Paradise: a 'fiendishly addictive' thriller

The opening episode of Disney+'s glossy new series, "Paradise", will "have you hooked", said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian.

Set in what appears to be the "classic American idyll" (a wealthy suburban town with big houses and perfectly manicured gardens), the action follows Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown), a Secret Service agent tasked with protecting president Cal Bradford (James Marsden). When Bradford winds up dead, "murdered by a person or persons unknown", Collins finds himself the prime suspect.

A "masterclass in seamless flashbacks and forwards", "Paradise" is a "twisty and pretty terrific new popcorn-on-the-sofa" TV thriller, said James Jackson in The Times. As we gradually get to know the characters, we realise something isn't quite right with their "utopian world", and "villainous skulduggery" is afoot.

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"Part whodunnit and part presidential thriller", Dan Fogelman's show "has a way of making you feel like a pawn in a slowly unfolding plot that's been worked out backwards". Crucial details are deliberately concealed, "then detonated like carefully deployed explosives".

It's true that sometimes "credulity is stretched beyond breaking point" but you still feel compelled to keep watching, if only to "find out what the hell is really going on". The "big reward" comes in the "full-blown, hyper-tense depiction of something terrible and terrifying" in episode seven: "one of the most exciting hours of TV in months".

It's certainly "packed with detail" but I found it "completely lacking in any depth", said Chris Bennion in The Telegraph. Marsden's sheriff character in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" films is a "more fleshed-out and believable human being" than his turn as the president here. Julianne Nicholson "does her best as a brittle tech guru", but "Paradise" feels as "superficial and glossy as a Super Bowl half-time ad".

The show might lack the "character depth" of "This is Us" (a previous Fogelman creation) but it's still a "propulsive, fiendishly addictive thriller" with a "potent sting in its tail", said James Dyer in Empire. And while the story regularly veers into "preposterous territory", Brown's "charismatic, steely-eyed and painfully raw" performance prevents "the wheels from coming off".

In all, said Mangan in The Guardian, "Paradise" is a "precision-tooled thriller with wit and heart. You could hardly ask for more."