Sterling K. Brown and James Marsden are two talents of my generation that I LOVE to watch act. Putting them together in a series guarantees I will be interested, but I had no idea what sort of ride I was getting myself into when I started watching PARADISE on Hulu in late January.
Even though it stars two of my favorites, this show came out of nowhere for me. I hadn’t heard about it in the months leading up to the premiere until suddenly it was EVERYWHERE. I must have been in their marketing demo, but it all hit me just in the few days before the show launched. Before Brown caught my eye in THIS IS US and AMERICAN CRIME STORY, Marsden had been on my radar since the late 90s with DISTURBING BEHAVIOR, and then as the role of Scott Summers/Cyclops in the X-MEN (2000). He was so incredibly underutilized in the X-Men films, and then that became my mantra for his post-superhero career – “underused and underrated”. I was always rooting for him to do great things. 20 years ago I thought he would be the next Tom Cruise. His career has been very different than I expected it to be long ago, but I’m so happy that in the year 2025, he’s starring in the best new show of the last few years. And I’m grateful that Brown kept doing some TV, because after his Oscar-nominated turn in AMERICAN FICTION, I thought he might leave the small screen behind. Now we get to see these two still underrated greats together. Brown with the lead role, Marsden with a strong support, and we haven’t even talked about anything else within PARADISE.
If you haven’t seen an episode yet, go watch it without knowing anything more. The less you know, the better. It’s part political espionage and part science fiction but still grounded very much in the real world. Anything more would be a major spoiler. A pilot with this strong of a twist hasn’t been around since maybe THIS IS US. SEVERANCE’s pilot is another big recent one, but I don’t think it’s as shocking as PARADISE. The show moves at such a breakneck pace, I worried halfway through the season that it was a limited series OR that it would peak too fast and have nowhere to go in subsequent seasons. Now that I’ve finished it, nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, it’s quick-paced, and mysteries are solved faster than SEVERANCE or LOST, but don’t worry, there’s so many more to take their place. PARADISE is a show that honestly could have ended at the season finale and that’s it. It wraps things up a lot of the story but leaves us with just enough to want to come back for more next year. A nearly perfect first season.
Brown as Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins and Marsden as President Cal Bradford aren’t doing it alone. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that it took me several episodes to realize the creator of PARADISE is none other than Dan Fogelman, the creator of THIS IS US and executive producer of ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING. This show is really nothing like those two very celebrated shows at all, attesting to Fogelman’s talent. Additional cast members Julianne Nicholson, Sarah Shahi, and Jon Beavers are all fantastic in supporting roles. Nicholson is another celebrated actress across both film and TV. If you don’t recognize her name, you’ll surely recognize her face.
A lot of TV shows centering around politicians can get too “in the woods” so to speak. This was my issue with the recent Netflix series ZERO DAY. I wanted to love it, but the supposed intrigue fell flat after awhile and it could be downright boring at times. There is never a dull moment in PARADISE. The mysteries are paired with strong character drama. The character that you become to learn is the major antagonist, is complex and falls into the gray area of “Maybe they have a good point.” And lastly, I miss a good show that I’ve got to watch week to week and yearn for. I realize Hulu shows most of its original series weekly, but not every show needs that. Sometimes it’s okay to sit down and binge a true-crime series or a comedy. PARADISE is the perfect show to NOT binge. If we were back in the office full time again, it’s a quasi-essential “water cooler” show. And now we’ve probably got to wait a full year for the already secured second season. But I already know it will be worth it.
PARADISE S1 is streaming in full on Hulu.
