It might be called Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, but Tatiana Maslany‘s new Apple TV series does a terrific job of delivering maximum anxiety.
Debuting Wednesday, the 10-episode “darkly comic thriller” created by David J. Rosen builds tension through even the most innocuous moments: a mother picking up her daughter from taekwondo feels dangerous, opening an apartment door feels threatening, and even a quick trip for ice cream creates the feeling that everything is about to go horribly wrong.
“I think a big part of it was once you get the shark in the water, you know it’s always out there,” Rosen tells Gold Derby of the suspense. “If you can do it well, then it’s always lurking and you’re wondering, ‘OK, when’s it going to happen? What’s going on?’”
Maslany stars as Paula, a newly divorced mother who falls down a dangerous rabbit hole involving blackmail, murder, and youth soccer after becoming involved with a camboy played by Brandon Flynn. Amid a custody battle and identity crisis, Paula begins investigating what she believes may be a crime, only to uncover a potentially even more dangerous conspiracy. The cast also includes Jake Johnson, Jessy Hodges, Charlie Hall, and Murray Bartlett.
Here, Maslany and Rosen go deep inside the show’s creation, explaining what made Maslany ideal for the role, her character’s complexity, and the tonal balance between thriller and comedy.
Finding the perfect Paula
For Maslany, who won an Emmy for playing multiple roles on Orphan Black, Paula represented a new challenge.
“I felt very drawn to her because I felt like I didn’t quite understand her,” Maslany says. “When I was auditioning, I felt like I was really out of my depths. I felt sort of unmoored and I think that feeling was actually elicited by the script and actually elicited by the place that Paula is in.”
“It was a really visceral feeling,” Maslany continues. “And so that to me felt like instinctively I was like, ‘Oh, I’m curious about investigating that feeling and what it is to be at a point in your life when everything has been sort of pulled out from under you and you’re having to start fresh.’”
Rosen says casting Maslany was essential because of the balancing act the role required. Paula is, as Rosen describes, someone capable of making terrible choices while remaining deeply sympathetic.
“There’s comedy, there’s thriller, there’s heartbreak and Tatiana really is amazing at being able to pivot between emotions and to make you feel and root for her,” Rosen said. “She exudes this vulnerability that could turn into a rage.
“I just knew that the character of Paula was someone who was going to do bad things and you’d want to have to follow her wherever she was going anyway,” he says. “And we all were like, ‘Tatiana Maslany can do that. We know something bad’s going to happen, but we’re going with her.’”
The mommy factor
Both Rosen and Maslany say underscoring the character’s role as a mother with everyday responsibilities was vital.
“Well, it was really important to ground her as a real person in the real world and those are all the things that are at stake really,” Rosen says. “You see how much she loves her daughter. It helps make all the danger that much more.”
“A lot of people who’ve watched it, especially women were just like, ‘Yeah, that feels like the inside of my head,’” Maslany adds.
The balancing act
As noted above, Apple TV’s press materials describe Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed as a “darkly comic thriller” and finding the perfect tone was a key to the series.
“My favorite stuff is like thrillers with comedy because I feel like when it’s done right, it’s so satisfying,” says Rosen.
“We tried to go into it by writing a great thriller and then populating it with people like Tatiana and Charlie Hall and Jake Johnson and Jessy Hodges, people who are great actors but also quite funny,” Rosen explains. “And so we felt like the comedy will come from the characters put into the perilous situations rather than us trying to write a situational comedy.”
The big scene
One of the show’s most technically ambitious sequences comes early in the pilot, when Paula witnesses what appears to be a violent attack over webcam. Rosen reveals the production filmed much of the scene practically and in real time.
“Those Zooms were live,” Rosen explains. “Tatiana was in one room acting at her scenes while we’re filming it with cameras and Brandon was on the other end of the stage in his thing and then we were filming them at the same time.”
Maslany said the production’s unusual setup helped make the performances feel authentic. “Brandon and I would do these scenes, never touching, never actually physically in the same space, but we’d be doing them at the same time,” she says. “And so you could actually respond in the moment. You weren’t acting with a blank screen. You were actually seeing what you would see and responding to what you would be responding to.”
The production also avoided relying heavily on digital screen replacements, allowing glitches and unstable connections to remain part of the final product.
“That’s why there’s like glitches and like bad wifi at points, but there’s a naturalism that comes from that, that seemed to really help,” Rosen says.
Ultimately, Maslany hopes audiences embrace both the fun and discomfort that come with the ride.
“I hope that it’s something that makes them question the intentions of the characters and whose side they might be on or like really be engaged with it in a way that feels like visceral because for me watching it, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is fun.’”
