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Kristen Wiig stars as a committed social climber desperate to be accepted into an exclusive club
Palm Royale (Apple TV+) looks fabulous, and for a while that obscures the fact that this is a drama that does and says nothing at all. Save the Emmys for the production and costume designers who have recreated Palm Beach circa 1969 in dreamy colour.
The Palm Royale is an exclusive club for Florida’s elite, ruled by queen bee Evelyn Rollins (Allison Janney) and her coterie of ladies who lunch, bitch and sleep with the tennis pros. They fret and scheme over their places in the pecking order, which depend variously on family wealth, husbands in high places and the calibre of charities for which they organise opulent fundraisers. One lady can only muster fibrosis of the liver. “Cirrhosis was already taken,” her friend commiserates.
Into this snakepit comes former Chattanooga beauty queen Maxine Simmons (Kristen Wiig), such a committed social climber that she literally climbs a wall to get into the Palm Royale because she isn’t a member. Over the course of the series, she attempts to gain a foothold in high society.
Maxine claims to be a relative of Norma Dellacorte, an uber-rich denizen of Palm Beach who can’t contest this account because she’s in a coma. Norma, however, is played by showbiz legend Carol Burnett (aged 90 and looking two decades younger), so you wouldn’t bet against her miraculously regaining consciousness before the series is out.
Janney is a treat as the comically waspish Evelyn, and has a far better role than Wiig, who is labouring under the mistaken belief that her character is likeable. In fact, she gives us nothing to root for, which is a major stumbling block for the show. It means we don’t care whether she succeeds or not. Much of the story is told via her voiceover, and it’s always a bad sign when a drama relies so heavily on a narrator. Show, don’t tell.
Kaia Gerber, model daughter of Cindy Crawford, has been stunt cast as a dim manicurist who dreams of being a model. There is some fun to be had with the other supporting characters, including singer Ricky Martin as a waiter/pool boy who has got Maxine’s number and spends his time trying to disrupt her plans while not wearing a shirt.
But the plot is slight, and attempts to give it more heft by throwing in Richard Nixon, politics, and Laura Dern as the leader of a local women’s rights group are tiresome, dragging the show down when it would be better embracing the silly campness of it all.
Palm Royale begins on Apple TV+ on Wednesday 20 March
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