When we first meet Paula (Tatiana Maslany), the protagonist of Apple TV+’s new series “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed,” she’s attempting to arrange her new apartment, with the help of friend Trevor (Brandon Flynn), a handsome young man who currently resides on her laptop screen. She rambles about her struggles co-parenting her daughter, Hazel (Nola Wallace), with her ex-husband Karl (Jake Johnson), before Trevor drops a bomb: they only have six minutes left on their scheduled call. As the two spend the next few minutes furiously and, respectively, rubbing one out, it becomes clear that the person whom Paula has shared all her secrets with is not a longtime friend, but rather, a sex worker.
If Paula didn’t already have enough on her plate as she attempts to get a promotion at her job as a factchecker amidst a nasty custody battle, her plights get even worse when, one night over a shared meal (through a computer screen, of course), she witnesses Trevor being attacked in his apartment. While the police think Trevor has orchestrated a scam, Paula soon receives a phone call from an unknown voice telling her that “they” know everything about her, her job, and her family troubles, and they will destroy her life and kill Trevor if she doesn’t wire them $50,000. Though the whole thing seems fishy, Paula is adamant that what she witnessed was real, and she will stop at nothing to uncover what really happened to Trevor, who, in a time of need, was the only one truly there for her.
While this set-up sounds like it could be the beginning of any other thriller series, “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” quickly proves itself to be unlike anything else this overfilled genre has produced as of late. What begins as a potential seedy scam quickly unfolds into a complicated web of lies entwined with other sex workers, university admission committees, and a stoic man connected to Trevor’s past, played by Murray Bartlett. He, paired with Maslany, uses the series’ lunacy to their advantage, harnessing two magnetic performances that make each decision they make feel through the screen, as Paula and the series’ main antagonist play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.
The star power in the series is undeniable, but the true hero of the show is its craft, which allows the series to stake its claim as the most fascinating thriller of the year. The scenes in which Paula’s paranoia gets the best of her are shot with a kinetic ferocity, the camera darting back and forth between close-ups of her eyes and long shots of various pieces of evidence that she tries to make sense of.
Accompanying this dizzying camerawork is Wynne Bennett’s score, which kicks into gear with such intensity that it immediately gets your heart racing. The pulsating, club-like bass bleeds in and out of the show’s narrative just as fast as Paula’s life begins to crumble; paired with the audacious title, it’s hard to tell whether you should be thrilled or horrified.
Pumping through the veins of this series is the fearlessness that television’s most popular genre has desperately been missing. Although there are times when it feels like the plot may get ahead of itself, the various leaps creator David J. Rosen takes always manage to land rather than crumble under the weight of its own ambition. With these bold risks come an intensity that never wavers, and it becomes painfully clear that Paula is completely unprepared to exist in the new world she’s found herself consumed by. After she accidentally drops her daughter’s hockey stick at the scene of a crime, and leaves her laptop open at work after looking up various scams on Google, Paula’s naivety puts those she loves at risk, and it’s often her own careless actions that usher in new dilemmas.
With the help of her snooping coworkers Rudy (Charlie Hall) and Geri (Jessy Hodges), the three band together in an attempt to prove not only that what Paula saw on that last video call with Trevor was real, but that she herself had nothing to do with his disappearance. As the deaths begin to pile up, everyone in her life, from her ex-husband to the detectives assigned to the case, begins to question not only her moves but her potential motives. With each reveal comes a gut-punch, and each episode leaves you wanting more.
In most shows of this vein, plots meander and performances by actors who clearly aren’t passionate about the work they’re creating wane. Thankfully, instead of losing its momentum, “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” never takes its foot off the gas.
All episodes were screened for review.
