‘Palm Royale’ Season 1 Review — A Beautiful Looking Slog

In episode 6 of the Apple TV+ latest streaming series, Allison Janney’s character tells her husband, played by the incomparable Bruce Dern, that marriage shouldn’t be a prison. You won’t find a better description of watching Palm Royale. To put it bluntly, it’s a series in which you keep waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever does. Well, some absurdity does find its way, but by then, it’s too late.

Palm Royale is a pompous, unredeemable, and self-indulgent comedic series without laughs or amusement. You must keep watching all ten beautiful-looking yet sluggish episodes because something of interest may happen if you stop watching. You can imagine what this must be and what these students who played detainees in The Stanford Prison Experiment (or the community’s “The Duncan Principle”) must have felt like.

This is a shame because the two leads’ performances are so good. The series has a remarkable cast, with Kristin Wiig giving the best performance of her career and doing what she can with the material. Wiig plays Maxine, a former pageant queen desperately seeking acceptance into the Palm Beach elite. That would be at the Palm Royale, the area’s most exclusive club.

However, Maxine is sniffed and snuffed out immediately by the club waiter, played by Ricky Martin. He plays Robert, and Martin is surprisingly effective in the role. He’s not just charming; he gives the character a three-dimensional quality because of the vulnerability Martin brings to the role. Robert is a cool cat, having common sense in a show full of cartoonish loons.

Those money-hungry crazies are at the top of the social hierarchy. They consist of Evelyn (Academy Award winner Allison Janney), Dinah (American Housewife’s Leslie Bibb), and Mary (Newhart’s Julia Duffry). Maxine is married to Douglas (Josh Lucas), a regional pilot and the end of the bloodline of the D’ellacourt family, the wealthiest and most affluent name in Palm Beach.

There is a character who counterpoints Maxine: Linda, a trailblazing feminist in the heart of greed. She is played by Laura Dern, who is often taken aback by Maxine’s naivety. When Linda talks about female empowerment, Maxine talks about how a pinch on the butt from a male stranger is a compliment. Both characters foil each other in the first few episodes, but Linda’s character arc goes away by the season’s end.

Palm Royale is an adaptation of Mr. & Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel. Creator Abe Sylvia (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) loses the novel’s much-talked-about humor. Unfortunately, most attempts miss the mark, even with a comedic lead like Wiig helming the series in most scenes by herself. There was a chance to derive dark and even sardonic humor, but that avenue is hardly taken when there is a clear path.

That’s a mistake since the main plot point screams for it. That involves Maxine waiting for Norma D’ellacourt (the legendary Carol Burnett) to kick the bucket after a stroke worsened her medical condition. The money and power would be Doug’s (and hers). Most of the characters revolve around Norma and the mysterious rolodex. This plot is filled until it gets to a wacky finale, proving the show should have been done in five episodes or less.

Where the series thrives also becomes its weakness. The production value, the eye-candy costume design, and the eye-catching cinematography are flawless. However, this evolves into a crutch to cover up the fact that this series does not have much of a story to go past ten-hour episodes. This causes the series to drag on endlessly with repetitive attempts to gather money.

The story of Palm Royale could have wrapped up within three to four episodes, making it not worth watching. Instead, the series extends well beyond its limits. As pleasant as it is to see real-life father and daughter Bruce and Laura Dern play a fictional parental relationship, the series wastes too many great performers, including Burnett, in a thankless role. In fact, besides Bibb’s amusing bit to marry a millionaire who uses a wheelchair, the laughter is hard to come by.

Instead of turning the series into a satire and making fun of these shallow and unpleasant characters, the writers give them too much leeway to do what they want without consequences. This creates a beautiful-looking slog that offers no compelling reason to watch, let alone embrace, for the viewer.

The final result is that Palm Royale limps to the finish line, but at least it looks great doing so.

You can stream Palm Royale on Apple TV+ starting March 20th, 2024.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mbE660duGQ]