When I heard about a new season of Almost Paradise being released
recently, I decided to check it out. I remember the first season was
fun, being essentially a light-hearted action show with wonderful
natural - and human - scenery. The second season turned out to be the
same. I enjoyed the second season so much that I decided to re-watch the
first season, which I also found quite enjoyable the second time around.

Along the way, I discovered that the female lead, Samantha Richelle
Bolkiah, known by her stage name of Samantha Richelle, is an actual
princess from Brunei, where her father's brother is the sultan. The
Bolkiah family has ruled Brunei for 600 years. I thought people might
find that interesting.

If you like Leverage or its sequel Leverage: Redemption, I think you'll
likely enjoy Almost Paradise.

--
Rhino

On 7/26/2023 8:27 AM, Rhino wrote:
> When I heard about a new season of Almost Paradise being released
> recently, I decided to check it out. I remember the first season was
> fun, being essentially a light-hearted action show with wonderful
> natural - and human - scenery. The second season turned out to be the
> same. I enjoyed the second season so much that I decided to re-watch the
> first season, which I also found quite enjoyable the second time around.
>
> Along the way, I discovered that the female lead, Samantha Richelle
> Bolkiah, known by her stage name of Samantha Richelle, is an actual
> princess from Brunei, where her father's brother is the sultan. The
> Bolkiah family has ruled Brunei for 600 years. I thought people might
> find that interesting.
>
> If you like Leverage or its sequel Leverage: Redemption, I think you'll
> likely enjoy Almost Paradise.
>
I did and do. I'm partway through S2.

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> When I heard about a new season of Almost Paradise being released
> recently, I decided to check it out. I remember the first season was
> fun, being essentially a light-hearted action show with wonderful
> natural - and human - scenery. The second season turned out to be the
> same. I enjoyed the second season so much that I decided to re-watch the
> first season, which I also found quite enjoyable the second time around.
>
> Along the way, I discovered that the female lead, Samantha Richelle
> Bolkiah, known by her stage name of Samantha Richelle, is an actual
> princess from Brunei, where her father's brother is the sultan. The
> Bolkiah family has ruled Brunei for 600 years. I thought people might
> find that interesting.
>
> If you like Leverage or its sequel Leverage: Redemption, I think you'll
> likely enjoy Almost Paradise.
>

Re: What Did You Watch? 2023-07-22 (Saturday)
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net>
Jul 23, 2023 at 8:41 AM
Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:

What did you watch?

Hey, thanks for asking!

ALMOST PARADISE the complete second season

So a couple years later show returns. They acknowledged he’s been on the
island for a couple years now, but it’s unclear if any time was supposed to
have passed between seasons. The continuity is almost nonexistent between
episodes (one episode he’s broke, and the next he literally has money to
burn.). The girls are for the most part gorgeous. All in all it was a
pretty good ride.

The Magellan Cross
The cross is stolen, and the priest who was hiding it killed. In a rather
bizarre mistake, a character turns out to be pretending to be somebody
else, and yet people recognized him when he first showed up… Meanwhile,
Alex is doing so well managing his stress. The rat bastards at the DEA are
going to take away his disability checks. It’s suggested he just move back
to the United States and start life over. I’m not really sure why he could
afford to live in the United States if he can’t afford to live in the
Philippines… a new love interest (Anna) is introduced for Alex and boy is
she a hottie! She’ll recur throughout the season.

Breaking Badminton
A friend of Alex is killed, and he and the cops go undercover into what
they think is a fight club, but it turns out to be a secret underground
badminton tournament! In a scene I was so hoping would happen and didn’t
believe for a minute they actually do, Alex hits a shuttlecock, so hard it
embeds itself in his opponents thigh! it all turns out to be a cover for
drug smuggling.

A Fisherfolk Tale
Alex, who is just so broke, he was going to have to leave the island and
sell the gift shop, decides to buy a boat! Of course, it’s a beat up death
trap. His boat mechanic, the only guy in the islands who can fix it, is
immediately framed for murder, as the Romeo part of a Romeo and Juliet
story between two rival fishing clans. A complex plot unfolds involving
knocking out fish with poison so they can catch them and sell them for huge
amounts of money to Americans.

Bahala Na
The gift shop is going to be tented for a week or so for termites! With
nowhere to go, Alex is taken in by his cop buddy Ernesto. Now wait a
minute. Just last week he bought a boat. Why can’t he just live on the
boat? Also he lives on the grounds of a hotel. I bet he could make a deal
there. This is what I was talking about re-continuity. Anyway, there’s a
lot going on here as Ernesto has dozens of relatives living with him,
including his grandfather, who is in World War II. They do flashbacks to
world war two with the characters played by the series regulars like they
used to do in JAG. Somebody is murdering the other old soldiers who served
with the grandfather. Alex really comes through for his friends in this
one.

Deus Ex-Wife Machina
Probably the weakest episode of the season as Alex‘s ex-wife shows up to
get her divorce papers signed so she can marry some lame ass insurance
numbers cruncher. The first thing she does is ruin his relationship with
his incredibly hot computer date just out of spite. Of course, evil doers
after Alex mistake the insurance guy for him and kidnap him and take him
out to kill him and much back-and-forth rescuing ensues, unfortunately
marred by the constant bickering with the ex-wife. At the end, she agrees
to give Alex his family ranch in Texas as part of the divorce settlement.
This sets the stage for Alex to leave the island and move back to America.
It’s not explained how this ranch is possibly maintained or paid for or
anything since nobody that owns it has any money or lives anywhere near it

Ghost Month
An island tradition is sort of a month-long day of the dead. A ghost seeks
help for his murder, and Alex becomes involved with the dead guys mother
and incredibly hot ex-wife. Rescuing and plot twists a plenty in this one.
I especially like the part where they went to a séance, and in the middle
of it, Alex jumps up and exposes how every trick works. And instead of
defending the fake medium, the customers walk out on her. Yay science! This
episode is very much like a magnum PI episode and also very much like a
leverage episode.

All In
The unbelievably hot Anna returns as the new owner of a casino hotel, who
doesn’t trust the people hired to do security and hires Alex to rob the
place to see if it can be done. This is not only an episode of Magnum PI,
this is just straight flat out an episode of leverage and we have Alex in
the boss role. Lots of twists and turns and double crosses and set ups for
episodes ahead.

Uncoupled
The boss cop gets the incredibly hot lady cop to help some friends of his
whose daughter has been brainwashed, and is being held as part of a harem
on a private island. Her way in is a couples retreat, and she asks Alex to
pretend to be her husband. For comic relief Alex’ old boss from the DEA
happens by.

This is the one where I noticed the production values had gone way downhill
like somebody was tying the purse strings. Lots of just running around in
the jungle and golf cart chases. But mainly, the series used to have huge
3D titles that were inserted to look like they were actually in the scenery
like FRINGE did. And all that’s gone now. Still a fun episode and Alex and
Kai get closer to having a relationship as pretending to be a couple gets
to them.

Old Times
The unbelievably hot Anna is back again, and telling Alex to stay away from
her. It seems there’s been a killing in the hotel, and nobody wants Alex to
get involved. In the most unbelievable coincidence ever, Alex literally
runs into an old guy who he recognizes as the worlds most famous serial
killer that nobody but him has ever heard of who used to operate in the
Sleepy little town in Texas where Alex’ ranch is. What are the odds!

Brigade
The amazingly hot Kai gets a promotion to run the undercover operations in
Manila (because that’s who you want doing undercover work is one of the top
three hot women in the entire Philippines). But somewhere between episodes,
she’s decided she’s in love with Alex but they haven’t talked about it. She
shows up to talk to him but the even more amazingly gorgeous Anna is there.
This convinces her to leave the island. The recurring mad killer is
Threatening to murder Alex somewhere sometime no matter what, and Alex goes
undercover without his cop, friends in the prison. The cop friends go
undercover after him thinking he’s just going to murder the guy. Lots of
predictable twists, and turns, but still a good episode as they set up Kai
and Alex leaving the island and each other and the show forever. Or do
they?

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> When I heard about a new season of Almost Paradise being released
> recently, I decided to check it out. I remember the first season was
> fun, being essentially a light-hearted action show with wonderful
> natural - and human - scenery.

Many of the beautiful guest stars turned out to be local beauty queens. :-)

The second season turned out to be the
> same. I enjoyed the second season so much that I decided to re-watch the
> first season, which I also found quite enjoyable the second time around.
>
> Along the way, I discovered that the female lead, Samantha Richelle
> Bolkiah, known by her stage name of Samantha Richelle, is an actual
> princess from Brunei, where her father's brother is the sultan. The
> Bolkiah family has ruled Brunei for 600 years. I thought people might
> find that interesting.
>
> If you like Leverage or its sequel Leverage: Redemption, I think you'll
> likely enjoy Almost Paradise.
>

Glad you’re enjoying it. I just posted about it today on the Facebook
because yesterday was producer Dean Devlin‘s mothers birthday, Pilar Surat
from almost everything in the 1960s, who was from Manila.

But you might want to go back and check the WDYW threads, I did, an article
with a brief review of every season two episode a few days ago!

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.