Disney Plus: I can't shut up about new show Paradise's mind-bending twist - here's why

• Paradise is airing weekly on Disney Plus.
• Created by This Is Us mastermind Dan Fogelman - it sees him reunited with Sterling K. Brown.
• I haven’t been able to shut up about its mind-bending twist.

Do not read anything about the new Disney Plus thriller Paradise before watching it. In fact, don’t even scroll further down this article, I’m being serious.

The show, from This Is Us mastermind Dan Fogelman, boasts a truly mind-bending twist in its first episode - one you will never see coming. And even getting a hint of it before starting, might ruin your enjoyment of the show.

All I will give away, at least this early in the article, is that it revolves around the murder of the President of the United States of America. But even that might be more than you need to know.

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Spoilers for Paradise on Disney Plus, including the reveal at the end of episode 1. Don’t read any further if you haven’t watched it.

I can’t shut up about Paradise’s mind-bending twist

Okay, one final warning. I am about to spoil the big early twist in Disney Plus’ new show Paradise. Three, two, one… spoilers from here on out.

Before starting the show, I was basically going in blind. I’d heard some comparisons to Lost - which did pique my interest as a passionate defender of it - and had seen a brief clip as an advert on YouTube.

But even then I wasn’t really paying attention, instead hovering with my finger and waiting for the skip button to appear. I had clocked there was some sort of interrogation and a person was missing or dead - and that was it.

The show starts on a seemingly standard footing, we are introduced to Sterling K. Brown’s Xavier on a morning run. There are flashbacks to the White House and James Marsden’s President Bradford talking about retirement after his second term is up - floating in a pool in paradise.

I doubt I’m the only one who thought that the current day timeline was simply following Xavier as he continues running protection for the now former President Bradford. The death of ‘Wildcat’ in the early stages of the episodes works as a brilliant bit of sleight of hand.

Viewers are primed to look for clues about the murder and ponder the questions raised. What was stolen from the vault, why exactly is Xavier waiting to call in the death.

So you aren’t noticing potential details that could make your eyebrow twitch. A brief reference in a flashback to something “going on in Colorado”.

Until the show is ready to pull the rug out from under you and show its hand. The present day timeline is taking place in a special doomsday bunker following - seemingly - a world ending cataclysm.

President Bradford was not spending his retirement in a house in paradise, he was still the leader of what remains of the United States. It is the perfect kind of mind-bending twist, that makes you want to evangelise about the show - so you can have lots of people to talk about it with.

Plus it raises even more questions: why are they living out a small town life, as if nothing has happened? Did the world really end or is there an even bigger twist awaiting us in the weeks to come.

Since watching the first episode of Paradise I have not been able to shut up about the mind-bending twist. And I’m guessing if you have read this far - you feel the same way as I do.

Share your predictions on Paradise and the twists so far! Contact me by email: [email protected].