Has anyone else noticed the rise in blended genre dramas on TV lately?
Sugar on Apple TV+ is one such example — a hard boiled detective series in the grand Noir tradition, but with with sci-fi elements that were there all along for those with the eyes to spot them. Season 4 of True Detective also springs to mind, as does The Mandalorian, Westworld, Interior Chinatown, The Leftovers, and more. I’m all for blended genres. When they’re done right.
Hulu’s Paradise is one such example.
The new series reunites This is Us creator Dan Fogelman with This is Us star Sterling K. Brown. Fogelman, the mind behind Only Murders in the Building, and Life Itself is no stranger to emotional storytelling, big build ups, and multi-episode mysteries. He brings both the tears and the mystery to Paradise, half whodunnit, half speculative fiction in the mode of Stephen King’s Under the Dome.
Brown excels as Xavier Collins, a secret service agent assigned to President Cal Bradford (played with a sense of John F. Kennedy roguish charm by James Marsden). Collins is the perfect choice to lead Bradford’s personal detail. He’s smart, focused, has an eye for detail, and, as is described by Bradford’s wife, relentless. Brown plays Collins like a coiled spring, always but not quite on the verge of exploding outward, and existing permanently in that space of hyper-focus where he does his best work.

JAMES MARSDEN
When we first meet this chalk and cheese pair, we learn that Bradford has assumed control of the presidency for another unplanned term, and that he and Collins once had a friendship that quickly soured after Collins took a bullet in the line of duty. Now the pair exist in a state of polite frostiness, while Bradford roams the halls of his mansion in his bathrobe, drunkenly speculating about who might want him dead, and cheating on his wife with Collins’ boss.
Someone definitely wants Bradford dead, because when Collins performs a routine check one morning, he discovers the president has been murdered. Not only that, but the paranoid Bradford left a cryptic clue regarding his likely demise for his one time friend to find.

So far so whodunit crime thriller. That’s until the final minutes of the show’s premiere fills in some blanks for us. We learn that the serene community that Bradford, Collins, and 25,000 other citizens inhabit is in fact an enormous underground construction built into a mountain in Colorado in the final stages of humanity’s collapse.
The show, and its events are happening 3 years after a catastrophic extinction level event — the end of the world in other words. Not only that, but the population of the city holds the last hope for humanity, and includes the rich and the extremely talented in their fields. Collins’ beef with Bradford stems from the fact his wife didn’t make it to utopia before the end came. Nor did the families of a number of other people. The more Collins digs, the more he realizes just how many people had an axe to grind with the former Prez for deeply held personal reasons.
As a high-takes investigation unfolds, Collins himself falls under suspicion. He was the last to see the president alive after all — apart from his killer, obviously. He now faces the prospect of finding Bradford’s murderer before unknown forces pin the deed on him instead.

Although the show takes a wild deviation from the crime-thriller we initially thought we were watching, Paradise does a good job at keeping things grounded. Flashbacks provide emotional resonance (a classic Fogelman move), while end of episode cliffhangers keep us wanting more. A well rounded cast helps the unexpected sci-fi pill to go down easily too.
Can the show manage to remain as grounded in future episodes? Ultimately, whether Paradise can maintain its delicate balance of genres remains to be seen, but its bold ambition is undeniable.
By seamlessly weaving together a compelling murder mystery with high-concept speculative fiction, the show offers something fresh yet emotionally resonant. To boot, Sterling K. Brown delivers a powerhouse performance, anchoring the series with his nuanced portrayal of a man grappling with loss, loyalty, and survival.
If future episodes can continue to build on its intricate world-building while keeping the story grounded in its characters, Paradise might just live up to its ambitious premise—and carve out its own unique space in the growing landscape of genre-blended dramas.
Paradise stars Sterling K. Brown, James Marsden, Julianne Nicholson, Sarah Shahi, Nicole Brydon Bloom, Aliyah Mastin and Percy Daggs IV.
Episode 1, “Wildcat is Down” aired Sunday, January 26 on Hulu. Episodes 2 and 3 drop today, Tuesday, January 28, with new episodes dropping Tuesdays thereafter.