‘Paradise’ Season 2 Review: An Uneven Bake

There are quite a few post-apocalyptic shows that are currently or have recently been on air, from Fallout to The Last of Us to Silo to the various different Walking Dead spinoffs that populate the small screen. Paradise was unique in the sense that the post-apocalyptic nature of the show was not the hook of the series—at least when it came down to the initial marketing.

A large part of Paradise Season 1 focused on the murder mystery of Cal Bradford’s (James Marsden) death. The show does, in fact, deal with the Paradise bunker extensively, but a large focus was placed on the murder mystery, even down to the very end. What was fascinating was that the show never quite focused on what was going on in the outside world after the doomsday event until now.

Season 2 is largely set outside of the bunker and is more straightforward with its post-apocalyptic nature. There are some mysteries to solve along the way, but none quite as central.

Paradise Season 2 opens with Annie (Shailene Woodley), a medical school dropout who gets a job as an Elvis’ Graceland tour guide after she befriends Gayle, a security guard who works there. Doomsday hits, leading Annie and Gayle to take shelter in Graceland’s basement. Despite it being summer, ash clouds cover the sky, leading to freezing temperatures. Gayle soon dies due to the harsh conditions, leading Annie to be alone for a few years.

Then comes in a new group led by Link (Thomas Doherty), with whom Annie quickly strikes up a romance. They are going to Colorado to find the bunker, and Link wants Annie to join them, but she decides against it. Months later, a plane crashes nearby, and a now-pregnant Annie goes to the site and finds Xavier (Sterling K. Brown).

Paradise is at its strongest when it’s telling a focused story, which Annie’s is. The strongest moments of this season are set in the backstory of some of the survivors of the event, which is where the show uses its patented flashbacks the best.

On the flipside, some of the weakest parts of this season are also flashbacks/backstories. There are times when it feels like these flashbacks are crutches that this show no longer needs to use but it does anyway. Sure, some of them fit thematically, but it undercuts the current narrative. So much time is spent on going back that the present loses focus. There are threads of storyline they will touch on, then multiple episodes go by before they pick it back up again.

The first set of episodes that tackle the post-apocalyptic nature of the world are the strongest. They don’t exactly go big on the worldbuilding on this end, but it’s sufficient for what the story is going for. There are some very interesting moments where the harsh realities of life post-apocalypse are depicted, but sadly, in the end, they feel few and far between.

Whenever the story flips back to the bunker, it just isn’t very interesting. They dedicate multiple episodes to what’s going on there, and the only thing of value are shock endings. With Xavier gone, none of the characters in the bunker are compelling enough to spend that long with, and it shows in how they choose to develop the story.

This show doesn’t understand how to make nuanced characters, even when they show you their entire life story. Don’t get me wrong, there are shows that can pull off this very type of storytelling, but Paradise does it in a clunky way that just doesn’t work for me. The finale of Season 1 is a good example of that—sure, they give the right motivation to Trent to be the killer of Cal, but the execution is so deeply lacking and fails to make him compelling whatsoever. There are moments in Season 2 where it feels like they understand how to build out a character, but then they resort to choosing the least interesting option for the character to fulfill their need for a dramatic twist.

It is to be noted that I have only seen 7 of the 8 episodes, so I can’t speak to the finale. What it does set up in the finale is mostly built off a mystery element yet to be revealed, so it will likely be make or break.

The best way to describe this season is that it is very inconsistent. If you were hoping for a Season 1 Episode 7 “The Day”-level episode, you might be disappointed, but it’s not unfair to say there are a couple episodes that would stand right below “The Day” on the Paradise episode power rankings even if none are exactly close. There are also a couple of episodes that would rank at the bottom for me.

The narrative shifts result in an uneven bake—it’s like a cookie you set to bake at the wrong temperature, and the edges are perfectly crispy while the middle is underbaked. I love a good edge, but the gooey middle is just as important, and Paradise struggles to make a rich bite.

The acting does a lot of heavy work to make up for the middling writing. Sterling K. Brown gives another star performance that will make you want to watch more of him in a season that asks him to come off the bench. Xavier is a good character, and while he is still prominent—maybe even still the most prominent character—it just feels like there’s less for him to do, as there are so many threads the show focuses on. Shailene Woodley, Thomas Doherty, and Enuka Okuma also give strong performances that propel parts of this season to be much stronger than others.

I struggle to call this a sophomore slump because Season 1 had some of the same issues, but it almost feels worse in this season. I hope the finale can deliver the spark that this show was missing to make up for some of the missteps this season takes.

Paradise Season 2 stars Sterling K. Brown, Julianne Nicholson, Sarah Shahi, Nicole Brydon Bloom, Shailene Woodley, Thomas Doherty, and more. The first 3 episodes of Season 2 release on February 23rd.

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