Paradise

Our Review

A Secret Service agent (Sterling K. Brown) wakes to find the president he protected dead and himself the prime suspect. Then the show reveals what the town of Paradise actually is, and the case becomes the least shocking thing about it.

The twist lands early and redefines everything, so the suspense comes from watching characters catch up to what we know. Brown carries a simmering grief through every interrogation, Julianne Nicholson is wonderfully cold as the power behind the curtain, and James Marsden clearly relishes playing a charming president nobody should have trusted. The first season is eight tight episodes that end on a gut-punch. One of the better post-This Is Us showcase roles for Brown, who has never been better.