, offering up a constant stream of red herrings and keeping viewers guessing.

The casting is pitch perfect and the series is buoyed by some incredibly spot-on performances. No one does stoic with the underbelly of a quiet, simmering rage quite like Brown. Mardsen excels at playing the seemingly cavalier jerk who actually has more depth to him than anyone knows. Nicholson uses her girl next door appeal to mask what Sinatra is truly up to while giving a master performance on the long-term effects of grief. Shahi keeps you guessing as to where Gabriela’s true allegiances lie while doing some low key flirting.

Peppered through the show is a love of the 1980s and early ‘90s. There are movie references to Die Hard and The Karate Kid and positively delightful needle drops. Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” and Extreme’s “More Than Words” all somehow survived the apocalypse.

Now, of course, the entire premise of the show collapses if you think about it too much. There are references to nut cheese and yellow eggs. Because cows, chickens and other animals aren’t part of the living creatures who were saved. That’s rooted in logic. But then there’s one extended scene that takes place in a very elaborate carnival. With the world ending would they really make bringing a ferris wheel with them a priority? Or have the resources to build one underground? There are lots of records underground (see the aforementioned needle drops) but no digital music? Also Nintendo Wii seemed to have survived the world ending. Best not to perseverate too much on these details and just go along for the highly enjoyable ride.

As fun to watch as the show is, it also serves as a cautionary tale. Everyone ignores the warnings from scientists about the effects of climate change which definitely seems, shall we say, relevant to our current interests.

The penultimate episode, the last made available to critics, is a riveting nailbiter. The community of Paradise may not be as perfect as it seems, but the TV series Paradise pretty much is.

Paradise premieres with three episodes Tuesday, January 28 on Hulu. Thereafter, a new episode drops every Tuesday until the season finale on March 4.

Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).

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