A (Semi?) Racist President. A Room Full of Billionaires. A Cataclysmic Event. Is Paradise on Hulu trying to tell us something?

I often watch shows with a dissecting mind. I like to understand the deeper meaning and message behind the characters and the plot. Sometimes it’s abstract. Sometimes it’s subtle or barely present. And every so often, it’s extremely on the nose. Let’s also not rule out the possibility that I might be completely out of my mind, but there was just too much in Paradise that felt like it was designed to be a potential warning sign or inside look into our government.

Paradise is set in a post-apocalyptic world and stars Sterling K. Brown as Xavier Collins, a top Secret Service agent to the President of the United States, Cal Bradford, played by James Marsden. As someone who has never watched This Is Us, the show that earned Sterling multiple Emmys, I was immediately taken by his portrayal of this stone-faced agent with much more going on behind his eyes.

The President gets assassinated, and the first season unfolds from there. Though the plot is smart and filled with twists, what really drew me in were the relationships and stories between the characters. What initially seems like a deep friendship between Xavier and Cal is slowly revealed to be a complex working relationship filled with resentment and secrecy. The mystery unravels as the episodes go on, but it is clear the creators want us to root for Xavier, and maybe dislike Cal. At least at first.

The problem is… they cast James Marsden, who is nearly impossible to hate. I mean, come on…who can resist that charisma and those baby blue eyes? Not me. Okay, I digress.

There are a few flashbacks in the series featuring a climate change activist speaking to an empty crowd. These scenes foreshadow a later moment when that same activist appears on the news, this time with the world finally paying attention, as he warns of an impending global catastrophe. It’s eventually revealed that the government had prior knowledge of the disaster, deliberately kept it from the public, and even constructed an underground city for themselves, their political allies, and the world’s wealthiest elites.

With everything we hear in the news and across media—politically, environmentally, globally—Paradise felt like our own fictional foreshadowing. Like art imitating a terrifying version of life…or at least that’s how I saw it. Whether it is a genuine warning, fear-mongering, or just good old-fashioned entertainment, I’ll let you decide.

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Michelle Aguilar is a UW–Madison School of Journalism grad, pop culture enthusiast, and NYC-based salesperson. Follow her on Twitter @ItsMichAguilar and Instagram @michiaguilar.