Paradise is a fascinating show, just good enough to make it into the critical zeitgeist with award nominations (though few wins) and enough of a hit for renewal until it will finish its story. And it will end in a very different place than where it started. While it was hinted all season, Paradise’s season 2 finale cemented the fact that the series has fundamentally switched sci-fi genres.
The leap? Spoilers follow, though I won’t get into specifics about exact moments in the episode. Season 1 of Paradise was a pure, grounded apocalyptic drama, as grounded as the destruction of most of the world can be. A catastrophic event befalls the earth, driving a selection of elites underground to an idyllic dome with sinister overtones. Outside, we learned, there are many survivors living miserably, as apocalypse survivors do, and they want that to change.
Well, it turns out everyone wants it to change so badly, we are moving into a complete alternate-universe, time-travel, AI-based storyline with reveals in the finale, events that include resurrected children, and potentially resetting the entire end of the world.
I cannot remember the last time I saw a show switch genres entirely like this between seasons. The first series that comes to mind is LOST, a show that seemed like it would be about survivors dealing with each other on a deserted island to survive. But pretty quickly there, we realized this was a magic island, or something similar, with healing powers and smoke monsters. That did not take a full season.
Some shows do this as a core concept. I’m thinking of a series like Search Party, which flipped genres every single season as an experiment to see if that concept could work (it did). But what Paradise is doing here? The best example I can come up with is…Family Matters, the old sitcom which started with Steve Urkel as a goofy neighbor and ended with him cloning himself and going to space. Truly, the closest approximation I can think of.
Are audiences buying it? Yes, yes, they are. Last night’s finale, Exodus, has an 8.8/10 on IMDB, tied for the second-highest episode of the series with this season’s A Holy Charge, behind only The Day, which might be the best rendition of an unfolding apocalypse that I’ve ever seen.
I applaud Paradise for getting away with it. This is not an easy line to leap across, but I understand why they did it, as bunker versus outside on its face is not the most compelling conflict, and this gives it a totally new dimension that sets up a wild third and final season.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
