Eyes were on Hulu’s new drama Paradise so audiences could see if Fogelman’s reunion with This Is Us standout Sterling K. Brown could match the previous levels of entertainment. And another surprise was waiting at the end of Paradise Episode 1 – though it’s one that will have a quicker payoff in its explanation.

Paradise is a science-fiction thriller that taps into contemporary fears from an indirect angle, and that shrewdness ultimately lends it much of its underlying power. Reuniting him with his This is Us star Sterling K.

The actor and creator tried something much less weepy this time: a sci-fi thriller. Still it was “a homecoming on so many levels,” Brown said.