Final yr’s “Paradise” had the advantage of carrying considered one of tv’s extra baffling, smooth-brained (complimentary) ideas: A homicide thriller a few useless president (James Marsden) and the Secret Service agent (Sterling Okay. Brown) committing to fixing his homicide… oh, and did we point out that is all going down in a large underground bunker wherein tens of 1000’s of persons are sitting out a nuclear holocaust in a simulated suburban idyll? On prime of that, it comes from the thoughts of TV creator extraordinaire Dan Fogelmanso you’ll be able to anticipate a assassin’s row of melodramatic twists, nested flashbacks, and groan-inducingly moody covers of Nineteen Eighties energy ballads to finish each episode.
Regardless of (or as a result of) of these Fogelmanian quirks, the primary season of “Paradise” carried a type of batshit, foolish appeal, culminating in an thrilling finish to the season that teed up a bunch of attention-grabbing “what subsequent?” questions for a lot of of our characters. However such stakes have to be paid off satisfyingly, and “Paradise”‘s sophomore season strays from what made its preliminary go so interesting, lurching sadly into the identical outdated, standard survivalist-porn trappings, now marred by the overwrought Fogelman melodrama. “This Is (The Final Of) Us.”
When final we left the denizens of Colorado’s most taking place mountainside vacation spot, we’d solved the thriller of President Bradford’s loss of life, bunker mastermind Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) fell right into a coma because of the efforts of agent-turned-assassin Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom), and Brown’s Xavier Collins went off in a bid to trace down his long-lost spouse, Teri (Enuka Okuma), whom he’s simply realized continues to be alive—together with a shocking variety of survivors—within the rapidly-improving wasteland that’s the bombed-out United States.
SHAILENE WOODLEY
However the season premiere, “Graceland,” as with the majority of the second season, considerations a number of recent characters who’ve been carving out their very own survivalist nooks and crannies within the 3 years for the reason that Earth was devastated. Chief amongst them is Annie Clay (a dedicated Shailene Woodley), who we see pivot from traumatized medical scholar to tour information on the titular dwelling of Elvis Presley—whose basement turns into a useful place to trip out the tip of the world.
After all, her peace is shattered twofold: First, by a bunch of marauders she befriends, led by the good-looking, younger Hyperlink (Thomas Doherty), with whom she has a short fling; they appear like all proper gents, however their giddy curiosity in a rumored compound in Colorado definitely builds some stakes for later within the season. Then, after they depart, who ought to fall on her doorstep however Xavier, injured from his aircraft crashing and nonetheless determined to search out his spouse.
For the primary half of the season, Annie herself looks like “Paradise”‘s ostensible lead, guiding Xavier by way of the desperation and devastation of the surface world. The ash cloud has cleared, and persons are beginning to congregate and type ostensible communities, however, like every post-apocalyptic present you’ve ever seen, that setting is rife with corruption, violence, and revolution. Particularly as these scattered survivors, gun-toting and hungry, develop ever extra envious of the well-stocked facility that homes Xavier et al.
However that’s the issue; as “Paradise”‘s world expands, its novelty shrinks. That is very true as the majority of the season splits Xavier off into his personal storyline, removed from the compound that makes the present really feel novel amid an current area of fellow end-of-the-world exhibits like “Fallout” and “Silo.” At the very least within the bunker, there’s a component of political intrigue, a sense of attempting to maintain the literal lights on and keep a veneer of normalcy because the world collapses round them. And to his credit score, Brown all the time carries his half of the season with a type of wearied gravitas, even because the script simply bounces him from one complicated state of affairs to the subsequent.
However Season 2 simply exhibits us that the surface world is, properly, just about effective now, if a bit resource-strapped, which makes Sinatra’s desperation to maintain the charade up really feel ever extra inconsequential. (It doesn’t assist that our remaining protagonists contained in the bunker, from Sarah Shahi’s Gabriela to Krys Marshall’s Nicole to Charlie Evans’ rebellious First Son, Jeremy, get more and more little focus.)
JULIANNE NICHOLSON, SARAH SHAHI
Plus, this time round, the Fogelisms damage greater than assist, as total episodes carve out flashbacks to how so-and-so spent years of their lives getting ready for all times after civilization collapses. Between Annie, a weird Jane-focused flashback episode, and different characters I gained’t but identify, the trick will get performed so ceaselessly that it will get tiresome, particularly because the overwrought twists pile on to more and more tiresome levels. I gained’t even get too far into the present’s therapy of girls, which appears to take pleasure in making them endure, and even die, to additional warrior-mama tropes or give the lads of the present one thing harmless to guard.
As somebody who loved the heightened stupidity of “Paradise”‘s first season, it’s dismaying to say it looks like a distinct present now. The issues that grate stay (Actuallywe’re going to finish a climactic showdown on the bunker’s gates with a self-serious rendition of “The Closing Countdown”?), however the brand new characters we get simply aren’t compelling sufficient to wallpaper over the actual fact we’ve misplaced, or neutered, the outdated characters we liked final time round. There are just a few pulpy delights right here and there, however this explicit apocalypse strikes a bit too slowly for my style.
Seven episodes screened for overview. First three episodes premiere February twenty third on Hulu, with new episodes airing weekly.