I Watch TV: Almost Paradise (Season 2)

 

Almost Paradise (Season 2)

At the end of Season 1 Alex Walker, ex-DEA Agent retired to the Philippines, was adequately set up; his gift shop seemed to finally be making money and his occasional moonlighting with the local cops had dealt with some of the worst criminals. Obviously this has to change.

Alex is on a dating app, which leads to various mildly amusing scenes. He also attempts to impress Ann Villegas, a wealthy heiress who they cross paths with in the first episode of this season, and whose casino is the setting for a couple of episodes. When she asked Alex to test the security I immediately said “oh it’s their Leverage episode” and he then did a couple of Leverage style bits*.

Alex also buys a boat, which he hopes will be a moneymaker for taking tourists out on trips, also for romancing the ladies. Inevitably it needs a lot of work; unfortunately for him his mechanic gets accused of murder in one episode, and he has to prove his innocence. His romantic life gets a bit of focus, even if most of it is farcical; his ex-wife turns up wanting him to sign the divorce papers (and inevitably gets caught up in a revenge plot from recurring villain Jace Vargas, The Waterboarder) and he and Kai go undercover at a couples retreat**.

They dig a little more into the co-stars background. Kai, the up-and-coming detective keeps having to restrain herself and Alex from acting impulsively. This pays off; Manila and the national police take notice, offering her more opportunities, though the more she takes them the more time she’ll spend away from the island (and presumably the series). Alex’s divorce, and the ending of his disability payments also offer him the choice to leave. Ernesto, the other detective, he’s not going anywhere. One episode has Alex having to find somewhere to stay and we’re introduced to Ernesto’s extended family and the compound they live in. And also Ernesto’s hacker nephew, a tech guy they bring back more than once.

In fact that’s something worth noting. The show weaves bits back and forth, bringing characters and places and the boat in and then back again, keeping the continuity tight. Each episode stands on its own (maybe not the last which is a setpiece with characters from several episodes and a setting, the prison, that has been hiding in plain sight the whole season as the site of the finale). Yet each one has connections to the other. It’s on streaming so the odds are good that almost all viewers will see them in quick succession, being easy to jump in on a random episode is not that important. But rather than craft a single over-arching narrative, it instead weaves the picture of a place, maybe even a community.

I’m overstating this. It’s a lighthearted crime show, in most episodes Alex has to go undercover and is placed in an interesting, threatening or embarrassing situation. There’s some jokes, a fight, a look into something – ghost month, the Japanese occupation, waterparks, badminton, the legacy of Magellan – maybe some detective work or a realisation, perhaps a chase. Most of the local characters are good, or trying to get by, some are villains. Similarly many outsiders are bad, others passing through. There’s some fun charismatic characters, and occasionally they actually have something emotional at risk and learn something.

Not the police chief though. He always comes through, in his own way, and always takes the credit. He’ll always be the same.

Watch This: Fun, light-hearted, easy-watching crime show with a handful of good or clever ideas
Don’t Watch This: Some quite dark things happen and then they’re done with by the end of the episode

* A not-quite-right description of the show might be, the people who did Leverage make a straight crime show set in the Philippines. More undercover nonsense, a bit more con and grift than usual for a crime show, a slightly deeper dive into the milieu of the week than an average show.

** This has recurring character Agent Lockhart, a desk jockey who nearly screwed up a field assignment in season one. In another episode there’s a pretty good bit where they ask him for information which he’s not allowed to pass on, and in their mutual insults they pass on coded messages.