Palm Royale recap: Thank god Carol Burnett has more to do now
Unfortunately, the show can't decide if Maxine is hero or anti-hero
TV Reviews Palm Royale
Carol Burnett is awake! Granted, her character’s speech is impaired so she’s not getting real dialogue, but Burnett can do more with slurred syllables and facial expressions than other comedic actors can do with whole monologues. All of Norma’s reactions to Maxine’s (Kristen Wiig) antics this episode almost made it worth the watch. Almost. I hate to beat a dead horse week after week, but this show is a mess. The humor isn’t landing, the tone is all over the place, the characters are cartoonish, the stakes are nonexistent, and the plot is often moved along by decisions that otherwise make no sense.
We once again open in 1949, with Douglas (Josh Lucas) taking Maxine up in a plane. They’re gushing about their adoration for each other, and when Douglas turns the plane upside down, she confesses that she’s pregnant—news that thrills him. If you recall, the wedding between Douglas and Penelope Rollins/Linda (Laura Dern) also took place in 1949. So what exactly is the timeline here?
In the present, Maxine’s voiceover narration debates confronting Douglas about the wedding invitation. She’s worried about who else knows about it, as if this information is going to impact her pristine social standing in Palm Beach. After expressing this to newly awake Norma, she decides to chase Dougie down at the golf course and get to the bottom of the situation. “You hungry? No? Okay, we can wait for dinner,” Maxine plows through her charge’s clear indications that she’d like to eat.
I think the most difficult part of Palm Royale is that Maxine is the least funny character on the show, but of course so much of it revolves around her. This episode illustrates that perfectly because every Maxine scene that features Norma turns fun, but when Burnett’s character is stashed elsewhere, Maxine’s humor flails randomly.
On the golf course, Douglas admits he was set to marry Penelope/Linda, but that it was the worst day of his life and that she shot her father. The only explanation he has is that she was crazy, and none of this matters because it was 20 years ago. His deflections send Maxine to Our Bodies, Our Shelves to confront Linda, who is hiding out in the back, but eavesdrops as Maxine unloads on Virgina (Amber Chardae Robinson). Maxine realizes now that Linda knew who she was all along and befriended her with hidden motives, something she considers a betrayal of their friendship. What friendship? Everything Maxine does is a maneuver to get her closer to what she wants. She’s an obvious schemer, and yet often Wiig—and the show—present her as a striver with a heart of gold. The whiplash makes it hard to stay onboard this ride.
Meanwhile, Virginia and the feminist circle of the bookstore are hellbent on using Norma’s rolodex to exercise some power. Linda is uncomfortable with this, but she suggests Perry Donahue (Jordan Bridges), whom the rolodex reveals paid off inspectors before a condo collapsed. There’s a lot going on with Perry: He’s trying to get Dougie to invest some of Norma’s fortune in his business, his wife’s tennis pro lover wants to kill him, the feminist women want to out him as corrupt, and he’s clearly got a side thing going with Maxine’s manicurist Mitzi (Kaia Gerber). And while we’re on Mitzi, so far she has absolutely no purpose in this show, but as the plot becomes more and more wrapped up in what transpired in 1949, it seems pretty obvious that she’ll be revealed as someone’s daughter, right?
More information drips out over the course of the episode. Evelyn (Allison Janney) tells Maxine that she believes Linda was trying to kill her on the day of her wedding but accidentally shot her father. The gun was never recovered, but Maxine takes it out of the security deposit box and carries it in her purse. “That gun is insurance against a lot of things going out of balance around here,” Evelyn warns ominously. She admits that Norma’s rolodex is her great source of power, as she uses its secrets to blackmail her way to the top.
Linda shows up to the club to lightly threaten Douglas as he takes a piss: “If memory serves, you made a deal, and it still stands, right?” They bicker about who was the bigger problem in their relationship, and frankly it seems like Laura Dern and Josh Lucas are acting in completely different shows. He’s dialed up to 10 as a total clown, and she’s clearly trying to give Linda a little dimension.
The only other character with some depth is Ricky Martin’s Robert. He continues to show up whenever it’s convenient for the plot (he’s just a roaming golf course bartender now?), but his relationship with Norma seems to be a genuine connection. When Maxine complains to Dinah (Leslie Bibb) about Douglas’ history, she advises Maxine take a lover at the club, and for some reason Maxine zeroes in on Robert?! Whom she hates and had arrested last week? In this very episode, he asks, “I’m the only person you’re rude to—why?” And honestly, he’s completely right, but as we’ve discussed, Maxine’s motivations are so all over the place, I hadn’t even clocked that inconsistency.
The episode ends with Linda finally coming over to the Dellacorte mansion to have a conversation with Maxine. She reveals that she shot her father on accident, instead meaning to shoot Douglas, whom she was convinced was having an affair. Though he denied it and called her crazy, by that point, he had gotten Maxine pregnant. After the shooting, Norma swept in. Douglas would take some hush money and go to Tennessee to be with his “gutter slut,” Skeet (Bruce Dern) would finally marry Evelyn, and Penelope/Linda would stay out of jail.
“I’m the gutter slut?” Maxine asks in Wiig’s best delivery of the episode. Indeed. Linda burns the rolodex in front of Norma, who shrieks her outrage hilariously, and Maxine throws the gun in the ocean. Which…why? Why not just put it back in the security-deposit box if you want to dispose of the problem? Chekhov’s gun is just going to wash back up on this beach!
Stray observations
- Some version of Palm Royale could have been successful camp, and I have to think that’s what Josh Lucas is aiming for. Two of my favorite lines: “I personally hated it!” and “I guess there was something blonde I liked about her.”
- Ann (Mindy Cohn), the Shiny Sheet writer, is doggedly fact checking Maxine’s supposed pageant wins. Seems like this will be important later.
- What was the point of the alligator on the golf course?
- Ricky Martin is a sneaky ace on this show. “Why do you have a gun?!” was the funniest non-Carol Burnett moment.
- It really seems like Dinah and Evelyn accepted Maxine overnight. They’re both so chummy with her this episode, which doesn’t feel especially earned.
5 Comments
Unfortunately, the show can’t decide if Maxine is hero or anti-heroBecause it would be such a travesty to write anything but ethically black and white characters with no room for grey.
oof, this show is so clearly not for you, and that’s fine, but Palm Royale is camp gold and i’m so sorry that the tone/humor is going over your head. first of all, what do you MEAN Maxine’s friendship with Dinah and Evelyn doesn’t feel earned? we’ve already established that Maxine helped Dinah both get an abortion AND reconnect with her tennis pro lover. we also learned that Evelyn eventually “accepted” Maxine because: 1) she is, in fact, a Dellacourt like she said she was, 2) Evelyn also doesn’t come from money and sees a kinship with her, and 3) she desperately wants to co-throw the Beach Ball at the Dellacourt mansion. like, it’s fine if you’re just going to list your gripes with this show week after week, but maybe watch the episodes a little more closely before you rag on things that are explicitly explained within the text?as for Robert asking why Maxine is only rude to him and no one else, i would think it would be quite clear why: he’s the only non-white character on the show, he’s an employee at the club, he has no real power or status among the Palm Beach elite, therefore he has nothing to offer Maxine in the way of social climbing. that’s why she’s rude. (also, Norma clearly has a genuine affinity for him, which upsets Maxine because her and Douglas are not in Norma’s will.) Robert is one of the only characters who sees exactly who Maxine is at her core (ie: he immediately clocks her presence as an outsider at the club in the first few minutes of the series) and it threatens her, so she talks down to him in an attempt to reinforce her “position” in the Palm Beach social strata, wobbly as it may be. (oh, and as for the, “he’s just a roaming golf course bartender now?” crack… uh, have you ever been to a nice golf course? if not, have you ever seen Cass Holland’s videos about being a Vegas golf cart bartender girlie on tiktok? it is very common for fancy golf courses to have bartenders that drive carts out to the greens so their players can drink while they play. of all your gripes about this show’s verisimilitude, this was a particularly uninformed one.)>>“You hungry? No? Okay, we can wait for dinner,” Maxine plows through her charge’s clear indications that she’d like to eat.this is what’s commonly known as a “joke.” i can’t believe i have to explain this? same goes for the alligator randomly appearing on the golf course. (the alligator also represents a real threat to Maxine’s physical safety and what does she do? she hoofs it back to the clubhouse all on her own after the rich assholes selfishly abandon her on the green. we’re obviously going to learn more about Maxine’s background in later episodes that indicate she’s not just some demure beauty queen who got a lucky break, she’s clearly a resourceful fighter who can get herself out of a jam.) >>frankly it seems like Laura Dern and Josh Lucas are acting in completely different shows. He’s dialed up to 10 as a total clown, and she’s clearly trying to give Linda a little dimension.it’s interesting that you made this observation because in my opinion Josh Lucas is playing the part of an outcast nepobaby scion perfectly. his IDGAF attitude is exactly what men in that corner of high society behave like; goofy, clownish, immature. if anything, the fact that he’s been married to Maxine for 20 years indicates that he’s not some rotten, evil egg. he just… really didn’t want to marry Penelope. if anything, i find Penelope/Linda’s character to be the only one on this show who doesn’t make a ton of sense narratively. like, she was so distraught about her fiancee possibly cheating on her/calling her crazy when she obviously didn’t love him (as the text keeps dropping hints that she’s a member of the Rainbow Mafia) that she tried to SHOOT him blindly through a DOOR? that part doesn’t really track for me, motivation-wise. (nevermind the fact that the teeny-tiny caliber Chekov’s pistol likely wouldn’t be able to penetrate a thick door, but we’ll let that minor nitpick slide in the name of storytelling.) also, Linda being super concerned about Douglas “living up to his end of their deal” (ie: leaving town for good) doesn’t really track for me either. (at this point in the story, anyway.) if both of them can mutually admit that they would have made a terrible match, Linda can clearly see that Douglas and Maxine are happily married, and Norma’s got everyone’s secrets about the wedding under lock and key, well… why exactly does Linda care so much that Douglas leaves town? i suspect that there’s more to the story that will be revealed eventually, but as it stands, i find Linda’s entire set of motivations to be really fuzzy and weird. (ie: if the high-society culture of Palm Beach is so irritating to her, why did she decide to stay there? if i were going to reinvent myself and leave my rich girl upbringing behind me, i probably wouldn’t stay in the same small town full of the same rich people i was trying to avoid? but idk, that’s just me.)
OK, this is a good faith, thoughtful comment so I am happy to engage. It has occurred to me that this show and its humor maybe just aren’t for me! There are plenty of things I don’t find funny that I can see others might. But while Palm Royale might be going for camp, I don’t think it’s landing it. This is what I mean by the Josh Lucas/Laura Dern issue. Josh Lucas got the camp memo and Laura Dern did not. I agree with you that he feels more in line with the tone of the show than she does! Linda feels like she’s from another show entirely, and that’s the issue. Sometimes this show wants to be silly camp, sometimes it wants to be earnest, and I think to really pull off camp, you have to be committed and fearless. The “we can wait for dinner” thing was obviously a joke, which is why I bothered to type out the quote. I wasn’t criticizing that line, I was pointing out its humor. But maybe next time I need to type out, “What a great joke!” too. As I said, Carol Burnett playing off of Kristen Wiig makes things infinitely funnier. We can agree to disagree on the value/humor of the alligator. I also diagree that the Dinah friendship feels earned. Maxine helped with the abortion and her tennis pro boyfriend in episode one! And even after that, Dinah was still shitting all over her and telling her none of that mattered. These women were still being assholes to her when she hosted them in the Dellacorte mansion in episode 3, so again, the name means nothing to them! Evelyn’s grudging respect, which is two steps forward one step back, is fine, but Dinah has gone on the record saying that Maxine’s efforts mean nothing to her in establishing an actual friendship. In previous episodes, Dinah has tolerating Maxine. In this one, out of the blue, she seems happy in her company. It’s a shift.And on Robert, I’m not saying there aren’t bartenders on the golf course. I’m saying this man’s “post” changes by the hour so that he can be in close proximity to Maxine at all times. He’s on the golf course, he’s bartending at the club pool, he’s bartending every gala, he’s at home in the middle of the day. Is he Palm Beach’s lone bartender?! This is a very common TV thing — logistics that don’t make sense. If you’re a Gilmore Girls watcher, Kirk working every dumb job in that town is a great example. I want to be convinced to like this show, I really do. Every week, I hold out hope that something will gel and it will come together with more consistency. And if you feel strongly that it’s working, I’ll happily read your comments each week to try to be persuaded.
>>The “we can wait for dinner” thing was obviously a joke, which is why I bothered to type out the quote. I wasn’t criticizing that line, I was pointing out its humor. ah, okay, i was basing this on your statement 2 paragraphs earlier where you said that you didn’t think the humor was landing. in any case, i have to disagree that the humor doesn’t work unless Carol Burnett is in the scene. one specific joke in particular from this episode that made me giggle was when Maxine was left alone to browse the vintage editions of The Shiny Sheet and immediately ripped one of the delicate pages in half. (when she did it a second time? glorious.) on the other end of the subtle/slapstick spectrum, the scene where Maxine throws herself at Robert, writhing on the floor, begging him to trumpet Edelweiss into her pussy while he’s standing there dumbfounded that this ditzy white lady can’t tell that he’s clearly a homosexual? c’mon! how were your sides not splitting from laughter? Wiig is one of the best physical comedians working today and you can tell that she’s having an absolute blast playing this character. >>In previous episodes, Dinah has tolerated Maxine. In this one, out of the blue, she seems happy in her company. It’s a shift.the shift came right after Dinah reconnected with her tennis pro. once Dinah was getting laid again (thanks to Maxine’s urging) she was all smiles again. rich people love it when you (1) are members of the same class as them (or close enough in proximity that it doesn’t hurt their reputation to hang out with you) and (2) will either aid and/or indulge them in their desire for self-destruction. Maxine and Dinah share a secret now (well, several, in fact) and it seems like the groundwork is being laid for Maxine to take over as the reigning queen of Palm Beach secrets. (she’s already learned inconvenient truths about several other characters: the manicurist, Linda, Evelyn, etc.) >>Is he Palm Beach’s lone bartender?! This is a very common TV thing — logistics that don’t make sense.you’ve answered your own question here. if we were going to start nitpicking TV shows for conveniently forcing its characters to bump into each other to facilitate the plot, we’d have no shows left to critique. Palm Royale isn’t based on/inspired by a true story, and exists in a sort-of heightened soapy noir reality (a la Desperate Housewives) so i don’t really mind that a guy who works at the club often pops up to work at said club. (just like i don’t really mind when i watch Grey’s Anatomy and 2 characters who just awkwardly hooked up keep winding up in the same elevator, or the fact that we only know like, <1% of the doctors who work at Grey-Sloane at any given time.) plus, Robert is a more important piece of the story than simply “the bartender at the club” - he’s a key part of Norma’s life. i’m sure we’ll get more info about the origins of their relationship in future episodes, but of all the ways this show might be lacking, cramming a short-short wearing Ricky Martin into as many scenes as narratively possible sure ain’t one of em as far as i’m concerned! ;)>>Linda feels like she’s from another show entirely, and that’s the issue.well that’s one thing we can definitely agree on. as much as i’m a Laura Dern stan (and gotta say, her new facelift looks absolutely spectacular in this show) i am not particularly interested in anything Linda is up to, nor do i understand her motivations. every other character on this show has a clear answer to the question, “what do they WANT?” Linda is the only character i can’t answer this question for, and every week i hope for a bit more context to help me figure out why she bothered sticking around Palm Beach. i certainly don’t think Palm Royale is like, the best show of the year or anything grandiose like that, but i will say that i’m having a whole lot of fun tuning into a new chapter each week. which is why it’s such a weird disconnect when i pop by to read what y’all thought and see constant negativity about what a hot mess it is. (i mean, if you wanna talk about a REAL hot mess, let’s get someone covering the other AppleTV+ period piece The New Look, which was an absolute trainwreck from start to finish.)
One of your criticisms is that sometimes its campy and sometimes it’s earnest? You think it’s a negative if a show has more than one tone? You would prefer 100% campy slapstick or 100% earnestness, and never the twain shall meet? Good freaking grief…