I'll be honest. Looking at the premise of Paradise on Hulu and the trailer, I thought I had the show all figured out. But the series managed to throw a curveball our way, and there's a surprise twist near the end of the first episode that changes everything.
Before we get into that, let's talk about the release of the show. So the official premiere date was supposed to be Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 for the first three episodes of the series. However, Hulu decided to do something fun for Sterling K. Brown and James Marsden fans. Paradise episode 1, "Wildcat is Down, is now streaming!
The streamer dropped the first episode early, which means you can go ahead and start tuning in now to finally see Brown back on the small screen. And taking the lead! Episodes 2 and 3 are still scheduled to come out tomorrow, on Tuesday. After that, one new installment will be released weekly from the 8-episode season.
Alright, now let's talk about that big twist and cliffhanger we were left with by the end of episode 1. SPOILERS BELOW if you haven't tuned in yet!
For most of the episode, Paradise seems to be a political drama mixed in with a murder mystery as U.S. President Cal Bradford (Marsden) winds up dead. And the last person to have seen him is his head of the Secret Service protection detail, Xavier Collins (Brown). It turns out not only was he the last one to see the president, but the leader of the country did something to Xavier. In a flashback, he asks him if he'll ever forgive him. Intriguing. What did Cal do?
We don't get the answer to that in the first episode. I'm sure that's one of the mysteries that's going to unfold across the season. All that is pretty normal, right? This is typical for this kind of genre. Though creator Dan Fogelman, who also created and worked on This Is Us with Brown, threw in a third genre in there that we didn't see coming!
The final moments of Paradise episode 1 reveal that in the present timeline, everyone is living in an underground city that was built in Colorado. Which means that they're in a bunker basicallyand this is a post-apocalyptic world everyone is living in now. Why is that the case? What was dangerous enough to have warranted this? One thing is for sure. The first episode of drama raises many interesting questions. And we can't wait to (hopefully) see them answered!
Paradise streams new episodes Tuesdays on Hulu.