Is your jaw still on the floor after the Season 1 finale of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed? If not, it definitely should be, as the Apple TV series ended with a mic drop moment that hopefully helps secure a second season for the continuing adventures of Tatiana Maslany‘s beleaguered divorcee Paula Saunders.
As fans know, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed began with the magazine fact-checker trying to keep her life together while sharing contentious custody of her daughter Hazel (Nola Wallace) with her ex-husband Karl (Jake Johnson) and his current wife, Mallory (Jessy Hodges). Desperately lonely, Paula finds solace with webcam boy Trevor (Brandon Flynn), who pulls a money scam on her that ends up with him dead. Naturally, she plays detective to find out what happened, and gets pulled deeper and deeper into something that is way bigger than a simple online money scam.
By the end of the season, Paula eventful life has come to include a murder charge, a brief sojourn behind bars, a potential new romance with soccer coach Steve (Raymond Lee), and the prospect of losing Hazel when Karl and Mallory decide to move to Idaho for Mallory’s new job. The Season 1 finale exonerates her for any past crimes, and also awards her custody of her daughter. She’s finally made it after all, right?
Don’t be too sure. Paula’s past comes back to haunt her in the finale’s closing moments when a revealing video depicting a previous crime — accidentally killing her neighbor when he jumped in front of her moving car — provides proof that the death wasn’t an accident. It’s a “we own you now” message sent directly at Paula, and she’s going to have to help this mystery person in ways that will only become apparent should the show return.
Gold Derby spoke with MPG creator and executive producer David J. Rosen about that cliffhanging reveal and what his plans are for Season 2.
Gold Derby: Was the Season 1 finale something you always planned out when you started, or did things change along the way?
David J. Rosen: Some things changed, but we always had a roadmap. We knew with the finale that we wanted to hit the very last beat of the custody case, and then some other characters — like Jennifer (Tala Ashe) — was someone new who came up along the way.
Can you talk about how you approach Paula and Karl’s relationship through the first season and they are in the finale?
Like many a divorced couple — especially with a child — there’s a real meaningful love between them. It’s complicated, and they know each other better than anyone else knows each other. But they also annoy the hell out of each other! In my mind, things were contentious at first and then settled down, but now, because of the Idaho move, things have grown contentious again. I think that Karl really believes that he is correct in everything he’s doing, but I also feel they truly believe that their daughter is being brought up in the right way by the other — even when Karl has doubts. It’s a complicated relationships with a lot of ups and downs and there’s more to come.
Was there a lot of debate about whether Paula should win the custody battle?
I always knew that she would win. There was push from certain parties, going: “Are you crazy? She can’t win! Look what’s going on!” But we all felt ultimately that this was the right move for now. I mean, after Tatiana’s performance, what are you going to do?
Why doesn’t Paula go to the police when she assembles what I’ll call the “murder board”?
At this point in the season, she’s like: “I’m getting things done, and I don’t know if the police are. I’m literally out on bail!” She’s also gone to the police a number of times, and instead of listening to her, Detective Gonzalez (Dolly de Leon) says, “It’s not your first dead body, is it?” And then in Episode 8, she brought Ash (Nina Bloomgarden) in. The way that I see the character — and we’ve discussed this with Tatiana — Paula doesn’t trust the police to pull it off without her.
Speaking of Ash, she is still out there, right? I just want to confirm that.
She survived. She’s in the wind and I assume she’s out there with her dog somewhere in the world right now.
There’s a quick moment in the finale when Rudy (Charlie Hall) walks by an office and it’s getting set up for something mysterious that Drew (Kapil Talwalker) is part of. Is that a Season 2 tease?
What I can say is that I used to work in advertising; every once in a while they would black out an office, and we’d all ask, “What is so top secret?” So something very big could be afoot in there; that’s something to keep an eye on.
There’s also a romance between Geri (Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg) and Rudy. What’s the story there?
Over the course of the season, Geri probably thought of Rudy as kind of a goofball, but he’s also smart, tall, and handsome. She starts the season making fun of him and towards the end of the season is like, “We do kind of make a good team.” It’s all genuine. But my experience and their experience at that age are that a lot of things have to line up timing wise and we were trying to show the realism of that.
Was it an easy decision to reveal that Dennis didn’t die after all only to have him killed off quickly thereafter?
There were a lot of things that went into that decision. One of them was having the most important piece of the puzzle be that Paula needs to be exonerated. He could exonerate her and also clean up everything on the side for the Sauter Group as well. Part of the fun of any major death is that it’s always met always met with a “Is he or she still alive?” by the audience. So we thought it was fun to say, “He’s still alive… for a second!”
Is Brian (Adam Huber) our Big Bad or is he answering to someone else that we haven’t met yet?
The beauty and the horror of the corporate world we live in is: “Is there ever one big bad?” They’re obviously doing something and making some gray market moves in the world of consultancy. Brian could be calling Cecilia Vanderalle (Nina Arianda) or it could be someone else within the corporation. He’s the point of contact with the outside — and plausibly deniable — consultants that get them what they need.
I really loved the relationship between Baxter and Gonzalez, which started out very tense but then gets more affectionate, especially after Baxter survives his shooting. How did you craft that relationship over the season?
We really wanted to create two characters that were slightly different. Gonzalez is inscrutable, and you don’t really know what she’s thinking. She says that she’s divorced, but is she? We see her say, “I’m taking this cat and I’m gonna bring it home,” and then she doesn’t. So we know she lies to get what she needs. And while Baxter comes across as harder, he had a relationship that broke up and we get flavors of that. Their partnership is relatively new, so over the course of the season they’re getting to know each other.
I’m glad Steve didn’t die because he and Paula are really sweet together. Any plans for them in Season 2?
Paula will have more happiness in her life; I can’t say from where or how. She’s done so much and accomplished so much that I don’t think she ever thought she could have before, and that leads up to her almost being able to have that moment with Steve. If we do Season 2, there will be more wins for her.
Let’s talk about the very last scene — was that always your endgame for the season?
It was always the endgame. There was a lot of handwringing to try to nail the mystery, but it was always the way that we saw the season ending.
Where are we with the show getting picked up for Season 2?
We’re crossing our fingers. Our creative crew is really happy with the reception that we’ve gotten. We’ve just been so lucky with how people have been talking about the show. I’m sure Apple has a lot of math that they do as they get to these last few episodes, but we’re knocking wood and crossing fingers. No one’s sacrificing any chickens or goats, because that seems cruel — but anything else that we could do we’ll do!
How do you feel about what Tatiana pulled off throughout the season?
I remember the first day I was on set, I was like, “Oh, it’s gonna be good.” She’s proven on past shows that she can do a lot of different characters, but the way she can take this one character and spin from comedy and then to absolute horror is just amazing. When I’m in the editing room, I’m always like, “If there was ever a problem with the scene, go to her coverage because whatever she’s doing is going to be incredible.” You can go to her face, and she’s always invested in the scene. It’s just remarkable.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
