Learning from Television - Paradise on Hulu – Season 1 – Episode 7
Anatomy of a Character's Decision
Ahhh, television. It’s not just for disassociating anymore. Any episode that can have me stressed like Episode 7 of Paradise on Hulu is an episode I can learn from.
Paradise on Hulu is a thriller series told in a series of flashbacks. To tell you more would be to spoil the show. And although I’ll do my best to keep this vague, it’s best to leave now if you don’t want to be spoiled. In fact, I suggest that you do not read any further because I want you to experience the surprises of seeing the show in real time and, unlike me, you can binge the show.
Okay. Everybody here? Let’s go.
This latest episode is the ultimate flashback which tells the events of the day the world changed forever. But mostly, it centers on the decisions of one man – Cal Bradford, the president. This is a man who has followed the plan others have laid out for him his entire life – first his father to pursue a political career when he wanted to be a high school teacher and then later a tech billionaire advisor and then his political room of advisors.
In the end, however, it is the president’s call of what to tell the American people when a world-wide catastrophic event is imminent. Should he follow the plan laid out by others and keep people in ignorance? Or should he follow his heart and tell people the truth, giving them time to spend their last moments with loved ones?
The plan allows him to evacuate safely. Leading with his heart could lead to chaos, but it’s the human thing to do. He goes with his heart.
Was it the best decision? That is a question that is now being debated over on my section of Threads. From a writer’s standpoint, there’s a more interesting question – why does the president changing his mind to go against the plan this one time in his life make sense to the viewer?
It starts with the secret service agent – Xavier Collins – who the president does not tell of the impending disaster even though the president knows Collins’ wife is leaving town and thereby will not be able to get on the plane that will carry the president and his staff to safety. He doesn’t tell Collins because he’s following the plan.
Side Note: Collins blames the president for his wife’s death, but Collins does the same thing as the president did to a staff member who asks if everything is going to be all right. Collins sticks to the plan. The president ultimately did not.
The president has misgivings about recording the speech misleading the American people. It’s designed in order to keep people calm, but also to give the president time to evacuate. He ignores his misgivings because he’s following the plan.
By the time we see the president notice a White House janitor still cleaning during the evacuation, it’s the third instance where the president is confronted with a decision – stick with the plan or do the human thing? When the janitor dismisses the president’s concerns and says that he’ll talk with his family the next day at a family event, that’s when the president decides to tell everyone the truth – that there will be no tomorrow.
It was not a snap decision. The president had compromised until he couldn’t compromise anymore.
A running theme throughout the show is who do you want in charge when the hard decisions have to be made? With this one episode it shows that even though Cal Bradford didn’t want the job, he was the right person for the job when the world ended.
Weekly Short Story
This week’s short story “Legacy” is available to read free on my website through March 8, 2025. It’s a 3,907 word historical fantasy about grandmothers and granddaughters and what it means to feel safe in an insecure world.
Trigger Warning - This story takes place during the Atlanta Child Murders in the late 1970s/early 1980s.
Cover Art Copyright - © Hassanmohiudin | Dreamstime.com
It was the jangling of keys that clued me in that he was leaving. The television news was on and I was sitting in front of it, fibers from the shaggy orange rug against my thighs poking through my pajamas. I normally would not have been able to hear the keys over the droning of the news that had been my companion, but I could that day. I knew exactly when my dad had taken the keys off the rack and was planning on heading out without me.
Continue reading here: https://iretteypatterson.com/weekly-short-story-legacy/