I Watch TV: Almost Paradise

 

Almost Paradise

Alex Walker (Christian Kane*) is a former DEA agent who left after his partner betrayed and shot him. He’s been given a disability pension, and told to avoid stress (literalised in a heart rate and blood pressure monitor that beeps when it’s amusing, or occasionally serious). He decides to retire to an island in the Philippines that he visited years ago, and open a gift shop.

The island’s changed, the remote beach is a giant tourist resort, there are gangs and criminals moving in. He spots an undercover policeman in a bar using his DEA-powers and seeing the gang members preparing to kill him, intervenes. Inevitably he then spends ten episodes getting caught up in solving crimes, teaming up with two local cops, Kai, a hot woman, and Ernesto, a stoic, spiritual man with a shaven head.

There’s a little bit of Magnum vibes, a charismatic American on a tropical island, perennially short of money (and other things, Walker doesn’t have a car so is always cadging lifts), getting caught up in various crimes. Walker continually picks and chooses his cases, though he always comes through in the end. He’s disillusioned with the DEA, asking what, if anything the War On Drugs actually did to help (people are still smuggling, buying and using drugs); meanwhile he lost his health, his partner betrayed him and he’s estranged from his wife and daughter.

All this angst, along with gritty crimes and steely determination from several characters, is balanced by several comic elements. Walker is continually taking advantage of the facilities of the resort; meanwhile the manager keeps cutting off his power and water when he doesn’t pay rent. The police chief, who explicitly has political ambitions, is always taking credit for arrests in press conferences. The best joke, that the gift shop never seems to have any customers is just thrown away in later episodes when customers start turning up. And of course Walker gets amusingly annoyed and frustrated by small things. He can cope with a crisis, ice cold undercover, detective brain etc. But tiny things not so much.

A co-production between Filipino and US Television**, other than Kane the cast is all-Filipino, though with plenty of (mostly American) guest stars. It generally doesn’t feel the need to over-explain Filipino culture or life. That said, as a cross-cultural production, it often has the characters declare what they’re feeling in a broad manner to ensure we get their deal.

Watch This: A generally light-hearted crime TV show with good jokes and an interesting setting
Don’t Watch This: It overplays the one joke of Walker getting annoyed at minor inconveniences and also keeps going back to the well of family problems and outsiders, both criminal and law enforcement, causing trouble on the island
A Second Season: Has been released since I scheduled this, so be aware this is a review of Season One

 

* I decided to track this down after looking up what the cast of Leverage had been up to between Leverage and Leverage: Redemption. Briefly, Tim Hutton has kept getting regular TV work and irregular film work, much as before Leverage. Gina Bellman’s worked on stage and in TV modestly. Beth Riesgraf has had several guest roles and a couple of series that were cancelled after one season.

Aldis Hodge, 21 the day they signed him to Leverage, has gone on to star in a couple of TV series and getting roles in several high profile films. His career has taken off, hence him turning to guest star in Leverage: Redemption as he’s very busy. Probably expensive too.

Christian Kane has mostly been working for Electric Entertainment, the company behind Leverage and this show (and also The Librarians where Kane was a main character), and fronted by Dean Devlin. More on Devlin a bit later.

** Electric Entertainment, co-founded and fronted by Dean Devlin a Filipino-American producer. Devlin seems to be charismatic and pleasant to work with, and also he uses every possible connection to squeeze as much out of every production - and put it on the screen. He's like an old school kind of Hollywood producer, show business is always a business, but it's about the show.