Plotlines

I have already expressed my enthusiasm for the first season of Paradise in this post. Now the second season, or rather the first three episodes of the second season, have been released, and once again I feel compelled to write a few lines about it.

First off, I’ve only watched the first episode so far. Read on to find out why I’m struggling with myself over whether I should continue watching.

I loved the first season because it felt very different. That had to do with the setting on the one hand, and on the other hand with the type of presentation and narrative style. At the time, I also asked myself how they could continue in a second season. Would they stick with the same setting, move in the direction of survival, or come up with something completely different?

Well, the first episode of the second season clearly shows that they are concerned with introducing the outside world and everything that has happened there. This goes hand in hand with the fact that they are introducing new characters, which I’m not too convinced about yet. I think they already had a very good pool of interesting characters, and adding new ones now could quickly overload everything.

I really liked the introduction of the whole thing, and yes, that may also be because I’m a big fan, even though I had to mourn Graceland a little. Of course, it’s about Elvis Presley, and I found that very interesting in relation to the nicknames from the first episode. Not only because it establishes a connection to the characters – remember, Xavier’s wife was a big Elvis fan, which led to their daughter being named Presley. No, I’m also referring to the fact that there was a kind of shift in the music scene at the time, namely between the music of Frank Sinatra – remember who Sinatra was in the first season – and the music of Elvis Presley.

Of course, this is not meant as criticism of the actors or their characters, whom I like quite a lot, and I also think that a refreshing approach has been taken here by not framing the group that comes to Graceland as looters, but rather presenting them in a neutral to positive light.

I also like the connection to the events of the previous season, even if, at first glance, they don’t make much sense.

My dissatisfaction stems from the fact that they didn’t pick up where they left off, but instead devoted an entire episode to establishing something completely new. That can work, no question, but for me it just feels very overloaded at the moment. Yes, I understand the reasoning behind it, because Xavier has set off into the outside world and so this outside world had to be introduced before it could be explored. But unfortunately, my feeling so far is that it doesn’t fit with what we know from the first season, either in terms of time or setting.

Of course, I realise that it is difficult, if not slightly unfair, to make an assessment after just one episode. But this is not meant to be a review or critique, just a kind of evaluation and an impression of the mood the first episode of the second season left me with.

It will probably be a while before I continue writing here, about Paradise, because I’ve started rewatching Stargate, and due to the poor quality of the episodes on Netflix, it’s become extremely nostalgic. But who knows, maybe I’ll write a few lines about Stargate, which is what I actually had in mind when I created this site.

Nevertheless, if you enjoyed the first season of Paradise and were as enthusiastic as I was, then definitely give the second season a chance and perhaps don’t be quite as rigid as I am at the moment.