Few titles make a promise as bold as this one, but by and large, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed really does live up to its name. Created by David J. Rosen, Apple TV’s latest genre-blending hit stars Tatiana Maslany as a divorced mother named Paula. While the character doesn’t hide as many faces as Tatiana’s signature role in Orphan Black did, there’s still a lot more to Paula than meets the eye.
At first, her biggest secret is just that she’s struck up an online relationship (of sorts) with Trevor (Brandon Flynn), a charming cam boy who seems genuinely interested in Paula’s life. But when cam turns to scam, murder, blackmail, and more barely scrape the surface of what comes Paula’s way.
Still, all of that pales in comparison to the messy custody battle she’s currently wrapped up in with ex-husband Karl (Jake Johnson) and his smarmy new wife, Mallory (Jessy Hodges).
If that sounds like a lot, it is, but that’s kind of the point. Rosen does an incredible job of balancing all these spinning plates at once. Just when you think one is about to fall and smash, the writing veers in another direction, defying expectation at every turn. The fact that Rosen manages this in episodes that run around the 30-minute mark is even more impressive.
Much of this is down to the unique tone of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed. While plenty of shows have combined drama and comedy before — just look at half of Apple TV’s slate — the jokes here come from very real character moments, the kind you might say yourself if you too were hit with yet another absurdity in a criminal case that no one would believe.
What brings it all together is the sheer stress of what Paula’s going through. Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed leans into the anxiety that comes part and parcel with one’s life falling apart at the seams. If the genre blend keeps us on our toes, it’s the chaos and uncertainty that really taps into something nigh on unbearable.
From the intense sound design and pained close-ups to the horrendous luck Paula seems to attract, it would be easy to imagine an everyday person like her snapping completely. But still she keeps trying.
No matter what happens, Paula strives to hold onto some semblance of normalcy, whether it be playing soccer mom to her kid or working toward a promotion at work, which will help in her impending custody battle. Fighting for that normality, Paula proves herself to be anything but normal, an imperfect hero of sorts, even if she does occasionally make the worst choice possible.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed: Murray Bartlett
Paula is a slippery character like that, just as the show itself is tonally, but as anyone who’s seen Orphan Black can attest, Maslany has ample experience in this vein. Logical yet emotional, fearful yet spontaneous, Paula’s bundle of contradictions are fascinating to watch in the hands of a talent like Maslany, as are the various relationships Paula shares with the rest of the cast.
No side character is truly a side character in the sense that the majority are fully-formed from the get-go, with or without Paula in the picture. Even her busy body co-workers, Rudy (Charlie Hall) and Geri (Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg), share their own dynamic. Goldberg is incredibly charismatic here, to the point where you’re left wondering just how long it will be before she helms a show of her own.
Aside from Maslany, though, one of the real standouts is Dolly de Leon as a sassy detective who somehow doesn’t feel like a stereotype, despite the overwhelming deluge of sassy detectives on our screens these days.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, morally speaking, is Murray Bartlett’s imposing killer, who represents something of a departure for the White Lotus star. Seeing Bartlett get the chance to flex his talents (and impressive arms) in such a role feels very long overdue. As such, it’s clear the team behind Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed know how to get the most out of their actors without just playing it safe, an ethos which the show embodies on practically every other level too.
Just when it all verges on too intense, the script will throw out a line like “Let Karl crawl all over you with his big, sweaty chest bush and grind away like he’s trying to dislodge a bag of Doritos.” In lesser hands, that switch could feel off, and the same might be true of some narrative swings taken. But like he did in previous shows, including Hunters and Sugar, Rosen has proven himself to be adept at this fluid approach to scripting, which feels more akin to real life, no matter how wild the genre thrills get.
Early on, Paula and Trevor disagree on whether beginnings or endings “are the hardest part.” It turns out Paula is right, because it’s much harder to stop watching this show than it is to start it. As such, maximum pleasure really is guaranteed for anyone willing to take a chance on such a strange little oddball story. Other streamers could learn a lot from Apple TV’s overall willingness to trust creators like Rosen and their eccentricities.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (★★★★☆) is streaming on Apple TV. New episodes drop every Wednesday up until the finale on July 15. Visit appletv.com.
Over the course of 30 years in Rajiv Joseph's two-hander Gruesome Playground Injuries, childhood friends Kayleen (Irene Hamilton) and Doug (Jimmy Bartlebaugh) both suffer more than their share of scrapes, bruises, and near-fatal events. The pair's complicated friendship likewise encounters a few close calls in their lifelong shared journey of hurt and healing.
Alternately brooding and lighthearted, the play hovers between heartfelt coming-of-age drama, star-crossed romance, and persistent gallows humor surrounding Kayleen and Doug's preponderance of painful, sometimes gruesome, ills and injuries.
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