Creating a distinctive and absorbing opening season of a TV series is an accomplishment. But following it up with a second, equally satisfying outing? It’s an equally impressive feat that usually doesn’t attract as much attention.While maintaining the qualities that distinguished the debut, it needs to build on characters and themes, and develop in audacious and imaginative ways. A high standard has been set; now show us you can do that again. Here are six recent second-season successes that manage to do just that.Warning: spoilers for season one of Paradise below. Sterling K. Brown is agent Xavier Collins, who leaves the bunker in search of his wife in season two of Paradise.Disney+Paradise (Disney+) Ambitious, intricately plotted and packed with surprises, this futuristic series represents a departure for creator Dan Fogelman, who previously gave us the estimable domestic drama This is Us. Here Sterling K. Brown plays a secret-service agent assigned to protect the US president (James Marsden), living in what initially appears to be a sunny suburbia. But through the first season a different reality emerges. This place really is a meticulously planned, tightly controlled refuge for survivors of a climate catastrophe, hidden beneath a ruined world.In the new season the two worlds collide and, from its stunning, left-field opening, starring a terrific Shailene Woodley, to the nail-biting conclusion, it maintains the momentum, substance and suspense. A rich mix of ingredients – love story, family drama, social study, apocalyptic thriller – this stylish and cleverly crafted series generates the satisfying impression that those steering it know exactly what they’re doing. A third season is eagerly anticipated.Kerri Kenney-Silver, Marco Calvani, Tina Fey, Colman Domingo and Will Forte return in The Four Seasons.