If Julianne Nicholson Doesn’t Get an Emmy Nomination for ‘Paradise,’ I’m Protesting

After Paradise‘s jaw-dropping plot twist in the final moments of Episode 1, “Wildcat is Down,” I believed that there was nothing this show could do that would have me glued to my television in the same way. Boy was I wrong.

As a true lover of TV and someone who puts a lot of weight into a project’s performances, I pressed play on Paradise expecting greatness. After all, Sterling K. Brown is a three-time Emmy Award winner and James Marsden — who should have three Emmy Awards as well as an Oscar just for playing Prince Edward in Enchanted — are known for giving their all to whatever show or movie they are working on. But in Episode 2, “Sinatra,” it is Nicholson that left me thoroughly captivated and bewitched.

In the twisty Hulu drama, the Emmy-winning actress plays Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond, the world’s richest self-made woman and an integral player in the foundation of the community underneath the mountain in Colorado. As the title suggests, much of the roughly one-hour Episode 2 follows her story, both in flashbacks and in the present, reacting to everything from the murder of President Cal Bradford (Marsden) to the health issues and death of her son, Dylan.

About halfway through the episode, after already giving glimpses of her true acting range by showing an earnest meet-cute with her husband (Tuc Watkins), an adorable ice cream moment in a grocery store with her husband and kids, and a stomach-turning moment where she watches her son keel over unexpectedly while riding on a coin-operated horse, Nicholson delivers a series of scenes that will stick with me for years to come.

As Dylan’s doctor tells Sinatra and her husband that it’s time for “an impossible conversation,” the actress perfectly embodies a stolid mother refusing to come to terms with a terminally ill child. Being the richest woman in the world, she promises to find a better doctor and save her son, even rejecting the helpful advances of Dr. Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi) and rushing out of the doctor’s office to the dismay of her husband. In doing so, Nicholson concretizes the true reaction of so many people who have dealt with a terminally ill loved one.

Movies and TV shows love to show an emotionally distraught person immediately after finding out their child, friend, husband, etc., is going to die, but it’s the absence of that reaction that feels powerful. Credit where credit is due: the writers of this episode killed it by having Nicholson portray the first stage of grief — a.k.a denial — so beautifully. It’s a quick but powerful scene that tees up the next flashback, which is where Nicholson really lets it rip, so to speak.

Moments after watching her storm out, we jump to another flashback, this time where Sinatra is seated opposite Dr. Torabi in a grief counseling session and breathlessly explaining the pain she is feeling six months after Dylan’s death. She sighs, heaves, sobs, and even laughs while detailing her “broken” marriage, heart, and life after the loss of one of her children. She also pleads not to be healed but just to be functional enough for the daughter she still has. In total, it’s no more than two minutes of the episode’s total runtime, and yet, when people look back at this episode, they will be hard-pressed to find a better scene in the whole 60 minutes.

It’s only in contrast with the stoic nature of her character in the present scenes that Nicholson’s Emmy Award-worthy performance truly shines. It’s ever so slightly whiplash-inducing to watch the actress teeter back and forth between cold and unrevealing and desperately heartbroken. It’s the kind of whiplash, however, that is welcome as a media lover — like getting off a rollercoaster and immediately wanting to get back on. Watching her flip from a charming girl at a bar to a grieving mother to a magnate with the weight of the world on her shoulders is a task that Nicholson not only delivers on, but devours.

She further solidifies her deserving performance in the final 20 minutes of Episode 2 by playing an anxious mother who is moved to invest in climate solutions (a.k.a. the big tunnel under a Colorado mountain) out of fear for her remaining child. Nicholson does have another tearjerker moment while having a throwback moment with Cal Bradford, holding back sobs as he directly talks about Dylan and shares a delightful memory with her. It’s the kind of moment that I’ve heard so many parents of grieving families say they cherish beyond belief. The idea that talking about a deceased child, friend, or family member might reopen a wound is flawed, considering that for many people, the wound never fully heals. Once again, Nicholson nails it.

As for the rest of the episodes, Nicholson is unsurprisingly stellar as are her two A-List co-stars. No member of this three-person lead roster fails to rise to the challenge of pulling off the premise of Paradise. In fact, Brown, Marsden, and Nicholson do it flawlessly. I just hope that come Emmy voting time, the Television Academy members remember it. Otherwise, I will be knocking down doors and forcing eyeballs to stay open while playing this episode on a loop.

How To Watch Paradise

Paradise Season 1 is currently streaming on Hulu.

If you’re new to Hulu, you can get started with a 30-day free trial on the streamer’s basic (with ads) plan. After the trial period, you’ll pay $9.99/month. If you want to upgrade to Hulu ad-free, it costs $18.99/month.

If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the Disney+ Bundles, all of which include Hulu. These bundles start at $10.99/month for ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu and goes up to $29.99/month for Disney+, Hulu, and Max, all ad-free.