Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-01-28 (Tuesday)

On Jan 29, 2025 at 8:59:16 AM PST, ""Ian J. Ball"" <ijball@mac.invalid>
wrote:

Paradise (Hulu) - First two episodes, "Wildcat Is Down" and "Sinatra".
    This was not what I was expecting. I can't really say why, without
getting into spoilers. But this show has a whole "meta" storyline which
I'm not sure I either like, or buy for that matter. I was expecting a
simple "Secret Service murder mystery" a la "Shooter" here, but there's
more going on.
    And I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. I think I am going to
wait for ep. #4 to drop before watching ep's #3 and #4, to help me decide.
    I was pleased as punch to see Cassidy Freeman pop up in this as the
"first lady" who seems to be stirring up the good kind of trouble.
    Others will be happy when Sarah Shahi shows up in episode #2.

I watched the first episode before I fell asleep and yes, the twist at the end
was unexpected but I nevertheless knew something was off from the beginning.

First, the establishing shot as the episode opens shows a typical Southern
California landscape with the mountains in the background. Obviously not
Washington, DC.

Our main character is the SAIC of PPD, which means his daily routine would be
working at the White House, which was obviously not where he was living or the
president was staying. At first I thought, oh, the president is visiting
somewhere else and this is just the house he's staying in while he's there but
then, no, I remembered the SAIC woke up in his own house with his kids, etc.,
so they weren't on the road. At that point I just chalked it up to typical
Hollywood inaccuracies, figuring they were shooting the show in California and
just pretending to be in DC.

I guess this will be made clear in further episodes but I'm not sure why the
SAIC becomes the suspect here. The president is on camera alive and well when
the SAIC checks out for the night and goes home and he's dead the next morning
when the SAIC arrives back on duty. If they're gonna suspect one of the
agents, wouldn't it logically be one of the ones who was actually there
overnight?

The SAIC does apparently has some kind of grudge (i.e., motive) against the
president, something the president wants to be forgiven for. I suspect it has
to do with the SAIC's missing wife. I'm betting there was some reason she
couldn't be in the right place at the right time to be admitted into the town
and the president made the call to lock her out.

So far it's pretty good. Will continue on.