Finally, Paradise is taking us into the great wide open.
Now back for its second season, Paradise is ready to let us out of the bunker in into the world. For those who are unaware, Paradise was created by Dan Fogelman and tells the story of the last remaining people on Earth. After a global catastrophy, the planet’s future resides in an underground bunker deep below the surface that houses government officials, scientists and the uber-rich. But, once the president of the United States is murdered, the following chaos allows Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) to discover that the corruption of man didn’t die in the apocalypse.
Admittedly, Paradise has always felt like a spiritual cousin to ABC’s megahit, Lost. Both series deal with characters fighting to survive in an encapsulated area with massive conspiracies and sci-fi elements. (Though, to be fair, Paradisehas not presented us with mysterious smoke monsters.) What’s more, both series help build their narratives on a healthy dose of flashbacks. And, of course, Paradise does compare to Lost in one more key area: both series are entirely addicting in the best of ways.
With Season Two, Fogelman’s Paradise remains absolutely must-see television. With new elements added to the story (more on that in a moment), the series manages to continue to build intrigue within the bunker while still expanding its world. It’s a delicate balance when writing a series such as this. One needs to bring in new elements to the series while still investing in the characters that we know and love. Given that the two spaces are so different, it would be tempting to keep the majority of the intrigue within the walls of the bunker itself.
But Paradise is blowing the doors open in Season Two.
With Collins’ journey outside of the bunker, so too do we finally get to see the state of the world post-Apocalypse. It’s worth noting that the season’s first two episodes do feel different than most others, giving us side stories that feel disconnected at first but end up flowing together seamlessly. While life underground may be far from perfect, it’s a far cry from what is going on in the ‘real world’. Without the resources that have been kept below the surface, tensions are understandably running high above ground. As a result, this dichotomy sets up a proper division of the haves and have nots.
Without giving any spoilers, the new (old) world does allow Paradise to begin asking questions about the gap between the proverbial 99% and those who have been able to survive with proper health care, food and shelter. Yet, even in the midst of trauma, people still are fighting for more than survival.
For some of these people, they’re also fighting for their humanity.
As we are introduced to new characters, we see how they are faced with making decisions about what matters most in their devastated world. Under these conditions, one could forgive them for entirely abandoning their morality for the sake of their survival. But not all are willing to do that. Here, love and compassion have not died entirely in the midst of fear.
To say more would be the spoil the fun but, suffice to say, Paradise continues to look for exactly what its title claims to be. This is a world that believes that it could create paradise in the wake of the world’s devastation… but quickly realizes that the brokenness of power-hungry humans still wreaks havoc in the new world. And it’s utterly fascinating to watch.
The first three episodes of Paradise S2 are now streaming on Disney+ with new episodes streaming weekly.
