Hulu’s Paradise burst onto the scene last year. I ranked it as the eighth-best series of 2025, a gripping, jaw-dropping, twisty, and stunningly emotional show that kept getting better with each passing chapter. Like a great novel, the series reinvented the post-apocalyptic thriller. The new season has its stumbles, but it builds quickly, making for a rare appointment-viewing streaming-television experience.
Some say that Paradise’s first season lost its steam, a claim I would take exception to; the second season sometimes loses its way. The writers attempt to expand the story, but in doing so, the characters’ depth and dimension have less time to develop and evolve as the world expands. However, as the season reaches its penultimate episode, one thing is clear: Sterling K. Brown is Paradise’s emotional anchor. Delivering a turn of such gravitas and control, he guides the audience through even the most uneven narrative forks in the road.
The last time we heard a Phil Collins needle drop, singing about thinking twice about another day in paradise, Xavier Collins (Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown) was on his way to find his wife, Teri (The Pitt’s Enuka Okuma). The Secret Service agent uncovered a conspiracy when Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson), the billionaire financier running the bunker, attempted to cover up the fact that there is, in fact, life outside that bunker in Colorado.
It turns out, Sinatra wasn’t behind President Bradford’s (Sonic the Hedgehog’s James Marsden) death. What Xavier found later was that he called off the nuclear strikes in Atlanta, Teri’s last known whereabouts. Sinatra played a tape for him, a radio signal from Terry, a distress call searching for her family. This decision backs Paradise into a corner, expanding on the world writers have boxed themselves into, resulting in impressive outcomes.
For instance, two of the best episodes of the season introduce two new characters outside the bunker’s walls. One is Annie (Ferrari’s Shailene Woodley), a former med student, who was working as a tour guide in Graceland when the world began to end. In the season opener, titled “Graceland,” we see a different perspective of surviving the disasters outside the shelter that those corporate fatcats built to protect themselves.
Then there is “The Mailman,” a wonderfully plotted, often surprising episode that is deeply disturbing, yet poignant and sobering. The episode employs subtle sleight of hand while saying a great deal about isolation and loneliness. This is where Paradise has found its niche. Like a little show called Lost, the use of flashbacks is endlessly fascinating, making for page-turning television, like a great popcorn novel.
However, by expanding beyond the bunker, Dan Fogelman (This Is Us) pulls focus from the very elements that made the series work. Nicholson, Sarah Shahi, Nicole Brydon Bloom, and The Truman Show–like claustrophobia of season one all take a backseat in the first six episodes. This year’s flashbacks return to the bunker, but too often they feel like filler, convenient ways to resurrect killed-off characters for extra screen time.
The point is that rather than moving the story forward, it stops the series from truly reinventing itself. Though there are a couple of scenes that do have Easter eggs and nods, tying new storylines into flashbacks that many will appreciate. That doesn’t make the show any less entertaining, far from it. It just means the expansion of the series world feels as fresh and less sharply constructed than the freshman outing.
Still, we can quibble over such details; the series has the juice that is wholly engrossing and suspenseful, which is no small feat, making Paradise’s second season worth watching. While season two likes to toil in melodrama and deliberately heightens for generic audiences’ pleasure, like prestige network emotionalism, the series, at its core, is pure pulpy popcorn escapism, reminding us why appointment television, even in the world of the big bad binge, still matters.
You can stream Paradise season 2 exclusively on Hulu starting February 23rd!
While season two likes to toil in melodrama and deliberately heightens for generic audiences' pleasure, Paradise, at its core, is pure pulpy popcorn escapism, reminding us why appointment television, even in the world of the big bad binge, still matters.
I am a film and television critic and a proud member of the Las Vegas Film Critic Society, Critics Choice Association, and a 🍅 Rotten Tomatoes/Tomato meter approved. However, I still put on my pants one leg at a time, and that’s when I often stumble over. When I’m not writing about movies, I patiently wait for the next Pearl Jam album and pass the time by scratching my wife’s back on Sunday afternoons while she watches endless reruns of California Dreams. I was proclaimed the smartest reviewer alive by actor Jason Isaacs, but I chose to ignore his obvious sarcasm. You can also find my work on InSession Film, Ready Steady Cut, Hidden Remote, Music City Drive-In, Nerd Alert, and Film Focus Online.
