Paradise: One Of The Best Shows Around
Paradise Put So Much Effort Into Every Aspect Of It
Paradise is one of the best-written shows I’ve seen in a long time. It’s intricate without being confusing. Multi-layered without pulling away from its core storytelling. And gives answers to its many posed questions at a good enough pace that it’s always surprising that there’s another layer of mystery to uncover.
It’s also a show that I don’t want to spoil—but I already have. Sorry about that. There was no way to avoid it. I’ve given something away just by you reading this far into this article. I won’t explain what the spoiler is, and will even do my best to dance around revealing information that connects to that spoiler, but just know that you should watch Paradise. At least try to get through the first two episodes without any more input, anywhere. I watched up through three—but by then the story had fallen into its rhythms, its genre conventions, and knowing context doesn’t diminish as much from the enjoyment. I’m serious about this. Trust me and give it a try.
This Is The Type Of Story That You Shouldn’t Spoil
But that poses a mystery—or a conundrum, really—about how one does a review of Paradise now that I’ve said that. I can only say “it’s super good” so many times. It’s quite hard to sell a show without even telling you a premise. But fortunately, the tightly woven plot where most details matter—even stuff that just seems like generic information—isn’t the only thing going on in this show worth praising. Because Paradise puts its whole effort into everything it does.
Let’s start with the acting. Allow me to gush about the acting. Because, seriously, my god, is the acting incredible. It takes a special kind of skill to put that much emotion into almost unmoving expressions. It takes work and practice I cannot even conceive of to display grief and rage with the slightest twitches of muscles. Our main character, named Xavier—or X for short—is a professional, tasked with protecting the President of the United States, and cannot let his feelings show on his face, and yet you can see it in the cracks. The slight inflections in his voice. This is award-winning work. I was in awe.
This Is Some Of The Best Acting I’ve Seen In Media
And not just from him. There are so many moments, from so many characters, that go to the depths of what humans can feel without a twinge of melodrama. I almost sobbed during a scene set in a hospital from a single line. I was washed away by the story. And, to be clear, I warn you with those words. Paradise is a heavy, heavy series that doesn’t shy away from everything that comes with a life full of massive changes. Children dying is a recurring theme in Paradise. Suicidal ideation spurned on by grief is just flat-out referenced, and I have never seen so many shades of grief so heartbreakingly portrayed. In just those three episodes, and while maintaining a strong pace, Paradise speaks on dissolving relationships, destroyed marriages, families being split apart by so many awful things, and the panic of trying to hold together something, hold tightly to anything, when the world is wrong on so many levels.
And it does it with the grace of balance. There are funny moments. Charming moments. It’s not a relentlessly morbid or bleak show. The tone is never stagnant. Even when faced with such upsetting things, Paradise is, above all else, fixated on portraying the complications of humanity and how one lives after, sometimes years after, pivotal events. It’s about people. Though there are the occasional scenes where the story stretches credulity—mostly in logistics or just being very obviously exposition scenes—it keeps pulling focus to the most human elements. Some scenes do the whole “popular song juxtaposes the moment’s heaviness” thing, but those scenes are also so well-constructed that they work anywhere.
Paradise Understands Engaging Character Writing
Now, you may think—if you’ve read my articles before—that I’m going to say that I don’t have any complaints now. That it’s almost perfect for what it is. But I do have complaints. For one, I don’t know why so many shows and movies need to kill off the wife to justify the male character’s sadness. There are plenty of other things he can be sad about in this show. Paradise is about grief, perhaps more than anything else, and explores it so well otherwise. I can’t even think of a time we’re shown what the wife looked like (though that could be the setup for another mystery).
The other issue is just kind of around, occasionally. It’s not unrealistic for people to sometimes make fatphobic or general body-shaming jokes to one another, but, like, this show didn’t have to use those. It doesn’t need to present them as normal. There are other ways to include insults if having characters insult one another is required. The first episode especially has odd moments like those, but it never totally goes away. And considering the empathetic levity Paradise includes later, these moments stand out even more.
Any issue or misstep stands out. Because, again, Paradise is so well-made and well-written otherwise. So, so, so, well-made. I currently hold it in almost too high regard. Very occasionally, a show is so good I’ll continue on with it past my review of it. I’ll feel compelled, simply because I loved it that much. Paradise is obviously one of those. Paradise is a triumph, and if you didn’t even know this show existed before, then I am all too happy to be the one to introduce it to you. Go watch it now, before it gets so popular that you can’t escape spoilers.
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