When Paradise ads started running late in 2024, they seemingly promised a rather straightforward, if elevated concept, murder mystery. The President of the United States, Cal Bradford (James Marsden), is killed. The number one suspect? His lead Secret Service agent, Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown). Those who turned in for the first season, however, discovered a fairly wild additional element. Brandford and Collins were among a relatively small collection of people living in a fully functional suburban town, buried deep within a Colorado mountain. They are quite possibly the last surviving people on Earth after an environmental calamity and the ensuing panic.

With a series of melancholic covers of Bradford’s favorite songs—cheesetastic late 80s/early 90s adult contemporary mainstays—secret psychopaths, a shadow government, and more Paradise maintained that lost of off-the-wall strange energy for most of the first season. At least until the penultimate episode, a full-length flashback to the last day of Earth as we know it. It is true that the late flashback episode, typically placed second or third-to-last in a streaming season, has become quite a cliché. However, episode 7, “The Day,” is at the height of its power. In just under an hour, this heretofore largely goofy, over-the-top pileup of murder and post-apocalyptic widescale glamping delivered an absolutely devastating episode of TV.

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So, Paradise Season 2 arrives with a question hanging over its head. Which version of the show will show up for its second go-round?

The answer is that it once again goes for both, though this time the ratio tilts more toward emotional resonance. There are still bonkers bits around the edges. Graceland as a shelter to ride out the end of the world. Feral children. Even more intense covers. And Paradise Season 2, through the seven episodes provided to critics, never even attempts the bruising emotions of last year’s standout episode. But overall, it is emotions over silliness this time.

A big part of that change is that the seasontakes its story above ground to see how the world has fared. The weather was indeed devastating. However, Bradford’s last-second decision to detonate a global EMP instead of sparking a full-scale nuclear war means that far more survived than anticipated. Among them is a failed med student turned Graceland tour guide (Shailene Woodley). The season kicks off with her story. Through her, the audience sees how frightening life was for those left behind. It also conveys how survival was nonetheless achievable in the past three years.

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Over the course of the next few episodes, Paradise Season 2 reestablishes the players we already know and where they are. While things in Colorado remain distinctly over the top and otherworldly, especially as Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom), the violent triggerwoman masquerading as a Secret Service agent, gets a more prominent role. Season 1 concluded with her shooting Sam, aka Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson), the one person she answered to. As a result, Jane is a weapon without a wielder. Even as Sam returns from her injuries, this dynamic remains in place as the billionaire mastermind’s memory has been swiss-cheesed. Bloom embodies Jane with the right air of superficial control and craftiness one associates with sociopathy. More importantly, though, she nails the recklessness that many portrayals miss.

Outside, however, things are grim. Collins’ quest to find his wife is almost immediately derailed, forcing him to rely first on a pack of feral children and then the aforementioned Graceland tour guide. Brown’s dominant presentation in Season 1 was coiled rage, something he nailed. Here, however, between his injuries and flashbacks that reveal the early days of his romance with Teri (Enuka Okuma), he gets a wider spectrum to interpret. As a result, Collins becomes a deeper, more humane character. He might, if anything, be an even more effective physical threat this time out, but his empathy is closer to the surface. He sells the hell out of a monologue about becoming a parent that might otherwise feel like flat pablum in others’ hands.

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Depth is the watchword for this year, as, in addition to Collins, Sinatra, Bradford, and even Jane, get some more layers. Jane’s is arguably the least successful, as her origins mostly boil down to clichés about evil not being born but made. There is, though, it must be said, a fun bit of the supernatural, real or imagined, brought into the mix. Again, though, none of that is on Bloom’s unnerving depiction of the bunker’s most dangerous.

The larger scale of the season’s attentions also broadens the show’s visual identity. The change is welcome is not wholly successful. Season 1 realized the creep factor of a seemingly average town surrounded by billions of dollars of tech and infrastructure just behind the scenes. The scenes in the outer world sometimes feel more hastily assembled. The artificiality of Bunkerville, USA felt perfectly in line with its reality. The backlot nature of some of the scenes in the rest of the U.S. don’t complement the story as effectively. On the other hand, it gives the show a wider range of lighting and color options than last scene. That lets cinematographer Yasu Tanida have a bit more fun with staging and hinting at characters with just an angle or spot choice.

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With creator Dan Fogelman arguably returning to territory more traditionally associated with his television work—emotional complexity, juggled storylines, multiple crisscrossing flashbacks—Paradise Season 2 is a bit less fun than Season 1. However, it is a tradeoff that gives the show stronger legs. If it is going to push into Season 3 and beyond, it needs something that feels more recognizably human. Fogelman and his team manage that here, losing very little of the fun and none of the suspense.

Additionally, the show seems to be playing with the supernatural, what with the “prophecy” of Jane’s birth and a survivor’s impossible connection to Sinatra. That suggests the show is still quite willing to keep it weird. And as long as it keeps it weird, it’ll keep my attention.

Paradise Season 2 digs out of the bunker and onto Hulu on February 23.

Paradise Season 2 Trailer: