REVIEW: ‘Paradise’ Season 2 Opens With A Thrilling Premiere

Paradise Season 2 is set to be a darker, more thrilling chapter. As Xavier Collins ventures out of the bunker, he steps back into a world with new threats and higher stakes in a desperate search to find his wife. Paradise, Hulu’s hit original drama series, returns for a new season with a three-episode premiere. Paradise Season 2 is created and executive-produced by Dan Fogelman. Steve Beers, Glenn Ficarra, and John Requa also serve as executive producers.  

Sterling K. Brown returns in Paradise Season 2 as Xavier Collins, accompanied by other returning cast members such as Nicole Brydon Bloom as Jane Driscoll, Sarah Shahi as Dr. Gabriela Torabi, James Marsden as President Cal Bradford, and  Charlie Evan as Jeremy Bradford.

Also joining are Krys Marshall as Nicole Robinson, Julianne Nicholson as Samantha ‘Sinatra’ Redmond, Aliyah Mastin as Presley Collins, Percy Daggs IV as James Collins and Enuka Okuma as Dr. Teri Collins. Newcomers joining the Paradise Season 2 cast this season include Shailene Woodley as Annie, Angel Laketa Moore as Gayle, and Thomas Doherty as Link. 

Paradise Season 2 shifts the story outward.

Last season left off with Xavier venturing out of the bunker in search of his wife, Teri, after learning she managed to survive the world-ending threat. Xavier’s search brings him into contact, and even into alliance with, others who have managed to survive the three years since the apocalyptic disaster. Meanwhile, back in Paradise, the bunker’s social fabric begins to unravel as the society’s leadership grapples with the aftermath of the coup and new secrets about the underground city’s origins and Sinatra’s plan emerge.

Paradise Season 2 Episode 1 takes an interesting approach with a bold narrative turn by focusing on entirely new characters rather than opening with Xavier. Instead, the first episode primarily focuses on Annie and the traumatic events from her past that led her to work as a tour guide at Graceland.

Just as Annie’s life seemed to find some peace and solace, disaster strikes as she and billions of people around the world learn about the world-ending event. Thankfully, Annie jumps into action and instructs her friend Gayle, the Graceland security guard, to stock up on food so that they can take shelter in the basement of Elvis’s home. 

The first season of Paradise centered on Xavier and the other survivors within the Paradise bunker. Although the mention of survivors outside the bunker was established and briefly touched on last season, audiences had no insight into what happened to them. By shifting the show’s focus outward, the first episode offers a refreshing and necessary expansion of the show’s worldview. Annie’s perspective, as a survivor outside the bunker, gives the audience a sense of the challenges and chaos faced by billions of other people after the massive super volcano erupted. 

New cast members such as Shailene Woodley help expand the story. 

This added perspective on characters like Annie and Gayle gives Paradise Season 2 Episode 1 emotional depth. Their survival arc shows both the brutality of surviving in isolation for three years and the resilience that comes forth in a crisis. Annie and Gayle’s friendship and determination to survive offer a sense of hope amid the devastation and chaos around them.  

Some standout performances within Paradise Season 2 Episode 1 come from Shailene Woodley and Angel Laketa Moore. Moore delivers a touching performance as Gayle that leaves an unforgettable impression. Woodley gives a layered performance that deepens her character’s multifaceted nature. Woodley does a great job of highlighting Annie’s complexities, like her courageous, intelligent, and vulnerable sides. Moore and Woodley’s on-screen interaction helps anchor the show’s premiere and make the world outside the bunker feel just as compelling.

Thomas Doherty returns this season, although some fans may not recognize him immediately. There is definitely more to his character than what initially meets the eye in Season 1. The first few episodes of the season suggest that Link’s objective and path will eventually cross with Xavier’s, as it seems both men’s objectives in Paradise Season 2 are putting them on a trajectory to collide with one another before the season ends. 

The series seeks to humanize characters in and out of the bunker. 

In Paradise Season 2 Episode 2, titled “Mayday”, the focus returns to Xavier as he continues his search for his wife, Teri. Xavier’s travels eventually lead him to cross paths with a group of child survivors and take shelter with them. Xavier is surprised to see that children, some younger than his own, managed to survive on their own for so long. As Xavier takes shelter from the storm, he reminisces about how he and his wife first met and what led them to get together. 

The first episode, titled “Graceland,” gives audiences a glimpse of how people like Gayle and Annie managed to survive with the resources and shelter at hand. At the same time, the second episode shows a darker reality for other survivors outside of the bunker. The group of children Xavier meets lost their parents over the course of the three years they have been out surviving in the world. They have unfortunately endured and navigated a brutal world that no child should have to face on their own.

The children’s existence and perseverance emphasize just how unforgiving the world outside the bunker IS, even for the youngest survivors. Suppose the purpose of the first episode was to humanize the survivors outside the bunker through relationships and resourcefulness. Then the second episode’s purpose was to further expand the show’s worldview by exposing the moral and emotional toll that younger survivors are forced to endure. 

Sterling K. Brown continues to be the anchor of the story. 

Even amidst the bleakest moments of Episode 2, Sterling K. Brown and Enuka Okuma’s performances balance the episode by making audiences fall in love with their characters’ love story. Xavier’s flashbacks of how he met his wife offer some levity and a powerful emotional contrast in the episode.

Teri and Xavier’s love story not only anchors the episode with emotional intimacy but also reinforces why Xavier is so determined to find his wife. Even before Xavier and Teri started dating, he refused to give up on her, and that love and dedication are what continue to push him to reunite with his wife.

Episode 3, titled “Another Day in Paradise”, finally returns its focus to the Paradise bunker. The episode gives the audience a look at the events following Xavier’s coup and his departure to find his wife. Following the events in which Xavier and Robinson took control of the bunker, most audiences might have thought that by taking control of the Paradise, Xavier and Robinson could expose the truth to help what is left of humankind return to the surface. 

There are elements of the real world that give Season 2 a timely current. 

Those audiences would be wrong; in fact, things are unfortunately much worse than they were when Xavier left the bunker. Before his departure, Xavier instructs Robinson and Jane to let him be the fall guy for Sinatra’s shooting and to blame the coup’s events on him to help protect his comrades. Unfortunately, Robinson and Xavier are still not aware that Jane is the enemy and works closely with Sinatra as one of her secret assassins.

Meanwhile, Sinatra wakes from her coma, ready to take back control of the bunker, but finds the new president, Baines, has been making questionable changes in her absence, such as utilizing a secret prison and disappearing anyone who. 

President Baines is a reflection of performative, reactionary leadership that feels very familiar to the real-world global climate. Last season, his character was essentially a puppet that Sinatra could easily guide and control. Now in Paradise Season 2, during Sintra’s absence, he chooses to make brash, short-sighted decisions, while ignoring sound counsel from experts.

The Hulu series pivots to show the descent into authoritarianism.

President Baines’ desire to fix the unrest in the bunker has just turned into authoritarian overreach, threatening the balance of Paradise that Sintra strived to uphold. Episode 3 uses Baines’ character to make a poignant observation: removing one tyrant does not immediately dismantle the system that enabled them. 

Other standout characters in this episode are Sinatra and Jane. Last season, the duo proved to be one of the greatest threats and the most chilling alliances. Both women are calculating and disturbingly efficient in using their skill sets and influence. Sinatra and Jane’s partnership and dynamic reinforce the idea that control within the bunker has always been upheld through dark secrets and quiet violence.

In contrast, Robinson and Dr. Torabi are not a duo in the same sense as Sinatra and Jane, but both women do operate as moral counterbalances in the bunker. Although Robinson and Dr. Torabi are not in a formal alliance like Jane and Sinatra, they share an ethical awareness and moral values. Making Robinson and Dr. Torabi represent the ethical tensions pushing back against the bunker’s descent into authoritarianism. 

Paradise Season 2 shows no signs of slowing down.

The storytelling just keeps getting better with every episode as the writers continue to up the ante in Paradise Season 2. Expanding this season’s narrative scope beyond the bunker to other survivors, then returning to the Paradise to accentuate the simmering instability within society, the series deepens its exploration of themes such as control, survival, and morality. Although what remains of the outside world is harsh and unforgiving, the bunker, once seen as humanity’s last hope, may be even more dangerous than the world above.

Paradise Season 2’s three-episode premiere sets a strong, ambitious pace for what is to come this season. More characters, broadening the worldview further than before, escalating political tensions, and raising the emotional and situational stakes to new heights. The cast of Paradise Season 2 delivers strong performances all around, with some that will just stick with you longer than others.

Paradise Season 2 has set itself up for a darker, even more thrilling chapter that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats until the very end.  

Paradise Season 2 Episodes 1-3 are now streaming exclusively on Hulu and Disney+.