Last year’s “Paradise” had the benefit of carrying one of television’s more baffling, smooth-brained (complimentary) concepts: A murder mystery about a dead president (James Marsden) and the Secret Service agent (Sterling K. Brown) committing to solving his murder… oh, and did we mention this is all taking place in a massive underground bunker in which tens of thousands of people are sitting out a nuclear holocaust in a simulated suburban idyll? On top of that, it comes from the mind of TV creator extraordinaire Dan Fogelman, so you can expect a murderer’s row of melodramatic twists, nested flashbacks, and groan-inducingly moody covers of 1980s power ballads to end every episode.
Despite (or because) of those Fogelmanian quirks, the first season of “Paradise” carried a kind of batshit, silly charm, culminating in an exciting end to the season that teed up a bunch of interesting “what next?” questions for many of our characters. But such stakes need to be paid off satisfyingly, and “Paradise”‘s sophomore season strays from what made its initial go so appealing, lurching unfortunately into the same old, same old survivalist-porn trappings, now marred by the overwrought Fogelman melodrama. “This Is (The Last Of) Us.”
When last we left the denizens of Colorado’s most happening mountainside destination, we’d solved the mystery of President Bradford’s death, bunker mastermind Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) fell into a coma thanks to the efforts of agent-turned-assassin Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom), and Brown’s Xavier Collins went off in a bid to track down his long-lost wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma), whom he’s just learned is still alive—along with a surprising number of survivors—in the rapidly-improving wasteland that is the bombed-out United States.
SHAILENE WOODLEY
But the season premiere, “Graceland,” as with the bulk of the second season, concerns a host of new characters who’ve been carving out their own survivalist nooks and crannies in the 3 years since the Earth was devastated. Chief among them is Annie Clay (a committed Shailene Woodley), who we see pivot from traumatized medical student to tour guide at the titular home of Elvis Presley—whose basement becomes a handy place to ride out the end of the world.
Of course, her peace is shattered twofold: First, by a group of marauders she befriends, led by the handsome, young Link (Thomas Doherty), with whom she has a brief fling; they seem like all right gents, but their giddy interest in a rumored compound in Colorado certainly builds some stakes for later in the season. Then, after they leave, who should fall on her doorstep but Xavier, injured from his plane crashing and still desperate to find his wife.
For the first half of the season, Annie herself feels like “Paradise”‘s ostensible lead, guiding Xavier through the desperation and devastation of the outside world. The ash cloud has cleared, and people are starting to congregate and form ostensible communities, but, like any post-apocalyptic show you’ve ever seen, that environment is rife with corruption, violence, and revolution. Especially as these scattered survivors, gun-toting and hungry, grow ever more envious of the well-stocked facility that houses Xavier et al.
But that’s the problem; as “Paradise”‘s world expands, its novelty shrinks. This is especially true as the bulk of the season splits Xavier off into his own storyline, far from the compound that makes the show feel novel amid an existing field of fellow end-of-the-world shows like “Fallout” and “Silo.” At least in the bunker, there’s an element of political intrigue, a feeling of trying to keep the literal lights on and maintain a veneer of normalcy as the world collapses around them. And to his credit, Brown always carries his half of the season with a kind of wearied gravitas, even as the script just bounces him from one confusing situation to the next.
But Season 2 just shows us that the outside world is, well, pretty much fine now, if a bit resource-strapped, which makes Sinatra’s desperation to keep the charade up feel ever more inconsequential. (It doesn’t help that our remaining protagonists inside the bunker, from Sarah Shahi’s Gabriela to Krys Marshall’s Nicole to Charlie Evans’ rebellious First Son, Jeremy, get increasingly little focus.)
JULIANNE NICHOLSON, SARAH SHAHI
Plus, this time around, the Fogelisms hurt more than help, as entire episodes carve out flashbacks to how so-and-so spent years of their lives preparing for life after civilization collapses. Between Annie, a bizarre Jane-focused flashback episode, and other characters I won’t yet name, the trick gets played so frequently that it gets tiresome, especially as the overwrought twists pile on to increasingly tiresome degrees. I won’t even get too far into the show’s treatment of women, which seems to enjoy making them suffer, or even die, to further warrior-mama tropes or give the men of the show something innocent to protect.
As someone who enjoyed the heightened stupidity of “Paradise”‘s first season, it’s dismaying to say it feels like a different show now. The things that grate remain (Really, we’re going to end a climactic showdown at the bunker’s gates with a self-serious rendition of “The Final Countdown”?), but the new characters we get just aren’t compelling enough to wallpaper over the fact we’ve lost, or neutered, the old characters we loved last time around. There are a few pulpy delights here and there, but this particular apocalypse moves a bit too slowly for my taste.
Seven episodes screened for review. First three episodes premiere February 23rd on Hulu, with new episodes airing weekly.
