3.5/5
Paradise Lost
8 Episodes. Starring: Sterling K. Brown, Julianne Nicholson, Sarah Shahi, Nicole Brydon Bloom, Krys Marshall, Charlie Evans, Aliyah Mastin, Percy Daggs IV, Enuka Okuma, Thomas Doherty, Cameron Britton, Shailene Woodley & James Marsden. Created By: Dan Fogelman. On: Hulu & Disney +.
Ready for another season in 'Paradise' on Hulu and Disney Plus? This eight-episode wonder of a second series, from the 'This Is Us' creator/actor team of Dan Fogelman and Sterling K. Brown, will leave you thinking it's some sort of 'Lost' and 'Wayward Pines' hybrid. Or 'Prison Break' in reverse. And if you thought you heard that cover of the classic Phil Collins (there's even a President that looks like him, here, now the Cyclops of James Marsden has stepped down) song too many times, wait until 'The Final Countdown' of an epic, 'Exodus' end. Under the dome of the first season, we got to see the divide between the haves and the have nots, reflected back to the turbulent times we live in right now, like a mirror to the future. But this season, those locked below decks in the Titanic are coming up from the bowels of the ship for air.
Cliff-hangers rarely literally throw you out of a plane, but that's where Sterling K. Brown ('The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story', 'American Fiction', 'Black Panther') left us, out of 'Paradise', to end the first season. Now, the multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner has to leave his kids (great performances from Aliyah Mastin and Percy Daggs IV) as he looks for their mother and his beloved, Enuka Okuma. The great Brown, knows how to bring 'Waves' of lump in the throat emotion, even to more straight-forward scripts, and it's this nuance that helps propel a narrative that's anything but linear. Meanwhile, there's a power struggle inside the bunker, now the great Marsden is reduced to a recurring role. His son, Charlie Evans, isn't, mind you, maturing before us. Julianne Nicholson's Sinatra wants things done her way, but Sarah Shahi is determined to make her think about what she's done and the consequences of her actions. Meanwhile, agents Krys Marshall and a livewire Nicole Brydon Bloom, could give Eva Longoria in 'The Sentinel' or Taye Diggs in 'The West Wing' a run for their guns.
Flashbacks and more back story than the notebooks of 'Wonder Man', for a show sandwiched between the marvels of that and the second helping of the Disney 'Daredevil' from Hell's Kitchen, 'Born Again', help with depth and the introduction to some welcome guest stars. All whilst seemingly setting up more in a stepping stone of a second season, which takes tricks and tips from 'Prison Break' in extending its sentence. 'Mindhunter' and 'The Umbrella Academy' star Cameron Britton ('A Man Called Otto', 'Mickey 17') can bring a mix of sweet and sinister, like no other, and here he plays a postman that compels like Costner. Whilst Thomas Doherty's (a 'Descendant' of many a Disney movie) Dylan gives more life to the outside in this post-apocalypse that looks like ides this March. That's where he meets superstar Shailene Woodley ('The Fault In Our Stars', 'Divergent', 'Big Little Lies') on horseback, holed up at Graceland as an Elvis tour guide. The scene-stealing best in show has barely been better, too. 'Paradise' find even more, with another way to turn trouble into television drama of the highest third season order. Ready to go deeper underground? TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Lost', 'Wayward Pines', 'Prison Break'.
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