GoKawiilApple TV and sex workers -- who'd have thought they'd make such a delightful pairing? Earlier this year, the streaming service released the drama series Margo's Got Money Troubles, based on the book of the same name, which follows a young woman as she turns to cam work to support herself and her new baby.
It's a great show, and you definitely should check it out. That said, I should point out that this article isn't about that Apple TV show; it's about a different one involving the same sorta thing -- and it involves blackmail, fraud and murder. That sounds heavy, I know, but I assure you, the show I am talking about is a comedy. A dark comedy, mind you, but still.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is the program I'm talking about. The series drops new episodes each Wednesday on Apple TV and is in the middle of its first season. If everything I've said thus far has piqued your interest, keep reading, because this here's a show you should be paying attention to.
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Paula is not having the good time she was promised. Apple TV
The gist of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is pretty simple: A divorced mom who falls for a webcam performer gets involved in a precarious (and very violent) situation after she witnesses Trevor (Brandon Flynn), the camboy in question, get attacked during one of their video sessions.
Tatiana Maslany plays Paula, the mother in question, and, as we've seen from her stellar work in Orphan Black -- where she played 17 different characters -- she has the fortitude to carry a high-concept series on her back. And hoo-golly, she puts in the work on this one.
Her performance is a layered mix of flawed, fearless and feral. Paula is a woman reeling from her pending divorce, striving to prove she can provide a normal life for her daughter, focused on delivering top-notch work as a fact checker at the local paper, all while struggling to reconcile the act of violence she witnessed during a moment of digital intimacy.
The attack turns out to be a scam, though, and soon Paula is juggling threatening calls from people demanding money, or else, and inquiries by unhelpful police detectives assigned to her case. So, as someone who works with facts daily, she takes matters into her own hands and does some messy investigative work, only to find herself not just in the middle of a blackmail scheme but a murder mystery to boot.
Jake Johnson plays Paula's ex. Apple TV
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