Set in the Philippine island of Cebu, the series follows Alex Walker (Christian Kane) a former DEA agent who's forced into retirement after a botched mission. Now collecting minuscule disability checks from the military, Walker tries to manage his elevated blood pressure by avoiding stressful situations and managing a gift shop. But when Walker accidentally stumbles into one of the Cebu police operations, he finds himself infrequently called back as a consultant and challenging his doctor ordered stress management.
Created produced by Dean Devlin through his company Electric Entertainment (The Librarians, Leverage, The Outpost), the series reunites Devlin with Christian Kane from Leverage. The show touts itself on being the first major TV production set and filmed in the Philippines, and while the setting may be new, the format is familiar but well done.
Almost Paradise is a light hearted PI type show that harkens back to TV staples such as The Rockford Files and Magnum P. I., it's definitely well trodden ground in the TV space, but while the show is made from familiar parts it uses them to good effect. Despite being a very "American" show in terms of format and production value, the show does incorporate its unfamiliar locale to great effect with some nice establishment of Cebu and a predominantly Filipino cast who give good performances and have good chemistry with lead Christian Kane.
In terms of character, Alex Walker makes for a fun hardscrabble protagonist who just wants to run his seaside gift shop in peace, but has to deal with trouble either finding him or his friends and having no choice but to deal with it. Samantha Richelle as Detective Kai Mendoza is quite good as one of Walker's confidants and associates and the two have some great back and forth in the show. Arthur Acuña as Ernesto Almares, Kai's partner, is certainly a good physical presence in the show, but he can come off kind of stiff in certain scenes. Granted the character is supposed to be sort of a "strong silent type" but when he does speak it can sometime come off a little stilted.
The format of the show will be very familiar to people who are fans of this type of show, particularly those familiar with Matt Nix shows like Burn Notice or The Good Guys where old TV formats are refurbish by adding in more overarching character stories. While Almost Paradise doesn't have all the espionage elements from Burn Notice, it does adhere very closely to the established framework and doesn't break the mold. With that said it uses the established framework quite well, but your overall enjoyment of this show will depend on your forgiveness for familiarity.
Almost Paradise is a fun but familiar action/adventure private investigator series. With a charismatic lead, unique locales, and a (mostly) strong supporting cast, Almost Paradise takes familiar elements and still manages to create a fun if not particularly substantive escapist show.
