Post-apocalyptic shows are a dime a dozen nowadays. From the remaining The Walking Dead spin-offs to The Last of Us, Fallout, Silo, and others, the concept of the end of the world and some massive event taking out humanity as we know it is a popular theme. Every show has its own take on the genre: some lean into a virus, others focus on survival in underground bunkers, and some even add a sci-fi slant. One of the most interesting new shows of this kind bends genres in ways others haven’t. But it’s also not so much about the actual apocalypse.
Paradise is the most underrated sci-fi thriller on Hulu right now. It hails from Dan Fogelman, best known as the creator of the network family drama This Is Us. Sterling K. Brown, who starred in This Is Us, returns to work with Fogelman in this gripping series. And while the apocalyptic scenario is front and center in its second season, Paradise somehow transcends the concept of the apocalypse to tell a deeper story.
Season 1 barely shows the Earth above
It’s about politics and murder
For most of Paradise‘s first season, if you didn’t notice the big reveal at the end of episode one, you could easily watch and not even know that you’re looking at people residing in a post-apocalyptic community. The majority of the great post-apocalyptic show takes place in an underground bunker built by billionaire Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond (Julianne Nicholson). She did this in part to deal with the grief of the loss of her son, but also because she heeded the warnings of a scientist who predicted a mega-tsunami would hit Earth in a few years. Most people ignored his seemingly ridiculous claims, but Sinatra listened. And she took his sarcastic advice to build a bunker beneath the ground if she wanted to survive, and actually did it. Why not when you have more money than you could possibly spend in multiple lifetimes?
Since the show takes place after Sinatra has created this community and saved the people she handpicked as being worth saving, it looks like a picturesque community. You’d never know there’s an apocalypse above. In fact, most of the characters don’t know that the Earth is still habitable (for now) and that there are survivors. We see brief glimpses of up above to help set up season 2. But outside of those, Paradise looks like any other show set in a suburban town.
The apocalypse doesn’t seem as bad
There isn’t the same sense of urgency
Paradise is admittedly more about the apocalypse in season two than in season one, especially with the intro episode that follows Annie (Shailene Woodley), a young woman who survives against all odds. It also follows Xavier (Brown) as he travels to the surface in search of a loved one he now believes could still be alive. Yet, even though the show centers on the very different world above, where resources are scarce, it still doesn’t truly feel like an apocalypse. Xavier meets some unsavory people, of course, and comes across some kids barely scraping by on their own. But he also meets a family living on a farm that’s completely out in the open who seem to be doing just as well as they might have been doing before.
Whereas shows like The Walking Dead show stores with empty shelves and groups that hole up in desolate places like abandoned prisons and churches, many places in Paradise still have plenty of resources, or people have managed to rebuild them to grow food and even make fuel. If you didn’t know an apocalypse happened years prior, you’d think this was just a city that was hit with a tornado or another natural disaster and is in the middle of being rebuilt. And then there’s the obvious: while there are bad people in the world, it’s still seemingly more peaceful than dangerous. There are bad people, but there aren’t any zombies roaming around seeking human flesh or mutated creatures and armored soldiers like in Fallout.
Sci-fi takes precedence
Season 3 will divert even more
As the show progresses, based on how things ended in season 2, Paradise will take more of a sci-fi slant in the already confirmed third season, which is planned to be the final chapter of the sci-fi saga you’ll be able to binge from start to finish. With the introduction of an AI machine, the concept of time travel, and questions about the identity of some key players as well as what happened when, and if time can be reversed, the show is diverting even further from its initial post-apocalyptic premise.
This all ties together with the initial apocalyptic event, of course. But as Paradise, one of the best new sci-fi shows worth watching now, explores different themes and narratives, the event that caused the current situation becomes less and less important than what happens next. It’s a deeply psychological, sci-fi-driven plot that isn’t what you’d expect from a traditional post-apocalyptic drama. But that’s a good thing, as it’s also one of the best new shows to watch.
Paradise
- Release Date
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January 26, 2025
- Network
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Hulu
- Showrunner
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Dan Fogelman
- Directors
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Gandja Monteiro
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Sterling K. Brown
Xavier Collins
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Julianne Nicholson
Samantha ‘Sinatra’ Redmond
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Sarah Shahi
Dr. Gabriela Torabi
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