Sterling K. Brown stars in Twisty Hulu thriller
Writer and producer Dan Fogelman has a resume that spans genres, from a screenplay credit on Pixar’s 2006 film “Cars” to creating the musical fantasy series “Galavant.” But Fogelman is best known for “This Is Us,” the NBC hit that applied a twisty structure to a sentimental family drama for six seasons. This unorthodox formula attracted a large and loyal audience, but for this critic it was always a mismatch: hiding relevant information in the name of cheap surprise.
With his latest series, the Hulu thriller “Paradise,” Fogelman pivots to a register where OMG-inducing water-cooler moments feel much more at home. “Paradise” still retains elements of the “This Is Us” ethos, starting with star Sterling K. Brown. After breaking out as adult adoptee Randall Pearson, Brown now plays Xavier Collins, a Secret Service agent thrust into a world of secrets and conspiracy after the assassination of President Cal Bradford (James Marsden). It’s a deserved star turn for Brown, a recent Oscar nominee (for “American Fiction”) who gets to combine his signature warmth with full-on action heroism. (Yes, he has several shirtless scenes.) Reflecting Brown’s behind-the-scenes role as executive producer, Collins feels tailor-made; his feelings about race, for example, are addressed in a nuanced but candid way.
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But Bradford doesn’t die in the White House, or even in Washington, DC. He and Collins both live in the town of Paradise, a mysterious, utopian community of 25,000 people that looks a lot like Southern California – where the series was filmed – yet it feels… different. Everyone uses high-tech wristbands as wallets and keys. There are no weapons, not even for law enforcement officers like Xavier. Wide canals with single-family homes don’t resemble any suburb we recognize.
The precise nature of Paradise the Town, which I am not allowed to reveal, is the first of many revelations that punctuate the show ‘Paradise’. Although only the first three episodes are being released as a binge, with the rest being doled out weekly, the steady rhythm of the boots dropping makes for a propulsive, addictive watch. (“Paradise” may be the kind of show where the premise itself is considered a spoiler, but I was so thrilled and genuinely surprised by the final moments of the premiere that I’m happy to honor the embargo — viewers deserve this treat.) In true Fogelman But fashionable, “Paradise” can seem strangely uninterested in the details of the eponymous social experiment, at least compared to the personal histories and emotional lives of its residents. “Paradise” rarely feels like a science fiction show, even if technically it is. The result is a strange hybrid, even if it is quite effective.
“Paradise” alternates between the present-tense search for Bradford’s killer and flashbacks that illuminate who the characters were before they arrived at this apparent utopia. Collins is a widower who has to raise two children as a single father; Bradford is a mild-mannered nepo baby who acts as a leader, and their resentment-laden bromance forms the volatile core of the show. In projects like “Westworld” and “Jury Duty,” Marsden has spent much of his mid-career playing with the assumed blandness that comes with his Ken-doll appearance, the experience he brings to the subtly insecure Bradford.
The residents of Paradise may have a crisis on their hands, but they also have to deal with grief, romance, aging parents and other everyday concerns. Bradford’s political patron Samantha Redmond (Julianne Nicholson), nicknamed “Sinatra,” is a tech billionaire with a disturbing degree of influence over Paradise and its business, but she is also a wife and mother who is fiercely protective of her family. (A scene in which she goes to the grocery store with her children stretches credulity—would such a person really do her own grocery shopping?—but nevertheless signals the show’s domestic priorities.) Xavier’s fellow officers Billy (Jon Beavers) and Jane ( Nicole Brydon Bloom) seem more concerned about covering up their workplace flirtation than finding out who killed their boss.
The power of the central performances does a lot to sell this counterintuitive emphasis on the intimate – especially strange considering that Fogelman is the rare producer with enough power to greenlight a high-concept premise without already existing IP address to support this. Nicholson was quietly devastating as a grieving mother in “Mare of Easttown” and wonderfully understated in last year’s critically acclaimed indie film “Janet Planet”; it’s fun to see her play with hard edges, evolving from subtly menacing to borderline maniacal as the story unfolds. You can feel the absence of Nicholson, Brown and Marsden in a subplot centering on two teenagers, with the acting not quite convincing the viewer that youthful angst is worth our time in such extreme circumstances.
As the eight-episode season progresses, “Paradise” has no choice but to increase the stakes and urgency. Critics didn’t get to see the finale, but heading into that final chapter, the series has gained enough narrative momentum to drive this viewer’s interest all the way to the conclusion and into a likely second season. (There are plenty of loose ends left that make it clear that “Paradise” is conceived as a multi-part affair.) In that sprint to the finish, it’s no longer noticeable how much less purposefully “Paradise” is about establishing its alternate reality as similar works of speculative fiction such as Apple’s ‘Silo’. This is a show that’s more about people than it is about the collective action taken to establish an enclave like Paradise, and once those people start moving, we’re eager to follow them.
The first episode of “Paradise” is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+, with the second and third episodes premiering on January 28 and the remaining episodes streaming weekly on Tuesdays.
