Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
First of all, I don’t want to be too hyperbolic here, but I’m going to be real and say what’s on my heart: “Paradise” is kind of a perfect show. Season 1 was, anyway. It had everything you could need in a show. It was just the right amount of episodes where all of the people whose backstories we needed, we got. Every episode uncovered a little bit more about “what happened,” leading up to episode 7, “The Day,” where everything and nothing made sense at the exact same time. Then we get to episode 8, “The Man Who Kept the Secrets,” where we get the answer to the question that started this whole journey while sending us on a brand new one in preparation for season 2. I’m in love, yo.
Oh, for those who don’t know, “Paradise” follows Sterling K. Brown as Agent Xavier Collins, who is on a mission to find out who killed his former friend, President Cal Bradford (James Marsden). Over eight episodes, we find out that the idyllic, perfect vacation-looking town we start in is a cover for a set of events and circumstances that make you question everything about anything and set Collins on an unpredictable journey to find answers to those questions, including what happened to his wife.
Well, here are some thoughts and reactions now that season 1 is over. I cannot wait until season 2, which thankfully is already about to start shooting in a few weeks, according to the series creator, Dan Fogelman. Thank you, eight pound, six ounce, newborn infant Jesus.
1. This show was absolutely unpredictable, and for that, I thank the writers.
Storytelling was at the heart of “Paradise,” so I have to start with the writing. This story was absolutely, 100% something I couldn’t have predicted from the beginning. Sure, it’s a murder-mystery at its core, but it’s one that is rooted in the question of “So, what exactly WOULD happen if the end was truly near?” The writers did such a good job with the nuance of characters that while you might hate some of the decisions made by the people “in the know,” you also have to wonder what you might truly do if put in that situation.
2. Shouts out to a real one, my guy Billy Pace.
I can’t say enough about the care the writers took to give us a complete journey with him. What I thought of him when the show started changed about ten times over the course of the show.
3. I kinda sorta want to break out my Wii, because, um, I don’t remember any games being THAT good.
I can’t spoil this, but I mean, if you got to the end of the show and aren’t even a little bit interested in trying to figure out if the Wii is better than you remember it, then you’re not like us. Or me. Listen, Agent Jane Driscoll is…hmm…let’s just say, I mean…psychopath. But also, if you turn people into monsters, you can’t be surprised when they act like monsters.
4. Atlanta.
Atlanta is a place I consider home. So, on the 7th episode, where Agent Collins’ wife had to get from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Dobbins Air Force Base to make the flight, I was like, “ain’t no way.” Atlanta traffic is already terrible. But Atlanta traffic during a calamity? I was stressed with Collins the whole time because I, too, knew she wasn’t going to make it. When he was trying to find alternate routes, I was at home trying to map out my own suggested routes as if I was going to be able to help their family reconnect. Let me just say this: The scenes at the end of the episode on the phone with Collins and his wife while he’s watching the, you know, on the screen? All. Of. The. Tears.
5. This show has me turning into Neil de Grasse Tyson trying to figure out if the thing that happened can, ya know, happen.
Everybody needs to watch the show just to get to episode 7 so you can understand what happened in the world as a result of human arrogance and the limitations of science. The number of scientists who got it wrong mixed with the number of governments who just didn’t try to prepare for it (or did so improperly) is like a literal worst-case scenario for Earth. I have spent the better part of the past week on random message boards in dark places trying to figure out (1) Is that really possible? and (2) How much does it cost to build a bunker? Oh, and (3) What kind of bunker can I get for $27.32?
6. That scientist who predicted it all and was mad that it all came to pass, who was cursing on television because nobody listened to him, is everybody right now watching the news every day.
There is NOTHING worse than wanting to yell, “I told you so” to the world that is on the brink of something terrible while also realizing that the same people who ignored you signed your death certificate. I’d be hopping mad too. Or 38 hot, as we say down south.
7. The weight that President Cal Bradford must have felt was immense. I actually felt bad for him, to a point.
He TRIED to tell Collins to make his wife not go to Atlanta, and Collins blamed him for what transpired. But, like, it wasn’t the president’s fault. Could he have tried harder? Maybe. But we all know that, without facts, you can’t make a Black woman do anything she doesn’t want to do. But bigger than that, to be the leader of the free world that is on the brink of annihilation due to…things and then on the brink of (a useless) war because of that? I appreciated his desire to try to “make it right” while also acknowledging that it was all too little, too late. Shouts out to his love for the ’80s and ’90s, though.
8. I spent the ENTIRE season trying to think about what it must be like to recreate a new “normal” out of the most abnormal, traumatic and unreal circumstances ever.
I don’t even like it when my favorite news anchors leave the network, and I have to meet new broadcasters, but living in a synthetic world??? And then finding out that the synthetic world is being run by puppet masters who are keeping secrets for fear of what the outside might look like? Not to mention the mental agony of knowing you have to be one of the “chosen” people to come to “Paradise.” Whew, chile.
9. I can’t fully decide if Sinatra is a monster or not. I’m going to say yes. But, like, with reason.
This might be controversial but I kind of sympathized a little with Sinatra. Like, I understand how she got to a place where she wanted to save people, but the lengths to which she would go turned her into a person I’m not sure she even recognized. But, then again, how can you recognize yourself when you’ve become arguably the most powerful person in a world you created and built from scratch for the purpose of saving some people because you believed that a bad thing might happen?
10. That final episode was amazing. I 100 percent didn’t see that conclusion being what it was, and then it made me look at everything else we already saw.
Straight up, I stood up and clapped when the show ended while also saying, “Bruuuuuuh.” This show is mind-boggling while not being so challenging that I need to rewatch the entire thing to see all of the things that I missed. I do plan to rewatch it because I enjoyed it so much, and Sterling K. Brown put his foot all up and through the show.
I cannot wait for season 2 where we outside outside!
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).