Agent Billy Pace

The first episode was engaging and hopeful. Excellent writing excellent acting. Second episode continued that. I was hoping this episode wouldn't stray from its initial impression. Sadly at the end of episode 3 was when Billy and his girlfriend were shown to be incompetent Secret Service agents. That was a disappointing twist. And then we come to realize he was a juvenile delinquent and a mercenary. The problem is Secret Service would never hire such a person. And I would hope that you know all secret Services better at choosing their personal. This plot twist I think is a weak attempt at adding a Twist to an already excellent plot and bringing it down.

The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place much faster than I would have expected. That's one big plus of this series.

I expected the first season to be a murder mystery with Agent Xavier as the one-man-against-the-system, just as clueless as the audience, and we discover the big mystery premise only at the end of the season, with a cliffhanger.

Instead, they dove right in, and by now, the middle of a short season, mysteries are being compounded by other mysteries, with revelations happening at a brisk pace.

The other thing I like, which wasn't apparent till the third episode, is that the psychological dimension of the situation is not being ignored. People are putting on a brave face but the cracks are showing. That's the element that's keeping me watching more than anything else.

The one worrying thing is, are they writing themselves into a corner? How long can this premise be sustained with such a lean, propulsive plotline? Oh well, it's good for now. I'll bail if and when it starts to really suck.

"Paradise", so early in the series' run, errs seriously by devolving into a one-dimensional "fight back against the baddie" drama. The potential of the dystopia storyline is wasted on trivialities in terms of storytelling. At best, we learn a smidgen of information on what happened to the outside world.

We learn lots and lots about Billy, far more than we need to know, and that's probably due to the fact that with its sci-fi story getting short shrift this series has only characters, well-acted of course, to justify its existence. To hear Sinatra tell it, Billy is a stock character, basically a killing machine that is necessary (an enforcer) to the micro world of Paradise. His becoming humanized in this episode proves to be mere audience-baiting - a red herring. So when the segment's overly predictable, telegraphed "shock" ending occurs, it's with a whimper and perhaps an audience groan, hardly exciting.

After a great first episode, decent second and a very disappointing and cringeworthy sappy third episode - where I was ready to give up on this series, I'm back on board after watching this episode - at least for now.

This episode finally had some substance and was engaging and suspenseful throughout. The back-stories were well executed and helped with the character development. It certainly contributed to the series themes (unlike the previous frustrating episode), and actually made me impatient for the next episode.

Hopefully the intriguing and suspenseful writing continues.

It's a solid 8/10 from me for this episode.

This is such a great idea for a show and it's full of cool twists. I'm going to keep watching to see how the plot plays out.

But this is really a big miss. The writing and the acting are subpar. The characters and chemistry are forced and have unconvincing interactions.

The conversations don't fit the environment, either. They seem to be explaining things to each other that they should all know.

The lighting is also really strange. I like that they are trying something different and I think it has something to do with the sun in their world, but at times it just looks too hot and like a mistake.