'Paradise' Is What Happens When You Mix 'This Is Us' with 'Lost'
It was originally going to be called 'Paradise City,' but that would be a misleading title
I’m genuinely enjoying this trend in streaming toward TV-MA reimaginings of broadcast genres like the medical procedural (The Pitt) and the cop drama (On Call)). Of course, I miss great shows that elevate the form, but it’s nice to have high-end shows where every scene has a clear purpose, too.
The latest network-style streaming show is Hulu’s Paradise, which could air on ABC if it had fewer swears and a smaller budget. Broadcast networks are still making Lost-influenced shows like this, and they still do great on streaming, as seen in the story of Manifest, which started on NBC in 2018 and ended on Netflix in 2023. But they’re not done on the scale of Paradise. The role of the grieving, inscrutable billionaire wouldn’t be played by Emmy winner Julianne Nicholson if this were on ABC. She’s an HBO actor.
Paradise creator Dan Fogelman missed the streaming gold rush era because he was busy making the last good network drama, This Is Us, the only network drama to get a drama series Emmy nomination in the past decade and will almost certainly stay the last one. If Fogelman ever wanted to make a weird personal project like Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood or Kenya Barris’ #blackAF, he missed his chance. But now he’s finally on streaming with a broadly appealing drama that’s like a sci-fi This Is Us. It applies This Is Us’ emotionalism and story-revealing flashbacks to a mystery box framework that’s part science fiction and part political conspiracy thriller.
Paradise stars This Is Us’ Sterling K. Brown as Xavier Collins, a Secret Service agent serving on the protection detail for President Cal Bradford, played by the always likable James Marsden. The series’ marketing didn’t give away that there’s a twist, only hinted that there was more than meets the eye. Like, why is the President living in this “serene community” and not the White House? The why is revealed with a sci-fi twist at the end of the first episode that’s executed in the style of the “Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore are the parents and their scenes are happening in the past” reveal of the This Is Us pilot, though it doesn’t quite have its impact. I will never forget seeing that This Is Us twist for the first time. It made me laugh harder than almost anything I’ve ever seen.
There’s a This Is Us feel to much of Paradise. This Is Us pilot directors John Requa & Glenn Ficarra direct the first two episodes, and obviously the presence of Brown adds to the feeling. Whenever I watched This Is Us, I felt like I was watching a different, better show whenever Brown was onscreen, and he’s great here, too. He’s incredible at playing a sad dad, maybe the best at it of anyone on TV right now. And there’s a lot of talk of grief and strained family relationships that will make fans of the tearjerking NBC drama feel at home. But Paradise’s plot-heavy thriller side is more dominant than its family drama side. It's a locked-room murder mystery where everyone’s a suspect, and because the victim is the President, it’s a conspiracy, too. And there’s an even bigger piece of the backstory that’s withheld through the first three episodes that are now on Hulu that gives it an overarching “What is the island?” mystery.
President James Marsden is a self-described “Southern progressive” from Kentucky who was a businessman with no political experience before he became president. He’s a straight-talker, a philanderer, young and charismatic, and he sneaks cigarettes on the back porch. He survives an assassination attempt. He’s a mix of Clinton, Obama, and Trump. Julianne Nicholson’s Samantha Redmond is all Elon, though. It’s pretty impressive that Fogelman created this character, an untrustworthy tech multi-billionaire who becomes the shadow president, long before Elon integrated himself into the Trump administration. I mean, she’s totally different from Elon in most other ways, but Paradise is very of-the-moment in its depiction of dangerous tech industry encroachment on government.
Paradise isn’t great art, but it knows what it is — a grabby TV show — and knows how to do it. There’s a scene in the third episode where Brown gives an expository recap of everything important that’s happened so far, and my wife walked into the room while it was going on, and now she could pick up the show from there and understand what’s happening. That’s broadcast style, baby. It gives you entry points to the story wherever you come in.
I could do without the mournful trailercore covers of ‘80s pop songs, though. The only thing worse than hearing “We Built This City” again is hearing it slowed down and sung like a funeral ballad. The only “We Built This City” I want to hear is the Diplomats song that samples it as “We built this city on ROCK.”
If you missed it last week, I talked to Lauren Sarner from the New York Post about The Recruit, The Night Agent, and Prime Target. It’s a nice piece, and it was very fun to be quoted as a Dad Shows expert. Check it out: Move over superheroes and serial killers — Hollywood’s latest lazy trend is spies
the name “xavier collins” has stopped me in my tracks