AppleTV+ defies the critics, orders second season of Palm Royale
Kristen Wiig's 60s-set dramedy will be back for a season 2
Aux News Royale
The final line of our review of the first season finale of Apple TV+’s Palm Royale—penned with withering fury by Lauren Chval—comes off as quite a curse: “Palm Royale clearly wants a second season, but if there’s any justice in this world, it will not get one.”
There is, we regret to report, apparently no justice in the world, as the streamer has confirmed today that the series, which stars Kristen Wiig as a scheming social climber in 1960s Florida, has now been renewed for a second season. Laura Dern, who co-stars in the show, as well as serving as executive producer on it with Wiig, creator Abe Sylvia, Enlightened’s Jayme Lemons, and a whole host of others, issued a statement today celebrating the news: “We are so thrilled to hear about season two. Jayme and I (with Jaywalker Pictures) have been dreaming up this project for so long in hopes that audiences would have delicious fun with the radical ride that is the world of Palm Royale. We all can’t wait to get started!”
The series centers on Maxine (Wiig), a woman who dreams of cracking the upper crust of Palm Beach society in a 1969 beset with all sorts of extreme personalities and issues. (A plot to assassinate Richard Nixon features prominently in the story, for instance.) To that somewhat soap-y blend, the show adds a frankly ridiculous roster of talent, including Wiig, Dern, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb, Carol Burnett, Ricky Martin, and more. (And that’s before we get into the guest cast, which includes a rare on-screen collaboration between Dern and her father Bruce.)
Although the renewal notice for Palm Royale was full of effusive praise for the series, our critic wasn’t the only one that considered the whole thing “a waste of talent”; the series drew fairly mixed reviews, with praise going to the acting and the opulent visual design of the series, but criticism falling on its inconsistent plotting and a widely wobbling tone.
10 Comments
There are at least 10 shows that have 2nd or even 3rd seasons on AppleTV that I assumed would never make it past S1. Somebody there really enjoys renewing things that are largely ignored/unpopular.
Wish they worked at MAX.
Fine with me, just as long as Tim Apple keeps FOR ALL MANKIND going
I really tried with this, I’m the target demo for this type of show, but after several episodes I couldn’t get past the feeling that it had utterly and completely gone through the sanitation filter of Apple corporate with a little reverse osmosis treatment at the NASA public relations plant for good measure. Does anything interesting character- wise ever happen with this? Apparently you think so but I was not willing to spend another several hours to find out. It felt like a patriotic puff piece. Joel Kinnaman and whoever was writing this stuff in particular annoyed the shit out of me with his “I’m the good guy!” approach to the character that had about all the subtlety of getting beaten about the face by a Tim Cook- wielded American flagpole.
“Does anything interesting character- wise ever happen with this?”Does Sally Ride pulling a gun on Ed Baldwin while they’re in a nuclear powered space shuttle going around the far side of the moon count as ‘interesting’?
Invasion springs to mind. The Morning Show also probably didn’t deserve a second season, but I was pretty sure it would get one. Three seasons and counting for TMS is baffling.
I loved it and I’m glad it’s getting a second season!
I watched every episode except for the finale and I have no desire to watch it.
Who knows? Maybe the second season will be completely different. Maybe in order to climb the greasy pole of society in Palm Beach, all of the social climbers will be made to fight to the death. Then they can change the name of the series to Palm Battle Royale!
I could have typed this exact same comment because this exactly describes me too. I watched every episode while bored and didn’t even bother checking out the finale.