Apple TV’s Cam Boy Crime Comedy ‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’ Loses Sight of Its Juicy Hook: TV Review

Watching the premiere of “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed,” Apple TV subscribers may get a distinct sense of déjà vu. Just last month, the streaming service premiered “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” a limited series about a single mother entering the world of virtual sex work via OnlyFans. The premiere of “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed,” which was created by David J. Rosen (“Sugar”) and directed by David Gordon Green (“The Righteous Gemstones”), divides this character in two: Paula (Tatiana Maslany) is a newly divorced mom who’s taken to patronizing a cam boy who goes by Trevor (Brandon Flynn), getting herself off while venting about her custody battle.

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Two OnlyFans tales on television (three, if you count “Euphoria”!) in less than six weeks may seem like overkill, but once Paula witnesses Trevor being violently abducted in the middle of a session, “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” seems to lose interest in its own hook. Instead, the show follows Paula on her downward spiral, maintaining a relentless focus on a rapid succession of crises that’s effective in building momentum but loses any sense of what drew Paula to Trevor — whose services include Zoom dinner dates as well as cybersex — in the first place. Maslany does her best to make Paula a chaotic, charming, determined heroine; compared with playing a full set of clones on “Orphan Black” or acting through a layer of CGI in “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” getting the audience to root for Paula despite her disastrous decision-making is a relatively light lift. But her performance alone can’t fully obscure the gaps that peek through whenever “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” pauses its headlong sprint through the New York underworld long enough to catch its breath.

Paula isn’t the only character to suffer from this sharklike instinct to stay in motion at all costs. Her co-workers Geri (Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg) and Rudy (Charlie Hall), with whom she toils in the fact-checking department of a magazine, largely exist to assist Paula on her quest for the truth. (Paula’s relationship to journalism remains fuzzy; it’s unclear how good she’s supposed to be at her job, or where her investigative skills have gone when she’s Googling basic questions like whether the police can lie to you.) Jake Johnson is a surprisingly marginal presence as Paula’s ex-husband Karl, who wants to move to Boise and take their 8-year-old daughter, Hazel (Nola Wallace), with him. The ensuing tug-of-war is driven by Karl’s second wife, Mallory (Jessy Hodges), another story accelerant in the guise of a person.

“Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” at least satisfies its own priorities, building an engaging mystery that’s stylishly staged and peppered with off-kilter comedy. Dolly de Leon (“Triangle of Sadness”) stands out as an NYPD detective whose bedside manner — “Marriage is a marathon. Sometimes you puke” — is tough but straightforward. So does Murray Bartlett as the ruthless killer who pursues Paula like a predator, juxtaposing life-or-death stakes with elementary school soccer matches. If you watch this show simply to find out what happens next, you’ll stay engaged and entertained.

As Paula uncovers a broader conspiracy around camming and blackmail, there’s still a lost opportunity for “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” to explore what clients like her get out of this virtual connection, or how sex workers like Trevor navigate their stigmatized profession. Midseason revelations about Paula’s past complicate rather than clarify our understanding of who she is and how she got here; characters’ reactions often feel more grounded in how the show needs them to respond than realistic human behavior. Thanks to Maslany, though, I was always rooting for Paula to pull through. “Maximum” and “guaranteed” may both be strong words, but there’s certainly some pleasure to be had here.