The Spool / Reviews
Is there trouble in Paradise?
Hulu’s conspiracy political thriller delivers excellent performances but a successful conclusion remains unclear.
NetworkHulu
SimilarBrahmarakshas, Breaking Bad, Desire Zoo, Duty After School, Eclipse of the Heart Hysteria!, Kiss that Kills: Parallel, Lost in Baimu, Love of Replica, Murder Mindfully, Pending Train, The Mess You Leave Behind, The Savant, The Twilight Zone, Thriller,
Watch afterEek! The Cat, Game of Thrones Squid Game
Studio20th Television,
8.5

It is perhaps stating the obvious to say that being a Secret Service agent on the President’s detail requires an unusual mindset. Unlike many law enforcement officers, the expectation isn’t just serving and protecting. It is to, if needed, literally sacrifice your life to protect someone, to take a bullet, blade, or bomb intended for them. For most, clocking in daily, knowing that would weigh heavily. Imagine continuing to do it after you lose respect for the President. Imagine continuing to do it, day in and day out, as hatred builds in your heart. That’s the situation facing Agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) in the new series Paradise from creator Dan Fogelman.

The show leaps forward and back in time regularly, holding its cards close to the vest throughout. However, it is immediately apparent that the relationship between the very buttoned-up Collins and the looser and lush-er President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) has gone from a kind of Odd Couple friendship to quite sour. When Collins arrives one morning to find Bradford dead, a pool of blood around his head, it doesn’t look good for him. The fact that he delayed calling it in for a half hour and was the last to see the President alive the night before makes it even worse.

Unfortunately, Paradise’s fractured storytelling makes it impossible to discuss plot points beyond that moment. There are significant reveals and frequent twists in each episode, ones often undone or redefined within an episode or two. There’s more to the plot mechanics, a lot more, but even beginning to engage with them will spoil a lot more than this critic feels comfortable with. So, this review has to focus on tone and performance instead.

Paradise><figcaption class=Sarah Shahi demands to know how Julianne Nicholson got so tall. (Disney/Brian Roedel)

Like several of Fogelman’s previous projects, Paradise centers actors, relying on their talents to sell some of the leaps in storytelling that might otherwise prove too much to swallow. Fans of This Is Us will find surprising commonality between the two shows. Both utilize that flash-forward/flashback technique to disorient the audience and build tension. Both seem to have a talent for eliciting emotion that can sometimes tip over into melodrama.

Their most significant commonality is that strong Brown performances hold them together. Here the actor instills Collins with an endless suppressed reservoir of anger that, eventually, he must let off the chain. However, Brown largely doesn’t go for the obvious “good man pushed too far” rage. Instead, he repeatedly grounds the performance in a kind of cold fury. When Collins gets mad, he gets scary. But it isn’t by becoming the loudest or wildest. There’s a systematic nature to his temper, one with a surprisingly darkly humorous petty edge.

Paradise><figcaption class=Jon Beavers has some secrets. In Paradise, I mean. Possibly in real life, too, but that’s not what I meant. (Disney/Brian Roedel)

Bradford is a surface pastiche on Dubya, a failson pushed into politics by family legacy. In practice, Marsden makes the President an inversion of Clinton. Instead of his “I feel your pain” surface empathy masking a flippant opportunistic streak and penchant for using people in often terrible ways, Bradford’s flippancy and smirking entitlement hides a deep well of empathy everyone in his life coaches him to eliminate. That his feet of clay and refusal to stand up to mean old dad (Gerald McRaney, mixing gravitas and toxic privilege) repeatedly cost him happiness—in work, in love, in family—is his greatest tragedy. His love for the hits of the late 80s and early 90s and his not-so-secret aspiration to be a high school English teacher are shorthand for a man meant not to be a Great Man but rather a decent guy.

As the season progresses, Samantha Redmond (Julianne Nicholson) is the only other character who rises to a similar prominence to Collins and Bradford. Nicholson draws a tougher hand as the President’s billionaire ally and possible manipulator. In many ways, Paradise makes Redmond two different characters. Nicholson plays each side well, nailing a range of postures from sly flirtation to perfect mom to nasty harshness. The problem is, with an episode left, the scripting largely doesn’t bring her two sides together. A personal tragedy is supposed to explain how her flashback personality becomes her modern-day self, but it hasn’t yet entirely made that change believable. There’s not yet enough evidence in the past of who she’ll become to sell her two sides as co-existing.

Paradise><figcaption class=I’m not saying Paradise is being in a room with James Marsden and Sterling K. Brown at the time. But I’m not NOT saying it, either. (Disney/Brian Roedel)

After the trio, opportunities to stand out are limited. Collins’ partner and friend, Agent Billy Pace (Jon Beavers), gets one of the rare chances in a fourth-episode showcase. It successfully fleshes out the character while leaving him at an appropriate place by episode’s end. The destination lets him remain important for the rest of the season, even as his presence recedes.

Less successful is the episode spotlighting Dr. Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi), Collins’ former therapist with ties to both Redmond and the President. Shahi is great in the role, giving Torabi an air of expertise without sacrificing the sense of her as a fairly delightful person. Sadly, Paradise struggles to give her a place in the rest of the season after bringing her to the forefront. It seems a waste to develop such a vibrant character only to effectively sideline her the rest of the season.

Issuing a final verdict on Paradise greatly depends on who the season closes. With an episode left to go, Fogelman and his team have created a world rich in intrigue. The series touches on class commentary, although it remains a largely shallow take on the usual “billionaires get it all and we fight for the scraps” observations. God knows it isn’t wrong, but it isn’t exactly lacerating or revelational. But without seeing how it lands things, it’s hard to say if the endeavor works. There is reason to be optimistic, given the level of skill on display. But the temptation to overplay red herrings and add mythology instead of answering questions has undone many a show before this one. So, the recommendation and score is a provisional one. The finale will likely make or break Paradise.

Paradise throws open its doors to viewers January 28 on Hulu.

Paradise Trailer:

NetworkHulu
SimilarBrahmarakshas, Breaking Bad, Desire Zoo, Duty After School, Eclipse of the Heart Hysteria!, Kiss that Kills: Parallel, Lost in Baimu, Love of Replica, Murder Mindfully, Pending Train, The Mess You Leave Behind, The Savant, The Twilight Zone, Thriller,
Watch afterEek! The Cat, Game of Thrones Squid Game
Studio20th Television,