Hulu’s Returning Sci-Fi Series With 86% on Rotten Tomatoes Just Showed Apple & Netflix How It’s Done

These days it’s not at all unusual to see at least one full calendar year in between the releases of television shows, at least on streaming. This is especially true of science fiction. 3 Body Problem debuted its first season in 2024 and will have its second season release this year. Severance‘s first season was in 2022, then there was an agonizing wait of 35 months until we got Season 2. Was that wait worth it? Yes, but it was still a hefty one. Apple TV is a particular offender when it comes to these gap years, e.g. between the first and second as well as the fourth and fifth seasons of For All Mankind, the tough three year wait for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, and the year gap between each season of Invasion and Foundation.

The only major sci-fi show of theirs that has seen episodes release each year since its debut is Silo, though time will tell if that continues being the case for its third and then fourth and final seasons. It’s because of all those examples that the imminent return of Hulu’s lauded Paradise feels like such a standout. Its first season debuted in January 2025, a second season was announced a month later, and Season 2 debuts February 23rd. It’s refreshing, considering its one of the few sci-fi shows these days where someone won’t have to go back and watch Season 1 again just to figure out where Season 2 is starting.

Understanding the Point of Gap Years

Neither sci-fi nor streaming shows are alone in this, either. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia had a gap year between its ninth and tenth seasons as well as between its fourteenth through seventeenth seasons. Netflix, too, makes fans wait, e.g. for Stranger Things‘ three final years and for Wednesday Season 2.

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Sometimes these gap years are worth it, provided that the season fans have been waiting two years for proves itself to have been worth the consistent toe tapping and watch checking. Especially with loftier concepts like those found in sci-fi it takes an understandably longer time to write than, say, a medical or law enforcement procedural so often found on NBC or ABC.

Then there’s the fact that a lot of these streaming shows, e.g. Stranger Things and Apple TV’s Pluribus, amount to full-scale productions. Friday the 13th and Saw could get away with releasing one film per year but with stuff like Star Wars and the Iron Man movies we understood and accepted two or three-year waits as what they were: industry standard.

So, on one hand, perhaps we should accept that as the standard for the bigger streaming shows, as well. On the other hand, Paradise has now shown us that a one-year turnaround is indeed possible. After all, its estimated budget per episode was between $10 to $15 million, which is right around Pluribus‘ price tag. For fans of these shows, perhaps a one-year turnaround can be something content producers strive for.

Will you be watching Paradise Season 2? Let us know in the comments.