‘Maximum fun guaranteed’ review: Tatiana Maslany delivers the goods in Apple’s deliciously twisty thriller

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to answer the obvious question posed by the title Maximum enjoyment guaranteed – that is, whether the Apple series will deliver what it promises – without going into any philosophy on the subject.

Are we talking about the maximum amount of pleasure that a product can provide, or that its user can experience? If the latter, how can you know for sure that what you’re feeling is not only pleasant, but also pleasant? maximum So? Given this uncertainty, how can anyone guarantee this?

So, no, I can’t say with absolute certainty whether the name lives up to the name or not. But what I can tell you is that in the meantime Maximum enjoyment guaranteed It may not be most As fun as any TV show, its addictive mix of light comedy, unexpected twists, and sharp character work – all anchored by Tatiana Maslany’s gritty lead performance as usual – adds up to one hell of a good time.

Well, this is the time for us. It’s much less so for Paula Maslany, a Queens fact-checker mired in a tense custody battle with an ex-husband, Carl (Jake Johnson), who intends to move with their eight-year-old daughter (Nola Wallace Hazel) and new wife (Jessie Hodges Mallory) to Idaho. Under these tense circumstances, it’s hard to blame Paula for wanting to blow off some steam with Trevor (Brandon Flynn), a sweet-faced campboy who provides her as much a sympathetic ear as he does sexually.

But a Margo has financial problems-Celebrating the human side of sex work, it’s not. During one of her regular sessions with Trevor, Paula is terrified when she sees him being violently attacked. The cops she turns to refuse, so sure Trevor is just fooling her. Paula isn’t so sure – and in any case, she’s painfully aware of how damaging this situation could be to her custody case if word gets out. She takes matters into her own hands, and before she realizes what has hit her, she finds herself in the middle of a dangerous scheme that extends far beyond what she could have ever imagined.

Within a wide range of brilliant dramas about ordinary women caught up in extraordinary criminal conspiracies, creator David Rosen sets… Maximum enjoyment guaranteed Closer to the immersive thrills of HBO Max Flight attendant Of Apple’s annoying melodrama The last thing he said to me. Even as Paula reaches the edge of absolute sanity — as expressed by first-time director David Gordon Green through quick cuts, close-ups and the unbearable cacophony of phone notifications and voices — the series never takes itself too seriously to devolve into a cutesy cat video, or complacently entertain.”Christian Solidarity International Promoting one’s path through amateur achievement.

Emphasizing narrative pleasures over thematic or psychological depth has what I think some might consider drawbacks. The show’s emotions are never as strong as one might expect, even as the body count mounts (the death kind, not the sex kind, since despite the title, this isn’t a particularly steamy series) and the stakes rise. There are no bigger lessons to be learned from Paula’s ordeal, unless you consider that “the Internet is not as anonymous as you might hope.” But the upside is the breeze that makes the ten 40-minute chapters fly by, buoyed by sharp jokes and propelled by clever twists.

Plus, for a story that relies on crazy plot twists, Maximum enjoyment guaranteed He shows great talent for world and character building. Maslany leads the charge, effortlessly embodying Paula in all her contradictions – a really good mother and The one who desperately needs (in the words of an exasperated Carl) to be “toughened up.” [her] Damn,” a sympathetic victim is in over her head and Someone who can’t seem to stop having bad thoughts. Without making any effort to make Paula seem “likable” or even necessarily “relatable,” Maslany’s naturalistic performance keeps her endlessly fascinating.

The ensemble surrounding it is similarly rich, filled with characters who even in their relatively limited screen time seem lively enough to be heroes in their own right.

I particularly liked Kiara Hamagami Goldberg and Charlie Hall as Paula’s younger colleagues, Jerry and Rudy, who are hilarious watching the bickering over the correct ratio of bread to sandwich filling as they join Paula in her ill-advised investigation; And Dolly de Leon as Detective Gonzalez, whose deadpan lies (“I don’t want to be rude but that’s the name of a cat that died a virgin” as she talks about a colleague’s new pet) belie a sincere commitment to finding the truth. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Murray Bartlett, who plays the full spectrum of energy — from warm to icy, charismatic to slightly pathetic — as Trevor’s mysterious partner.

Combined with the smart choice to set the story in an ordinary residential area of ​​Queens, as opposed to the more glamorous or recognizable areas of the city, these lively characters help establish the foundations of Maximum enjoyment guaranteed In the real world, if not quite, in something reasonably similar in texture – even as the plot becomes more complex, the revelations more shocking, and the scope more expansive.

It’s a place you can imagine continuing to exist after the credits finally roll. Which is a good thing, since the finale leaves enough dangling ends to set up some promising potential avenues for a second season. In that sense, I can’t say that Maximum enjoyment guaranteed It completely satisfies him – but not because he can’t or doesn’t want to. This is because he realizes that the secret to attracting loyal followers over and over again, is to always leave us wanting more.