Season 2 to bring something “entirely different”

Return to Paradise is about to put lead detective Mackenzie Clarke through her paces in season two, with her character set to go through a “deep shift”.

Mackenzie, played by Anna Samson, began the show’s debut season as a pariah in her hometown Dolphin Cove, having left her ex-fiancé Glenn (Tai Hara) at the altar six years prior. Mackenzie’s return in season one forced her to face up to some of her unresolved issues, and it seems season two intends to dig deeper into that narrative.

During an exclusive interview, Samson opened up to Digital Spy about Mackenzie’s journey in the upcoming season.

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“There’s a real deep thing about deserving romantic love,” said Samson. “There’s a real thing about allowing friendship and allowing people to help you. These are much deeper things and they’re starting to shift. Some of them consciously and some of them unconsciously for her and these are the big things about what it is to be alive.”

Samson elaborated further on why this gradual, internal change in the usually reserved and candid Mackenzie was so effective.

“Having them be the shifting factors is really a sophisticated way of having her change rather than suddenly she always says, ‘Please and thank you’.

“She does change and I think the audience certainly gets to see her be much more vulnerable. Some of the other characters do [too]. She thinks she’s being more stoic, but someone like Philomena would just look at her and know exactly what’s going on.”

BBC

The Mackenzie actor admitted that she was “surprised” at how much of an impact her detective has had on the fandom, especially “young women, between early teens up to about 15”.

Samson said: “The response from that demographic, I find incredibly satisfying, incredibly moving, and surprising that young women are saying, ‘I don’t fit in. I feel a bit odd in the world. I’m not always like the other girls’, and this is a character who’s a lead in a television show who’s different, and that is incredibly moving to realise that you’ve told people that you don’t have to belong to be loved.

“You don’t have to be like everyone else. You don’t always have to be likeable and palatable and polite and sweet as a woman to deserve love and respect. That’s a huge thing to put into the world that I’m very proud of.”

Return to Paradise season 2 debuts Friday 31 October on BBC One at 8pm and BBC iPlayer after airing. Season one is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

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Freelance film & TV writer, Digital Spy
Critic and writer Jo Berry has been writing about TV and movies since she began her career at Time Out aged 18. A regular on BBC Radio, Jo has written for titles including Empire, Maxim, Radio Times, OK!, The Guardian and Grazia, is the author of books including Chick Flicks and The Parents’ Guide to Kids’ Movies. 

She is also the editor of website Movies4Kids. In her career, Jo has interviewed well-known names including Beyonce, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Cruise and all the Avengers, spent many an hour crushed in the press areas of award show red carpets. Jo is also a self-proclaimed expert on Outlander and Brassic, and completely agrees that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since.  For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing.  She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.