Paradise season 2 review: Hulu's hit sci-fi show is becoming Lost, and not in a goody way

Paradise season 2 lays on the intrigue as its world expands beyond the show's namesake bunker

That’s exactly what I did. I watched the pilot episode of Paradise, which begins with the death of the U.S. president (James Marsden) and ends with the reveal that everything you’ve seen is taking place in a giant, self-contained underground city. Then I watched the next episode, and the one after that. I binged the entire first season that weekend, immediately hooked by the many mysteries of creator Dan Fogelman’s post-apocalyptic show and the nuanced, leading performance by Sterling K. Brown as Xavier Collins, a Secret Service officer trying to get to the bottom of his boss’s murder and unraveling a massive conspiracy along the way.

So when I had the chance to preview the first seven episodes of Paradise season 2 (out of eight total), I dove right in. And while the show’s second season is often just as gripping and well-made as the first, the expanded scope, looking far beyond the massive bunker that gives the show its name and out into the world, has taken a toll on the momentum. While Paradise’s first season felt excitingly unique, I can’t help but compare season 2 to the popular but divisive science fiction series Lost.

Paradise season 1 ended with Xavier flying a plane out of the bunker after making two major discoveries: (1) the planet wasn’t destroyed by nuclear weapons, instead the president activated an EMP that shut down the grid and averted total apocalypse, and (2) his wife Teri is still alive. With this information, Xavier sets out into the world, while a power vacuum in the bunker breeds new conflict.

Lost took a similar approach. While the first season stranded a group of plane-crash survivors on a mysterious island, season 2 introduced new locations (the Swan station) and new characters (Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond), while piling on ever more unanswered questions. Both shows also frequently rely on flashbacks to tell their stories, though only Lost made that a core part of its formula.

Paradise season 2 also introduces Annie (Shailene Woodley), a survivor who’s been holed up at Elvis’ Graceland mansion since catastrophe struck. When Xavier’s plane crashlands nearby, she nurses him back to health. Of course, she’s got plenty of secrets of her own that threaten to derail Xavier’s plans to reunite with his wife. Annie’s story, which takes up the entire first episode of season 2, also introduces another major character with direct connections to the Paradise bunker.

While Paradise season 1 was a tightly contained story, season 2 begins to sprawl out in multiple directions. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but an overreliance on convenient links between various disconnected characters makes the show start to feel contrived with each step forward. New mysteries get piled on, muddying the waters and giving audiences too much to keep track of. It’s the same temptation that doomed Lost: creating enticing new questions is easy, satisfyingly answering them is much harder.

On the plus side, Paradise is still a beautifully made show in every sense of the word. The cinematography is stunning, especially in season 2’s opening, which captures the haunting beauty of this post-apocalyptic world and feels more like a standalone movie than an episode of television. The flashback-focused storytelling is also riveting, especially as we learn more about how Xavier met his wife Teri and what she’s been up to in the years since the apocalypse.

Fogelman also finds beauty in the world beyond the bunker. Whereas Paradise season 1 focused entirely on the events within its underground city, where the residents traded freedom for survival, season 2 explores life on the surface, which turns out to be a surprisingly welcoming place. Xavier comes across multiple communities that have banded together to create a better society than the one they previously knew, although there are still plenty of bad actors eager to exploit this dire situation.

In this way, Paradise inverts Lost. Instead of digging deeper into the world of the bunker, it expands outward to see what else remains. But as the season comes to a climax, all focus reverts to Paradise and a dark conspiracy at its core. It’s the kind of explosive ending you’d expect from a mid-run Lost season finale, dropping just enough info to keep you engaged while offering new mysteries that would never be answered.

Paradise isn’t as far gone as Lost yet. There’s still plenty of time to steer the show in the right direction, but the temptation from creator Dan Fogelman and his staff to pile on intrigue after intrigue with no clear plan for a resolution is clearly there. More mysteries, more conspiracies, and more connective tissue between unconnected characters. Worry about the answers later. For now, just enjoy the ride.

That’s certainly one way to make a TV show, but after Lost, it’s not one I’m eager to repeat. Lost famously got so complicated that not even the writers could keep track of all its dangling plot threads by the time it came to an end. Hopefully, Paradise can find another way forward. Even if, in the meantime, it makes for a pretty fun watch.

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Paradise season 2 premieres on Hulu on Feb. 23 with a three-episode drop. The remaining episodes air weekly each Monday.