I would like to take a moment to acknowledge whoever is behind casting on Apple TV’s Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, because without this particular core and supporting cast the show would not be half as engaging or funny as it is. The somewhat (and perhaps unnecessarily?) provocatively titled series launched on the streamer on May 20 with two opening episodes, to be followed by single-episode weekly drops until the finale on July 8.
Tatiana Maslney (Orphan Black, Keeper) stars as Paula, a single mom and journalist navigating the aftermath of her divorce and current custody battle for her daughter Hazel. Adept at playing complex women, Maslaney’s Paula is a talented journalist and fact checker at a local newspaper where she would very much like to be promoted. But Paula is also very wired, extremely scattered, deeply lonely, and compartmentalizing a traumatic event from her past that the show is in no particular hurry to reveal just yet.
While we see Paula struggle to connect to daughter Hazel, and aspire to be a good mom, she also finds it impossible to make a stable environment for her child. When we meet her first, Paula has moved into a new apartment, but still hasn’t unpacked, or even prepared a room for Hazel to sleep in. Maybe it’s because she’s so caught up with Trevor, a young man and “cam boy” that Paula seeks out for comfort, companionship and online sex. And if you an sense the “oh oh!” coming then you’re absolutely right.
One night while online with Trevor, Paula witnesses a violent assault on the young man from a masked intruder on her laptop. Horrified and traumatized, she films the brutal beating and brings her footage to the police only to be informed that the whole incident was likely staged, and Paula is about to be extorted for money. Sure enough, a day later, Trevor calls Paula and tearfully informs her he’s been kidnapped and that if she doesn’t pay his captors $15,000 they’ll kill him. Devastated, Paula hangs up on Trevor on the advice of the droll and jaded Detective Sofia Gonzalez (Dolly de Leon), and attempts to move on and overcome her personal humiliation.
However when the calls refuse to stop, and the would-be kidnappers begin calling Paula’s ex husband Karl (Jake Johnson), Paula decides to put her investigative journalism skills to use to locate the scammers before Karl gets a killer nugget he can use against her in court. When she discovers a dead body, and a murderer who is now determined to track her down, Paula realizes she is in over her head. It’s now all she can do to keep the many balls she has been juggling from crashing down on her head.
Johnson’s turn as ex-husband Karl is an emotional tightrope walk of frustration, remorse, and guilt. Karl and Paula are battling for custody of their child, and on paper, Karl is tipping the scales as the better parent consistently. Although he wants to move to another state with his new girlfriend, and take Hazel with him, he’s keen to do right by Paula. Grounded, open, and upfront, Johnson refuses to allow us to dislike Karl, and his scenes with Paula give us a peep into what their marriage once was, and could have been. He knows that Hazel is the only thing keeping Paula going, but he can’t see past her failures either.
Murray Bartlett (The Last of Us, The White Lotus) also stars as Frank Budkin, the show’s sinister and inscrutable villain. Frank drives the show’s central mystery and rising stakes, and Bartlett handles the role with aplomb. In one episode the sharklike Frank tails a would-be murder victim in his car, while on the phone fake sobbing to a police officer. Even as the tears stream down Frank’s face, his eyes remain cold and watchful as he stalks his prey.
The show’s supporting cast is colorfully well-rounded with memorable characters too — from Paula’s filterless workmates Geri (Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg) and Rudy (Charlie Hall) who could both seriously benefit from an internal editor in addition to a real life one, to Baxter (Jon Michael Hill) and Gonzales, the chalk and cheese detectives in charge of the murder case. Fans of Matthew Porretta — known to gamers as the voice of Alan Wake and Dr. Casper Darling in the Control universe, and to a certain generation as Will Scarlet in Robin Hood: Men in Tights — will be pleased to know he’s due to appear in a future episode.
Even Paula’s daughter Hazel (Nola Wallace) is a joy to watch. Wallace brings a sense of ease to her scenes, whether she’s struggling on the soccer pitch or chatting idly to her mom about her day. Maslaney and Wallace share great mom-daughter chemistry, and their domestic scenes together are touching and grounded, seamlessly illustrating that beneath all the chaos, Paula actually has better parenting instincts than Karl.
What makes Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed work so well is its willingness to hold the show’s two tones simultaneously without letting either one undercut the other. It is genuinely funny (often laugh-out-loud funny) but when the thriller elements tighten their grip, the show earns its tension fair and square. A lesser production might let the comedy deflate the stakes, or let the darkness smother the fun. Here, the balance feels almost effortless.
Credit for that goes largely to the writing, which trusts its characters enough to let the plot breathe. The scam-gone-wrong premise could easily tip into farce, but the show keeps Paula’s emotional life and all her loneliness and guilt, and her fierce if complicated love for Hazel at the center of everything. The mystery gives the series its engine, but it’s Paula’s inner world that gives it its heart.
There were moments in the first two episodes where the pacing drags slightly, and one or two supporting threads feel underdeveloped so far. But these feel like early-episode throat-clearing rather than structural problems, and with seven episodes still to come there is plenty of room to fill things in.
Ultimately, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is a confident, sharply cast, and surprisingly moving addition to Apple TV+’s drama lineup. It announces itself as one of the more interesting comedic thrillers in recent memory. With Maslany at its center, it has the kind of lead performance that can carry a show through whatever complications lie ahead.
And don’t let the unearned title put you off.
