Camboys. Blackmail. Murder. Soccer.
Viewers will get all of that and more with the new Apple TV series, ‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’, which premieres this week with its first two episodes. The show is fueled by the power of David — or rather, creator, showrunner, and executive producer David J. Rosen, and director/executive producer David Gordon Green.
What the creative duo set out to do was create a show that blends genres—part dark thriller, part crime comedy, and part a profound exploration of identity, especially during difficult times. And that last part comes out through its cast of characters, which is stacked with the talents of Tatiana Maslany (Paula), Jake Johnson (Karl), Murray Bartlett (Dennis), Brandon Flynn (Trevor) and Jessy Hodges (Mallory).
“I think from our side writing it, we really try to write a thriller that could hold its own weight and be tight in its story and then populate it with characters that are the same as us…[characters] who can be cynical or witty or dumb and let the humor and humanity come from that. And then hopefully with those two things, there's some alchemy and we end up with some gold,” explains Rosen.
“I'll just add from a director’s standpoint, you've got to love the characters,” agrees Green. “You love the characters and you cast accordingly by putting amazing, dramatically capable actors together that also have a great wit. And that's the access to be able to explore the humanity of these heightened circumstances.”
‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’ follows Maslany’s Paula, a freshly single mom in the midst of a divorce with her ex-husband (played by Johnson), who’s trying to figure out her new normal. It just so happens that the new perspective on life via a relationship with a camboy (Flynn), launches Paula into a world of murder, violence and much more—and that’s just in the first episode.
For Maslany, the trick was being in reality with a character that is so unpredictable.
“I think Paula is so present in the moment—sometimes to a fault—where she makes decisions that don't necessarily think of the future or think of what she's trying to protect,” Maslany explains. “She sort of doggedly goes forward. So it was really about being very present with her and sort of being in a place where you're redefining who you are and you're rediscovering who you are after you've lost so much.”
A large part of the story comes from Paula trying to maneuver through the world in a way where she is on her own when it comes to providing for her daughter. Her ex has moved on (with Hodges’ Mallory), and now she must figure out how to do the same. It’s in this struggle that some of the more poignant moments from a carefully constructed chaotic story are grown, and that’s in large part due to the actress playing Paula’s daughter, Hazel (Nola Wallace).
“Because motherhood is such an important part of Paula's distinction as a character, the chemistry that she would have to have with Hazel is just so important. And so when you have a young performer like Nola, there's an immediate beauty and naturalism to how those two characters interact, it elevates so much of what Paula's got at stake,” says Rosen.
“We let that relationship grow even more than what was on the page because the way that they worked together was so good,” adds Green. “There's a moment in the pilot, there's a montage that we were going to do some music [there]. But as we got into the edit room, we were like, it's incredible what the two of them are saying to each other, this is beautiful. And so we actually kept it with no sound and just dialogue.”
The natural flow of the show is also the result of the set environment. As Maslany says, every take felt different, which was intentional. And with a plot that takes her character in so many different directions and genres, that seems like a natural fit for the result we see on screen.
“This show moves at such a pace, but there are these moments where we sort of land with two characters, whether it’s Karl and Paula or Mallory and Paula, and you sort of get to dig into the interpersonal," finishes Maslany.
“There's a lot of different moments in them that can be interpreted in so many different ways and when you're working with actors who are spontaneous, everything changes all the time and you're very in that moment. And also the writing, I was going to work like, oh my God, there's so much space in these scenes for moments of humor and moments of discovery or painful things said lightly or painful things said brutally. It really doesn't live in just one genre or tone.”
'Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed' premieres Wednesday, May 20 on Apple TV.
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