History Series / AlmostParadise

* TruthInTelevision: Given that English is one of the Philippines' national languages and ''lingua franca'' other than Tagalog, it justifies a lot of the language's usage in the show; as an American, it still allows Alex to communicate with the locals well enough.

* WhatAnIdiot: A hired thug assassinate a parish priest in "The Magellan Cross". Since the thug killed him, his partner decides to burn the church in order to destroy any evidence of their presence.

* RuthlessForeignGangsters: The local gangs can be dangerous but they are mostly small-time. However, Mactan's recent growth as a tourist town has attracted many foreign criminals who like to use the location as a new place to do business. In the pilot a Malaysian drug lord wants to use the area to manufacture a new synthetic form of heroin and he recruits the local gangs as his muscle. He kills the one gang leader who prefers to remain independent then sends out a hit on Alex upon learning (and that was mostly Alex's fault, seeing that he unwittingly interfered a Mactan PD sting in a coffee shop after shopping for some basic DIY renovation supplies for his gift shop) that there is an ex-DEA on Mactan, just to send out a message.

* TheAllegedHouse: Alex did see the gift shop before he bought it but it was fifteen years ago. In the present, the gift shop is in a serious need of repair and the furniture is falling apart. It takes Alex quite some time to fix it up enough that it can be opened up as a business again. It is then subverted when it is revealed that the building is built solid enough to withstand the area's frequent monsoon storms.

*** In connection to this, Alex tends to be highly impressed by how big payouts can be for some activities on the island, only for the locals to point out how little the amounts come out to in dollars.[[note]]As of the time the show takes place, an American dollar is equivalent to about 55 Philippine pesos.]] Again, it's mainly justified by Alex living on pension and whatever profits he can turn from the giftshop.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Not three seconds after Evelyn snaps at Alex that she no longer wants him in her life, he collapsses to the ground, the stress of her CallingTheOldManOut having aggravated his heart condition, and has to be wheeled to the Emergency Room.

* HollywoodHeartAttack: Alex suffers one thanks to Evelyn showing up on his doorstep and chewing him out for missing out on most of her life when he split for Cebu.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Not three seconds after Evelyn snaps at Alex that she no longer wants him in her life, he falls to the ground, the stress of her CallingTheOldManOut having aggravated his heart condition, and has to be wheeled to the Emergency Room.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Not three seconds after Evelyn snaps at Alex that she no longer wants him in her life, he falls to the ground, the stress of her CallingTheOldManOut having aggravated his heart condition.

In February 2022, it was renewed for Season 2, which will be streamed via [[Website/{{IMDb}} Freevee]].

''Almost Paradise'' is a 2020 DetectiveDrama show executive produced by Dean Devlin and Gary Rosen (who previously worked on ''[[Series/TheLibrarians2014 The Librarians]]'' together) and staring another ''Librarians'' alum, Creator/ChristianKane, as lead Alex Walker (who also worked with Devlin on ''Series/{{Leverage}}'') alongside a bunch of Philippine-based actors/actresses due to the show being co-produced by ABS-CBN and Electric Entertainment. It's schedule to air 10 episodes on WGN America and it's available via Amazon Prime. While the language used is English, there are subtitles for non-English languages, including Tagalog.

On June 4, 2020, Devlin announced that all of the show's episodes will be on a streaming platform to gauge potential fan reception for a Season 2 as he was told by WGN America that they cannot back him for Season 2 due to their change in their channel's television format. However, [=IMDBTv=] announced that they are willing to back the production of Season 2 depending on how many people are able to watch it online via their website.

In February 2022, it was renewed for Season 2 and it'll be streamed via [=IMDBTv=].

Alex Walker (Kane), a former DEA agent who was forced into early retirement. Once the DEA’s most [[TheAce resourceful undercover operative]], the combination of [[EtTuBrute his partner’s betrayal]] in a joint operation with the Spanish National Police in Barcelona and a life-threatening battle with hypertension has made him decide to leave the agency and live in Cebu as an expat, where he's employed by Paradise,[[note]]The actual shooting location is the Shangri-La Hotel Mactan[[/note]] a resort hotel located in Mactan. While Alex is content to start all over (and while just leaving his only daughter Evelyn to attend to her university studies in America), he ruins a Mactan Police-led undercover op. From there, Alex does lend a hand to his new friends in the MPD by using his law enforcement experience while trying to ensure that he pays the bills in Paradise (mostly for rent and other utilities that he may encounter in the hotel) and attends to the needs of the hotel's guests.

** Even ignoring the fallout from his time with the DEA Alex didn't have a very good childhood, apparently losing his parents in some unspecified way when young and being raised by his less then ideal ConArtist uncle who frequently made Alex part of his cons.

* FakingTheDead: Alex and the Team do this for his Uncle Danny in order to get a hit man off his back.

** A sad one for Alex as he tries to gets his disability pensions paid up in time. This is explored in "Finding Mabuhay" where he insists that the pension was there is due to Todd Carpenter double crossing the joint DEA-SNP task force. In general, the 'late pay' running gags are rather a common and recurring element in many Philippine-broadcasted sitcoms and gag shows.

** Alex often has trouble understanding words spoken in Tagalog and had to be translated for him by Ernesto, like in the first episode where a local gangbanger tries to intimidate him in the native tongue or when he has to be told the Filipino equivalent of the word "typhoon" just when one was brewing outdoors leaving his gift shop unorepared and completely vulnerable, leading up to scenarios and confrontations at his expense.

* TheAce: Prior to them discovering the presence of Alex in Mactan, and him occasionally lending his aid, it was apparent that the local police department had little luck at countering the island's criminal element; in the first episode, he practically awes them (and in the middle of Kai's presentation, no less) with his in-depth knowledge of how drugs are made in and moved from one country or hemisphere to the next without the presiding authorities being the wiser, along with naming to them the most likely culprit factions orchestrating such stock-in-trade. And it also helps that he's a non-Asian since it allows him to better conduct sting operations on their behalf, more convincingly than any Mactan local, when getting up front with foreign criminals. Kai herself got busted this way, in the second episode, simply because the person whom she and Alex were trying to intercept immediately identified her as not the person he was supposed to meet, all because she was obviously native to the island. Later, after hearing that Alex was rushed to the hospital after a stroke, Kai, Ernesto and Ike all went there to check up on him - showing just how much of a close friend and ally-slash-asset Walker is to them, whom they cannot afford to lose.

* FakingTheDead: Alex and the Team do this for his Uncle Danny in order to get a hit man off his back
* FairCop: Kai fits the bill

On June 4, 2020, Devlin announced that all of the show's episodes will be on a streaming platform to gauge potential fan reception for a Season 2 as he was told by WGN America that they cannot back him for Season 2 due to their change in their channel's television format.

* TheAce: Prior to them discovering the presence of Alex in Mactan, and him occasionally lending his aid, it was apparent that the local police department had little luck at countering the island's criminal element; in the first episode, he practically awes them (and in the middle of Kai's presentation, no less) with his in-depth knowledge of how drugs are made in and moved from one country or hemisphere to the next without the presiding authorities being the wiser, along with naming to them the most likely culprit factions orchestrating such stock-in-trade. And it also helps that he's a non-Asian since it allows him to better conduct sting operations on their behalf, more convincingly than any Mactan local, when getting up front with foreign criminals. Kai herself got busted this way, in the second episode, simply because the person whom she and Alex were trying to intercept immediately identified her as not the person he was supposed to meet, all because she was obviously native to the island. Later, after hearing that Alex was rushed to the hospital after a stroke, Kai, Ernesto and Ike all went there to check up on him - showing just how much of an asset Walker is to them, whom they cannot afford to lose.

* TheAce: Prior to them discovering the presence of Alex in Mactan, and him occasionally lending his aid, it was apparent that the local police department had little luck at countering the island's criminal element; in the first episode, he practically awes them (and in the middle of Kai's presentation, no less) with his in-depth knowledge of how drugs are made in and moved from one country or hemisphere to the next without the presiding authorities being the wiser, along with naming to them the most likely culprit factions orchestrating such stock-in-trade. And it also helps that he's a non-Asian since it allows him to better conduct sting operations on their behalf, more convincingly than any Mactan local, when getting up front with foreign criminals. Kai herself got busted this way, in the second episode, because the person whom she and Alex were trying to intercept immediately identified her as not the person he was supposed to meet, all because she was obviously native to the island.

* TheAce: Prior to them discovering the presence of Alex in Mactan, and him occasionally lending his aid, it was apparent that the local police department had little luck at countering the island's criminal element; in the first episode, he practically awes them (and in the middle of Kai's presentation, no less) with his in-depth knowledge of how drugs are made in and moved from one country or hemisphere to the next without the presiding authorities being the wiser, along with naming to them the most likely culprit factions orchestrating such stock-in-trade. And it also helps that he's a non-Asian since it allows him to better conduct sting operations on their behalf, more convincingly than any Mactan local, when getting up front with foreign criminals. Kai got busted this way because the person whom she and Alex were trying to intercept immediately identified her as not the person he was supposed to meet, all because she obviously was native to the island.

* TheAce: Prior to them discovering the presence of Alex in Mactan, and him occasionally lending his aid, it was apparent that the local police department had little luck at countering the island's criminal element; in the first episode, he practically awes them (and in the middle of Kai's presentation, no less) with his in-depth knowledge of how drugs are made in and moved from one country or hemisphere to the next without the presiding authorities being the wiser, along with naming to them the most likely culprit factions orchestrating such stock-in-trade. And it also helps that he's a non-Asian since it allows him to better conduct sting operations on their behalf, more convincingly than any Mactan local, when getting up front with foreign criminals. Kai herself was once busted this way because the person whom she and Alex were trying to intercept instantly identified her as not the person he was supposed to meet, all because she obviously was native to the island.