5 reasons why Hulu's 'Paradise' is a hit series

If you get the ingredients right, something great comes out of an idea.

Every show is unique on the ground floor of production. It is a point in time when the cast, crew, and idea have assembled with the sole purpose of resonating with viewers and sticking around for a few seasons. The scoreboard is all zeroes, and the critics haven’t spoken yet. Few know if the concept will work. Some of the best shows have produced comments from the cast years later, like, “We didn’t think it was going to work.”

Paradise, streaming on Hulu, presented an intriguing concept from the start: a Secret Service agent (Sterling K. Brown) finds the President (James Marsden) dead in his office one morning, setting off a series of events that transform the story from a conspiratorial standpoint into an apocalyptic tale that includes elements from Lost and Flash Forward.

With the Season 1 finale airing tonight, the show has gathered steam and appeal with each episode. The viewers who stayed away initially have dove into the creative pool, reveling in a series that doesn’t serve up the entire steak in the first couple of episodes. The pillars of stellar mystery television shows are the ability to properly market a show and release the segments of the story to keep people guessing.

Here are five reasons why Paradise scores so well and gets better each week. IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED A SINGLE EPISODE, STOP READING NOW. SPOILERS!

1) MARKETING SAVVINESS

All the trailers promised a gripping yet stripped-down drama about the suspicions of a President’s death hanging on the broad shoulders of his top Secret Service agent. Other elements were presented briefly, but the nuts and bolts of the show painted a picture of something isolated and compact. Deep into the first episode, viewers find out Brown’s wife perished in a terrible accident and the entire world may have been torched too. A bunker below Colorado is where the remaining survivors have been living, but few know if the above ground life is healthy or not.

None of that was known from the trailers, which focused on the sudden death of Marsden’s Executive in Chief. That’s how you pull an audience in: Show some, wet the lips, and wait for them to file in.

Hulu

2) A STERLING CAST CHOICE

Brown is exactly the kind of lead actor that Paradise needed to thrive, because he can play so many different emotions and moods without overdoing it in front of the camera. His gaze and overall composure in the first few episodes were showered in steely stares, stoic line readings, and earnest judgement of actions taken. Due to his likability and versatility, Brown is a big reason viewers walked into this TV show house and stuck around. You weren’t so sure if he was the one who took out the big man, and the actor doesn’t let that reveal come and go.

For a while, you weren’t sure if you could trust the protagonist. By the time we find out he’s fighting the good fight and wants to get to the bottom of a conspiracy plot that was spun by the President’s chief of staff (a devilishly cool Julianne Nicholson). Brown has movie star appeal that shines even brighter on the small screen. He makes you believe in a plot that may seem outlandish without a credible lead in charge.

3) THE SHOW GETS BETTER AS IT GOES

A great TV show should never load up and swing hard in the first two episodes. It’s best to leave some breadcrumbs and draw the audience in. Along with great marketing and a wonderful lead, Paradise showrunner Dan Fogelman (who worked with Brown on NBC’s This Is Us) weaves a web of intrigue around the cast and plot that only gets juicier and more layered by the hour.

If you liked most of Lost but wanted a better ending, keep the faith for tonight’s season finale. The only way this Paradise enjoys a second season (which has already been greenlit) is if the first season unfolds in a compelling manner. Refusing to show all the cards early on is a tactic other shows should employ more often. It doesn’t have to be big deaths every hour--but then again, a good kill doesn’t hurt.

Hulu

4) STRONG SUPPORT FROM ENSEMBLE CAST

If you watched Kevin Costner’s Horizon last year and wanted to see more of the big rancher whose family is at the heart of that story, you are in luck. Jon Beavers’ Billy Pace, another Secret Service agent who may or may not be connected to the conspiracy, cuts a nice rug in a supporting role. It worked so much that you cringed in a good way when Nicholson’s shady suit has him killed by Pace’s own girlfriend, another agent. That’s cold enough that the warmth of veteran actress Sarah Shahi (L WORD!!) helps as she plays an ally of Brown’s lead agent.

5) ONLY EIGHT EPISODES DOESN’T OVERCOOK PLOT

There’s a world where this could have been stretched into 10-12 episodes, but thankfully Fogelman knows that the shorter, the better with a show like this. While he could pack 15-25 episodes of This Is Us into a season, it seemed like too much fluff was added to the recipe. Paradise’s list of ingredients works well due to the tighter episode count, because you know there won’t be an extra ounce of fat attached to this story. The twists and turns were still able to roll out without feeling rushed, and that’s a credit to a cast and creator that understands the changing temperament of their audience.

All in all, Paradise is a great show that should stick its finale landing tonight before Season 2 starts cooking. By employing an actor with movie star looks and character depth, along with slow-cooking the plot twists, Fogelman’s train chugs along like an entertaining and intelligent television show. Fans of Lost should be dug in already, and fans of original storytelling should also be enthralled.

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