Palm Royale premiere: What’s this show trying to be?

Here we are at the beginning of the new Apple TV+ miniseries Palm Royale. Well, technically we’re not at the beginning anymore—we’re three episodes in. But I would argue that the three-episode block serves as one long pilot, because frankly, there’s a real “Wait, what is this about?” feeling at the end of the first episode. And second. And maybe even third.

Is this show Apple’s stab at a cross between The White Lotus and Mad Men? Is it a whodunnit? A comedy? All of the above? Let’s break it down.

“It’s all a blur. A hazy, crazy blur.” Kristen Wiig’s Maxine is the narrator of this tale, based on 2018 novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel. (Note that I have not read the novel. If you have and you’re looking to spoil future developments in the comments, please don’t.)

The opening image is a woman’s high heeled shoe, then body, floating in blue water. Is this a dead body? Someone drowning?

“Try, Maxine,” comes a male voice, in the tone of a therapist.

“All I do is try. All I ever wanted was to belong. To be somebody in this world,” says Maxine. At this point we see her face, eyes open and clearly alive, underwater. So not a dead body. “But there’s a catch when a woman wants to be a somebody. And that catch is everyone else.”

We cut to what is probably some point earlier in time, the start of “the season” in Palm Beach, Florida, 1969. Maxine’s voiceover narration introduces us to the starring characters in this town—and our show—who are frequent features in a society paper she calls “the shiny sheet.” Go ahead and throw Bridgerton into the things I’ll be referencing while recapping this show. There’s Evelyn Rollins (Allison Janney), the self-appointed queen bee; Dinah Donahue (Leslie Bibb), the ambassador’s wife poised to dethrone Evelyn “if her libido didn’t get the better of her”; Mary (Julia Duffy), the widow as fizzy and dizzy as a glass of champagne; and Raquel (Claudia Ferri), the sugar heiress with a mobster husband.

Maxine herself is determined to belong to this social set—so much so that she scales the back wall of the club known as the Palm Royale to get face-time with these women, only to be booted immediately as she makes her outsider status clear to the staff.

Everyone can smell her desperation, but Maxine is not deterred. She’s a former regular on the pageant circuit, and she knows how to win hearts and minds with a good narrative and sheer persistence. When she sees Dinah having a clear lovers’ quarrel with the tennis pro, she engineers a fender bender to get some one-on-one time. This leads to Dinah spilling her guts and Maxine leveraging a recent run-in with a feminist group led by Laura Dern’s Linda to help Dinah secure a speedy abortion, all in the first episode!

Still, Maxine is living out of a motel and reeks of poor, even though she says her pilot husband is a Dellacorte, a wealthy family that made its fortune through “plastics and mouthwash.” Dinah isn’t buying it and is happy to turn up her nose at the woman so desperate to win her friendship, until said husband turns up and introduces himself as Douglas Dellacorte Simmons (Josh Lucas). Suddenly, Dinah is more open to serving as one of Maxine’s sponsors for club membership (a cool $30,000 for induction and then $500 for monthly dues—in 1969!).

It turns out Maxine actually is related to Palm Beach royalty. Douglas is the nephew of the legendary Norma Dellacorte (Carol Burnett), who is in a coma after suffering a pulmonary embolism. She’s supposedly on death’s door, which would be great for Maxine, who is eager to inherit her money and her mansion (and isn’t above pawning her jewelry or stealing her clothes to fit in with the women of Palm Beach). But it would be a bummer for Robert (Ricky Martin), an employee of the club who lives in Norma’s pool house and enjoyed a “close” relationship with her before she fell ill. When Maxine can’t pay the motel fees, she moves into Norma’s mansion and tells the ladies to come by for cocktails.

What is the angle here? Why does it matter so much? Several characters ask Maxine this question, and her answer is always changing. To Dinah, she turns the question around and asks why it matters so much to her. To her manicurist Mitzi (Kaia Gerber), she waxes on about “making it.” To Linda, who happens to be Evelyn’s stepdaughter, she expresses that belonging in Palm Beach is important to her husband, and she’s just trying to make him happy. But so far, Douglas doesn’t seem especially interested in the politics or preening of Palm Beach. It’s clear Maxine isn’t the most reliable narrator.

By the end of the third episode, Maxine has positioned herself as the heir apparent to the Dellacorte name and thus Norma’s beach ball event, the crown jewel of the season. Linda fills Maxine in that these events are not moneymakers for charities, as the women would have you believe, but moneymakers for themselves. That explains why Evelyn is so eager to co-host with her, so long as Maxine can locate Norma’s well-known rolodex (which Linda suspiciously nabbed after enjoying drinks with Robert in the pool house).

There are a lot of moving pieces on this show, and so far everyone is pretty one-dimensional with the exceptions of Robert and Linda, who are both hiding ulterior motives and thus strike me as the most interesting. While I love watching Allison Janney being a ruthless bitch, she could use a little more to do.

Otherwise, Palm Royale is stunning, but it’s not as funny as it clearly wants to be. While a few lines did make me laugh aloud (“It’s cancer’s night,” and “What’s Evelyn wearing?” … “Sleeves”), a lot of the humor feels flat and even cartoonish. We’re not dealing with the sly satire of The White Lotus or the biting dialogue of Mad Men.

But with the premise finally established, maybe we can expect more for Palm Royale in the coming episodes. (Carol Burnett has to wake up eventually.) I’m tempted to quote the iconic Aretha Franklin, who once said, “Great gowns, beautiful gowns.” Yes, Palm Royale is pretty, but is it anything of substance? Only time will tell.

Stray observations

• I do appreciate that it’s not just the wealthy women this show is lampooning. Laura Dern’s feminist meditation circles aren’t exactly being taken super seriously.
• “Maxine, you’re a feminist” eliciting a laugh feels accurate in 1969, and sadly also 2024.
• Maxine needs a third sponsor to finalize club membership after roping in Dinah and Mary, and she’s dead set on getting Evelyn’s signature. Why? Wouldn’t any old biddy at the club do?
• Kaia Gerber as an aspiring model being taught to walk by Kristin Wiig is pretty funny.
• Another line I enjoyed: “Do you think they’re eating her alive?” Linda asks. “If they are, she’s making them choke on the bones,” Robert replies.