Almost Paradise is an American-Filipino crime drama television series produced by Dean Devlin and Gary Rosen.[1] The series is the first American television series to be filmed entirely in the Philippines. It premiered March 30, 2020 on WGN America (now known as NewsNation) in the United States,[2] and in the Philippines, it premiered on March 21, 2021 to May 23, 2021 on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live and A2Z Channel 11 and was replaced by He's Into Her.[3] The series has been renewed for a second season on Amazon Freevee.
| Almost Paradise | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Crime drama |
| Created by | Dean Devlin & Gary Rosen |
| Developed by | Steven A. Lee |
| Story by | Sean Presant |
| Creative director | Malay Javier
Albert Langitan Toto Natividad |
| Starring |
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| Country of origin | United States Philippines |
| Original languages | English Filipino Cebuano |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 10 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Production locations | Cebu, Philippines and New Zealand |
| Running time | 45 minutes |
| Production companies | Electric Entertainment ABS-CBN Entertainment CMB Films |
| Distributor | Electric Entertainment ABS-CBN Entertainment (Philippines) |
| Release | |
| Original network | WGN America (United States) Kapamilya Channel/ /A2Z (Philippines) |
| Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original release |
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Former DEA Agent Alex Walker, forced into retirement, moves to the island of Cebu in the Philippines. He purchases the hotel gift shop in the hopes of managing his stress and high blood pressure, but the wealthy and criminal element on the island keep drawing him back into law enforcement.
| No. | Title [5] | Directed by | Written by | Original air date [6] | U.S. viewers (millions) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Finding Mabuhay" | Marc Roskin | Dean Devlin & Gary Rosen | March 30, 2020 (2020-03-30) | 0.220[7] | |
| After being betrayed by his ex-partner, ex-DEA agent Alex Walker moves to an island in the Philippines for his health. Despite his doctor's orders, he falls back into his undercover ways to help the local police with a drug sting operation. | ||||||
| 2 | "It's Personal" | Marc Roskin | Dean Devlin | April 6, 2020 (2020-04-06) | 0.263[8] | |
| The body of Ernesto's friend washes up on shore. Alex goes undercover with Kai to catch smugglers while Detective Alamares tracks down the murderer. | ||||||
| 3 | "Reef Eel Soup for the Soul" | Francis Dela Torre | Ty Freer & Nick Keetch | April 13, 2020 (2020-04-13) | 0.188[9] | |
| Alex goes undercover to stop mobsters from shaking down local street food vendors and discovers that the situation is far worse than he expected. | ||||||
| 4 | "Pistol Whip" | Dan Villegas | Calvin Sloan | April 20, 2020 (2020-04-20) | 0.226[10] | |
| A reality TV show crew arrives to explore sunken World War II battlegrounds and Alex gets involved in an illicit diving operation. | ||||||
| 5 | "Unbecalming" | Milan Todorovic | Kerry Glover | April 27, 2020 (2020-04-27) | 0.207[11] | |
| A typhoon hits the island and criminals their hostages get trapped at the police station. Alex has to find a way to help his friends as well as a US bureaucrat there to work with an arms dealer. | ||||||
| 6 | "Rise of the Kalangay"[12] | Hannah Espia-Farbova | Sean Presant | May 4, 2020 (2020-05-04) | 0.198[13] | |
| Alex works to solve a murder before a celebrated detective, but things tie back to the murder of Kai's mother, fifteen years earlier. | ||||||
| 7 | "Uncle Danny"[12] | Francis Dela Torre | Gary Rosen | May 11, 2020 (2020-05-11) | 0.227[14] | |
| Uncle Danny, Alex's con-artist relative, comes to the island and Alex is caught between protecting Danny from the police and mafia... and protecting the island from his uncle. | ||||||
| 8 | "Lone Wolf"[12] | Irene Emma Villamore | Ty Freer & Nick Keetch | May 18, 2020 (2020-05-18) | 0.259[15] | |
| When a country singer Alex loves comes to town, Alex takes a job protecting him. The singer is kidnapped and Alex has to figure out who is behind the crime. | ||||||
| 9 | "A Wedding to Die For" | Hannah Espia-Farbova | Calvin Sloan | May 25, 2020 (2020-05-25) | 0.210[16] | |
| Kai goes undercover at a triad boss wedding. Alex gets dragged into things when a wedding party member is murdered. | ||||||
| 10 | "Something Walker This Way Comes" | Dean Devlin | Sean Presant | June 1, 2020 (2020-06-01) | 0.249[17] | |
| Alex' old partner and daughter both show up on the island, and Alex must protect his daughter from his ex-partner. | ||||||
Almost Paradise is the first American television series to be shot entirely in the Philippines. The show boasts an all-Filipino staff and crew, assisted by Cebu locals for the shoot.[18]
It was announced in September 2019 that ABS-CBN would be venturing into Hollywood television production for the U.S. film and TV producers Electric Entertainment, which is headed by Filipino-American producer Dean Devlin. A U.S. crime series set in Cebu, Almost Paradise aired in the United States via the cable company WGN America.[19] The series began filming at Bigfoot Soundstage Cebu in November 2019.
Devlin mentioned in an interview on June 4, 2020, that WGN would not renew the show for a second season, but that an unnamed streaming platform was willing to stream all of the episodes to gauge public response for another season.[20] On January 19, 2021 it was announced that Almost Paradise was streaming online on Amazon Freevee. All episodes of the show were made available on demand as of February 1, 2021.[21] It was IMDb TV who would end up renewing the show for a second season on February 8, 2022.[22]
The show is distributed by Electric Entertainment in Europe, South America and the Middle East,[23] and by ABS-CBN Entertainment in the Philippines.[24]
On January 19, 2020, the first trailer was released along with the announcement that the series would premiere on March 30, 2020.[2]
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