Sterling K Brown stars as Xavier Collins (Image: DISNEY)
Paradise has landed on Disney Plus and Hulu with a bumper three-episode premiere that tells the story of how a US President was murdered. Cal Bradford (played by James Marsden) admitted he had people ‘in line’ to see him dead, and now the pressure is on to discover the perpetrator.
His security guard, Xavier Collins (Sterling K Brown), was the last person to see him alive, but he is on a mission to protest his innocence and as he bids to find the real killer, he uncovers some shocking truths. Viewers quickly discover the tranquil community in which Xavier and the President lived is not all it is cracked up to be.
It is revealed that everything from the sky to the weather is all controlled by technology and that the inhabitants are, in fact, living ‘underground’. Samantha Redmond (Julianne Nicholson) gives some insight into how the new world was created through a number of flashbacks.
The series explains how Samantha Redmond witnessed a talk during which it was explained a natural disaster would destroy everything. Samantha, codename Sinatra, then made it her mission to build a new community in which she and a select group of a few thousand inhabitants would find refuge.
She called on the help of an expert to design the underground community and at first there were doubts whether it would work, but as viewers discover, the residents are blissfully ignorant about their new home and what it took to get there.
James Marsden as President Cal Bradford (Image: DISNEY)
Therapist Gabriella (Sarah Shahi) was also involved in helping Samantha create the underground community, equipped with schools, shops and all the usual ameneties.
It was during a work trip that Samantha listened to the talk titled ‘The Antarctic Giant Lies Sleeping’, in which the expert explains: “It won’t seem far-fetched in less than a decade when a tsunami plunges the entire eastern sea border, the United States, underwater.”
Samantha, realising she could not see her children perish in such a way, decided to take drastic action.
It is yet to be revealed whether the creation of the community was the motive for Cal Bradford’s killer.
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Gabriella and Samantha are close (Image: DISNEY )
The series was initially going to be called Paradise City, and it was filmed in Los Angeles in February 2024.
Creator Dan Fogelman shared a behind-the-scenes image from the first day of filming, which showed Xavier Collins wearing a black tracksuit as he walked through the idyllic setting.
Sterling explained how he had always been a huge fan of the rest of the cast, as he said in a recent interview quoted by MSN: “I got a chance to hire people that I am a fan of.
“I remember meeting Julianne Nicholson at the Emmys the year that she won for ‘Mare of Easttown.’ I was so geeked out that I got a chance to be in the same room with her … Now I get to be on a show with her.”
Paradise is available to watch on Disney Plus and Hulu