REVIEW: Thrilling crime conspiracies and action in Disney+ series ‘Paradise’
WARNING: This review contains minor spoilers for episodes one through seven.
Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) is the head of the security detail for POTUS Cal Bradford (James Marsden). And he’s about to have the worst day of his life.
The first episode of Dan Fogelman's new Disney+ thriller establishes Collins as a seemingly fair but rigid family man. He’s a stickler for rules and hard work. Both have so far gotten him on the most prestigious detail of his career, after all. He is a single African-American father to two young children. We find out later that his wife is no longer in the picture, likely dead, but he’s still very much carrying a torch for her.
All this to say that, by the middle of the first episode he does a most uncharacteristic thing. He breaks from protocol in dealing with a crisis.
Why? The POTUS was assassinated on his watch.
Agent Collins discovers the President dead in his room, raising immediate suspicion as the last person to see him alive.
But wait, it gets even more awful. Everyone knows that Collins’ relationship with his boss has always been complicated at best, and professionally copacetic at worst. So far, all we know is that Collins did not vote for Bradford. Neither does he consider the man to be worthy of his current leadership position. Add to that the color of his skin and all that means is that Collins is an obvious suspect. Despite a sketchy motive, he had the means and the opportunity for this killing.
This quick mise en scene instinctively cajoles us to understand why, instead of calling in the death as might be expected from the lead security agent, Collins delays. He does not inform his superiors for a good 30 minutes. Instead, he opts to analyze the scene with Agent Billy, one of his most trusted subordinates.
So far, so bad. Color me intrigued!
The premise that the POTUS is dead due to mysterious circumstances that might, or very likely, have something to do with powerful billionaire Samantha Redmond (Julianne Nicholson)—known around the circles of power by her codename, “Sinatra”—would be enough fodder for many a garden variety action series. I mean, there are already several seasons’ worth of B-grade (at best) storytelling currently available to view.
But c’mon this is a Fogelman series. In This Is Us the man made use of clever flashbacks and flashforwards to guide us through teased emotional and relationship plants that eventually gave dimension to the characters, all while moving the plot forward.
The first episode, “Wildcat is Down” sets off the twist by the end very cleverly. Powerful enough that you could push through the rest of the first season in one sitting.
If you’d like to preserve this surprise for yourself, then all I can say for now is that Brown as Collins and the likely villain Redmond do a pretty good job of dancing together as the adversaries they assume they are. At the same time, both of them are trying to still figure out who really killed President Bradford.
Both Nichols and Brown do a stellar job at their performances, but it’s the able supporting work that lets them shine in this playground.
The likes of Marsden as President Bradford, and Collins’ teenage daughter (Aliyah Mastin) and younger son (Percy Daggs IV), who fuel the agent’s tension for loyalty to his duties versus caring for family, are the backdrops that create believable motives for the hero and villain. Notably, “For All Mankind’s” Krys Marshall as one of the SS agents later becomes a pivotal character and she often steals the show with her sharp performance.
Give it a shot sans expectations and, like me, you’ll more than likely be sucked into the series.
The dangling twist at the end of the pilot episode and what makes the series rise above your typical action and politics thriller is really the WHERE of it all.
*SPOILER AHEAD*
If you’ve come this far and aren’t afraid of spoiling the minor twist at the end of Episode One, then read on.
When Agent Collins finally calls in the death of the POTUS, the camera pans up towards the sky and shows a seam, like a manufactured border. This lets us know the sky isn’t really there. In fact, this has all been happening inside a vast and artificial metropolis underground nicknamed, you guessed it…Paradise.
Who built this sprawling subterranean city and why? What has happened to the world that thousands have to live inside it?
Take your pick from any of the doomsday series that are easy parallels. Like Under the Dome or Silo, the premise of Paradise reminds me of a novel by sci-fi elder statesmen Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg. Titled Nightfall, the story explores what happens to people on a planet who have lived with light and brightness all their lives since their planet has three suns. But then they experience a true darkness for the first time. A rare and total eclipse comes down. Of course, madness and hysteria ensue.
To the refugees of the catastrophic event that made the bunker people in Paradise flee to the depths, this is the same thing.
Never mind just the end of the world. Never mind just the death of President Bradford. Never mind that the powers in the bunker that pull the marionette strings come to light. The rare occurrence that throws everyone into a cluster grind bender is how all three are happening at once.
It may all be too much for the thousands of citizens of this artificial paradise. The fragile social thread holding what might be one of the last strongholds of humanity together may break under this strain.
Who controls the true power in the bunker and will Agent Collins be able to uncover who killed the president before they stop him?
Despite the speculative nature of its twist plus its multiple timelines, it is easy to get into and has the kind of meat and potatoes action that draws people in.
A few minor complaints: the pace slows down considerably to clear the way for world-building and past events in episodes two and three, plus some dialogue can be overwrought and sometimes downright silly. Even the mixtape-making nostalgia of the OST becomes a weary bit of novelty and provides nearly zero dimension nor metaphoric meat to the proceedings.
Fogelman and his directors never lose sight of their creation’s emotive center, though. Collins is a protagonist that you can root for, with all the straight guy-in-a-world-gone-mad trimmings that come with the action-hero trope.
There are enough red herrings, twists of conspiracy, and action here to provide intense entertainment and you should give this one a shot if you like a blend of the action and sci-fi genres.
Paradise premiered on Disney+ on January 28 and releases a new episode weekly.
