The second season of BBC’s The Paradise kicks off a little while, after the first season ended. Moray (Emun Elliott) has been sent to Paris, by a jealous Katherine Glendenning (Elaine Cassidy), who has married. Her husband, Tom Weston (Ben Daniels) quickly becomes a pain for everyone involved with The Paradise. The pair work together causing chaos at the store and taking care of Tom’s daughter, Flora (Edie Whitehead).

At The Paradise, we’re introduced to a few new characters, including Susy (Katie Moore), who is a bit of a dense airhead, and Myrtle (Lisa Millett), who tells it like it is. The pair certainly work together to create some interesting moments. Everyone else, Arthur (Finn Burridge), Dudley (Matthew McNulty), Clara (Sonya Cassidy), and Sam (Stephen Wight), is still right in their old places. Pauline doesn’t return for the season, but Jonas (David Hayman) eventually does and plays a major role.

With The Paradise failing, Katherine decides to call Moray back form Paris, which sets him up to reunite with Denise (Joanna Vanderham). Of course, it all becomes a ploy for Katherine, who intends to build Denise up, before crushing her. Tom intends to do the same, but his target becomes Moray, when he discovers his old fling with Katherine. The season tests the relationship between Denise and Moray, while they struggle to come up with a way to prevent Weston from selling the store to dirty businessman, Fenton (Adrian Scarborough).

However, business relationships eventually get intertwined and Moray winds up working with Jonas and Fenton, in order to secure the funds to buy The Paradise for themselves. However, in order to do this, Moray must flirt with Katherine and use her admiration against Weston. Obviously, this will create some tense moments for Denise. Will the pair be able to overcome, buy The Paradise and live happily ever after?

Review


The second season of The Paradise might not have been quite as good as the first, but it was pretty dang close. The show is so clever and charming that it pulls you in and plays to all of your emotions. Joanna Vanderham continues to captivate, motivate and inspire, as Denise. She is undoubtably one of the most inspirational characters in modern memory. Still, all of the characters have their own moments and struggles. Even the evil Tom Weston is actually reasonable. He is one of the few protagonists that you can actually sympathize with. The same could be said for Katherine and when the pair work together they’re magnificently conniving.

Overall, I find it difficult to find anything bad to say about this show. There are some predictable moments, but The Paradise is something special. Sadly, the only flaw is the show’s cancellation. It is depressing to see such tremendous shows receive cancellations, when significantly lower quality shows continue to thrive in the ratings. Perhaps this speaks to the degeneration of society, when over sexualized and senselessly gory shows somehow outshine those that are hearty, wholesome and classy? The second season deserves a 9.5 out of 10 and I depressed to see the show end, at this point.