The futuristic 25,000-person town of Paradise in the new Hulu series of the same name is shocked when President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) is found dead in his house by Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown). Missing, too, is the president’s tablet, which contains classified secrets. This is Paradise’s first homicide ever.
That’s because Paradise is an underground bunker that was built three years prior to protect the wealthiest and most powerful of society (plus some lucky few) from a disaster that has destroyed much of the United States.
Collins begins to uncover how much the government knew about the disaster, what information it’s withholding about the outside world, and who the president crossed to wind up dead. Collins’ nosiness leads to surveillance of his home and his life being threatened. While the season ends with a twist, one of the show’s main themes is less surprising: Even in a fictitious postapocalyptic world, the government can’t be trusted to tell the truth or to avoid interfering unjustly in citizens’ lives.
