The Spool / Reviews
Palm Royale is no day at the beach
An undeniably impressive cast can’t overcome the empty spectacle at the heart of Palm Royale, AppleTV+’s period dramedy.
By: Tim Stevens
GenreComedy Drama
NetworkApple TV+
SimilarA Dance to the Music of Time, A Discovery of Witches, A Gentleman in Moscow, A League of Nobleman, A Menina Sem Qualidades, A Native of Beijing in New York, A Nearly Normal Family, A Respectable Trade, A River Runs Through It, A Touch of Frost, A Very English Scandal, About a Boy, Addicted Heroin, Advokát ex offo, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, Agatha Christie's Poirot Alexandr Dumas starší, Alif Allah Aur Insaan, Americká tragédia, And Then There was One Yuriko, Anna Karenina, Annika, Arn: The Knight Templar, Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers, Återkomsten, Backstrom, Be with You, Best Choice Ever, Blackeyes, Blood Ties, Blossoms Shanghai, Bodies, Brand New Cherry Flavor, Brides of Christ, Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?, Clayhanger, Cold Courage, Cooking Crush, Dangerous Liaisons, Dark Winds, Dead by Sunset, Dead Ringers, Deep Night, Devil in Ohio, Dexter Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves, East of Eden, Evergreen, Evlerden Biri, Fallen Fatherhood, Fearless, Finland Papa, From Scratch, Fushigi Dagashiya: Zenitendou, Game of Thrones, Gossip Girl Harlan Coben's Shelter, He's Into Her, Hello Anne: Before Green Gables, Hero Return, Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, I Know What You Did Last Summer, If Tomorrow Comes, In Cold Blood, Jane Eyre, Jesus, Jewels, JFK: Reckless Youth, Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-, Kiss Me First, Kita Yoshio's Tomorrow, KONOSUBA – An Explosion on This Wonderful World!, La Chambre des dames, La vida simplemente, Lady Chatterley, Little Birds, Little Women Lives of the Saints, Love Between Fairy and Devil, Love in the Big City, Love Sea, M*A*S*H Magpie Murders, Martín Rivas, Mayfair Witches, Memorial de Maria Moura, Million Dollar Babies, Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced, Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye, Miss Marple: The Body in the Library, Moeder, waarom leven wij?, Monarch of the Glen, Monsieur Spade, Mother Is Wrong, My Beautiful Man, My Fantastic Mrs Right, My Hero Series, My Lovely Boxer, My Only 12%, My Ride, My Secret Love, Nero Wolfe i Archie Goodwin, New Amsterdam, Nice Work, Nuremberg, Oh, Doctor Beeching!, One Step Toward Freedom, Open Your Eyes, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Ordeal by Innocence, Os Maias, Our Secret, Pandora's Clock, Parizaad, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Perfect Love, Perry Mason, Place of Execution, Planet of the Apes Platform 7, PLUTO, Polisen i Strömstad, Portrét Doriana Graya, Pride and Prejudice Prima sezóna, Prípad jasnovidca Hanussena, Prom Pissawat, Rage of Angels, Ramon y Cajal, Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon, Rebus, Rencana Besar, Resurrection, Ridley, Rivals, Ronja the Robber's Daughter, Scrublands, Shangri-La, Shangri-La Frontier, Sherlock Holmes Shining Girls, Sinking Spring, Soul Land, Spies of Warsaw, Stavy rachotí, Stranded, Strangers and Brothers, Supreme God Emperor, Svadba bez nevesty, Sweet Magnolias, Sweetbitter, Tales from the Neverending Story Tales of the South Seas, Tamas, Tell Me Lies, The 100, The Agatha Christie Hour, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, The Bourne Identity, The Boy Next World, The Brothers Karamazov, The Chestnut Man, The Cicada's Eighth Day, The Colour of Magic, The Count of Monte-Cristo: Great Revenge, The Echo, The End of Love, The Far Pavilions, The Flatshare, The Girls on the Bus, The Ice House, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA, The Journey of Chongzi, The Jungle, The Last Convertible, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Little Drummer Girl, The Long Night, The Lost World The Lying Life of Adults, The Many Faces of Ito, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Night Agent, The Night Sister, The Old Man, The Ordinary World, The Passage, The Pillars of the Earth, The Prey, The Rainbow, The Rector's Wife, The Red Sleeve, The Rotters' Club, The Shining The Sign, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, The Strain, The Sun Also Rises, The Sympathizer, The Tatami Time Machine Blues, The Wimbledon Poisoner, The Witness for the Prosecution, The Woods, Tira, To Kill a Cop, Tracker, Transformation, Trickster, Troubles, True Women, Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky, Under the Bridge, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, War and Peace, Warera ga Paradise, We Are, Wedding Impossible, What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, When Heroes Fly, White Teeth, Wimarn Din, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Witchcraft, Wycliffe Yonder, You, You Touched My Heart,
Watch afterBlack Mirror Breaking Bad Doctor Who, Fargo, Fear the Walking Dead, Game of Thrones Monk, Stranger Things Ted Lasso The Orville, Unorthodox, Vikings,
StudioApple Studios,
6.3
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There’s something undeniably inspired about casting Kristin Wiig as Maxine Simmons in Palm Royale. A social climber attempting to ingratiate herself into late 60s Palm Beach high society, Simmons shares with Wiig a certain constant desire to change herself. The actor’s years at Saturday Night Live and subsequent film roles have established her as a chameleonic performer. She has enough versatility to play everyone from the painfully grounded to live-action cartoon characters. In this case, Wiig pours that talent into a woman trying desperately to be a different version of herself.

As a kind of middle-aged conservative version of Tom Ripley, Wiig does indeed excel. The actor invests a mix of brute force cunning and barely hidden desperation in Simmons. That makes the would-be social maven compelling and repulsive in equal measure. Her machinations are too intriguing to ignore, but her very presence can be almost unendurable, especially for viewers with an overactive sense of vicarious embarrassment.

Palm Royale (AppleTV+)
Kristen Wiig and Allison Janney try to hash it out. (AppleTV+)

The show also adds an interesting layer to her performance of wealth and class. Simmons’ claims often sound outlandish, the scrambling lies of someone trying to stay one step ahead of being exposed. However, Palm Royale slowly confirms a great many of them. Unlike Ripley or Saltburn’s Oliver Quick, she’s not a total fabrication. She has the credentials for the inner circle, but can’t stomach the time it takes. 

This, in part, explains her affinity for the oft-mentioned President Nixon. He was a career politician with an impressive resume of offices held and a robust Rolodex. Yet, he couldn’t shake his demeanor and grasping sense of entitlement. It frequently got him what he wanted, but it also handed him every failure he experienced, including the eventual loss of the Presidency. Simmons, similarly, has the money and status to enter Palm Beach’s exclusive enclaves but scales walls, steals, and manipulates to get there a season earlier. And like Nixon, every trick she uses races her ahead 12 steps. And, like Nixon, the consequences of those tricks continue to mount, making what could’ve been a slow but leisurely stroll into life as a Palm Beach Queen B a rapid, frenetic, and eternally close to toppling affair.

Palm Royale (AppleTV+)
Behold. The face of a man just owning a show, as demonstrated by Ricky Martin. (AppleTV+)

Wiig has excellent support from a cast that includes Leslie Bibb and Allison Janney as two of the current in-crowd women, Laura Dern as a member of high society turned late-60s feminist, and Carol Burnett as an aging mouthwash magnate. However, the true surprise is Ricky Martin as Robert, the most crucial staff member at the Palm Royale. Impossibly ageless at 52, his skin has this sheen that sets him apart from the rest of the Palm Beach elite. They’re desperate to stay young and usually failing while he’s doing it as easy as breathing. With none of Simmons’ advantages, Robert seems to play the game better than her, securing the graces of many in the inner circle and finding forbidden romance. Martin has acted before, but he’s never married his charisma and skill as well as he does here.

With so much to the good about the cast, it’s doubly disappointing to report that Palm Royale doesn’t quite work. There’s plenty of activity and a heaping helping of delightfully soapy situations, certainly. That ensures it is far too busy to be a hang-out series where the viewers can just enjoy spending time with fun characters. However, all the activity, all the bluster never seems to amount to anything. The show hints at plenty of “points”—class consciousness, racial issues, gender dynamics. Unfortunately, Palm Royale doesn’t have much to say about them. Or, at least, not much unique or especially insightful. As a result, the plot mechanics strand a game Wiig and her powerhouse supporting cast in a maelstrom of activity, keeping all manner of plates spinning, for little result. 

GenreComedy Drama
NetworkApple TV+
SimilarA Dance to the Music of Time, A Discovery of Witches, A Gentleman in Moscow, A League of Nobleman, A Menina Sem Qualidades, A Native of Beijing in New York, A Nearly Normal Family, A Respectable Trade, A River Runs Through It, A Touch of Frost, A Very English Scandal, About a Boy, Addicted Heroin, Advokát ex offo, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, Agatha Christie's Poirot Alexandr Dumas starší, Alif Allah Aur Insaan, Americká tragédia, And Then There was One Yuriko, Anna Karenina, Annika, Arn: The Knight Templar, Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers, Återkomsten, Backstrom, Be with You, Best Choice Ever, Blackeyes, Blood Ties, Blossoms Shanghai, Bodies, Brand New Cherry Flavor, Brides of Christ, Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?, Clayhanger, Cold Courage, Cooking Crush, Dangerous Liaisons, Dark Winds, Dead by Sunset, Dead Ringers, Deep Night, Devil in Ohio, Dexter Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves, East of Eden, Evergreen, Evlerden Biri, Fallen Fatherhood, Fearless, Finland Papa, From Scratch, Fushigi Dagashiya: Zenitendou, Game of Thrones, Gossip Girl Harlan Coben's Shelter, He's Into Her, Hello Anne: Before Green Gables, Hero Return, Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, I Know What You Did Last Summer, If Tomorrow Comes, In Cold Blood, Jane Eyre, Jesus, Jewels, JFK: Reckless Youth, Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-, Kiss Me First, Kita Yoshio's Tomorrow, KONOSUBA – An Explosion on This Wonderful World!, La Chambre des dames, La vida simplemente, Lady Chatterley, Little Birds, Little Women Lives of the Saints, Love Between Fairy and Devil, Love in the Big City, Love Sea, M*A*S*H Magpie Murders, Martín Rivas, Mayfair Witches, Memorial de Maria Moura, Million Dollar Babies, Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced, Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye, Miss Marple: The Body in the Library, Moeder, waarom leven wij?, Monarch of the Glen, Monsieur Spade, Mother Is Wrong, My Beautiful Man, My Fantastic Mrs Right, My Hero Series, My Lovely Boxer, My Only 12%, My Ride, My Secret Love, Nero Wolfe i Archie Goodwin, New Amsterdam, Nice Work, Nuremberg, Oh, Doctor Beeching!, One Step Toward Freedom, Open Your Eyes, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Ordeal by Innocence, Os Maias, Our Secret, Pandora's Clock, Parizaad, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Perfect Love, Perry Mason, Place of Execution, Planet of the Apes Platform 7, PLUTO, Polisen i Strömstad, Portrét Doriana Graya, Pride and Prejudice Prima sezóna, Prípad jasnovidca Hanussena, Prom Pissawat, Rage of Angels, Ramon y Cajal, Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon, Rebus, Rencana Besar, Resurrection, Ridley, Rivals, Ronja the Robber's Daughter, Scrublands, Shangri-La, Shangri-La Frontier, Sherlock Holmes Shining Girls, Sinking Spring, Soul Land, Spies of Warsaw, Stavy rachotí, Stranded, Strangers and Brothers, Supreme God Emperor, Svadba bez nevesty, Sweet Magnolias, Sweetbitter, Tales from the Neverending Story Tales of the South Seas, Tamas, Tell Me Lies, The 100, The Agatha Christie Hour, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, The Bourne Identity, The Boy Next World, The Brothers Karamazov, The Chestnut Man, The Cicada's Eighth Day, The Colour of Magic, The Count of Monte-Cristo: Great Revenge, The Echo, The End of Love, The Far Pavilions, The Flatshare, The Girls on the Bus, The Ice House, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA, The Journey of Chongzi, The Jungle, The Last Convertible, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, The Little Drummer Girl, The Long Night, The Lost World The Lying Life of Adults, The Many Faces of Ito, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Night Agent, The Night Sister, The Old Man, The Ordinary World, The Passage, The Pillars of the Earth, The Prey, The Rainbow, The Rector's Wife, The Red Sleeve, The Rotters' Club, The Shining The Sign, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, The Strain, The Sun Also Rises, The Sympathizer, The Tatami Time Machine Blues, The Wimbledon Poisoner, The Witness for the Prosecution, The Woods, Tira, To Kill a Cop, Tracker, Transformation, Trickster, Troubles, True Women, Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky, Under the Bridge, Unterleuten: The Torn Village, War and Peace, Warera ga Paradise, We Are, Wedding Impossible, What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, When Heroes Fly, White Teeth, Wimarn Din, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Witchcraft, Wycliffe Yonder, You, You Touched My Heart,
Watch afterBlack Mirror Breaking Bad Doctor Who, Fargo, Fear the Walking Dead, Game of Thrones Monk, Stranger Things Ted Lasso The Orville, Unorthodox, Vikings,
StudioApple Studios,

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