Palm Royale

I've only watched a few episodes, but it's a fun look back at the social scene back in the 60's. I'm old enough to remember much of the clothing, furniture, cars which are all very realistically depicted. Times were a bit more innocent on the surface, but lots of interesting things happened behind the scenes which would now be considered "politically incorrect". It's almost what I would call a dark comedy back in a time where people openly flaunted their wealth.

It's not totally believable, and obviously fiction, but still fun to watch and there are quite a few big names in the cast. Carol Burnett looks great and there are a few other actors which I haven't seen in years like Julia Duffy of Bob Newhart fame, Ricky Martin (who looks great), and Laura Dern.

1969 was a period of great unrest in the US, with the unpopular Vietnam war, student protests on the streets, and the women's movement on the rise. All this under the presidency of the conservative, Tricky Dicky (Richard Nixon). But that didn't mean a thing to Maxine Simmons, who at the time was so determined to infiltrate Palm Beach high society at any cost, while the world was crumbling around her.

The viewer will squirm and cringe with great amusement as Maxine digs herself so deep into a mess, and then attempts to climb out of that bottomless hole by any means necessary in this farcical series that takes a swipe at the lives of deluded filthy rich housewives of Palm Beach. To help it along, it is the performances of Kristen Wiig and the dynamic supporting cast that make this a pure delight!

Overall it is taking too long to tell a simple tale that feels a little drawn out, even after three episodes. Maybe best suited as a feature length, but it is still enticing enough to see how far Maxine will go to conquer the upper-class social scene, and hopefully make a mess of it all.

This had potential but the pacing kills it right off the bat. They talk and talk and talk and nothing happens. And then they repeat the talking and plot points ad nauseum.

Whole episodes go by and nothing happens.

The characters are annoying and unlikable. And what's with the CGI faces of these old actors?

Kristine Whig seems to be in every scene. There's no relief from her. The acting in general is lousy, and the entire whale scene is stupid and disgusting.

The women are a bunch of parasites and we're supposed to find them amusing? And what's with the group of frumps in the book store?

Total waste of time.

I absolutely love Kristen Wiig and I enjoy Tate Taylor for directing Ma, The Help, Get on up are great movies! Palm Royale seems under-appreciated plus my mom recommended it and she usually great stuff. I often get jealous when I see anything about Beautiful locations I don't get to be around them much. Women empowerment is wonderful in a lot of cases most deserve respect and admirable. I usually enjoy Laura Dern sometimes she's played overly angry characters and other times I love her like in Big Little Lies she was phenomenal; my favorite is when she said "I will not be not rich". Anyway definitely recommend this series.

Palm Royale is an AppleTV+ series that stars Kristen Wiig as an up and coming socialite in Palm Beach, Florida where rich ladies gather to gossip and complain about each other. The storyline is set in 1969 that follows a group of shallow ladies led by Carol Burnett as the head of the Dellacorte family and his nephew who is played by Josh Lucas. Josh marries Wiig and they move to Florida where Maxine (Kristen's character) does everything she can to fit in. The ladies are played by Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb, Julia Duffy, and Claudia Ferri. Each of these ladies have their secrets which are kept by Burnett in her Rolodex. Laura and Bruce Dern play father and daughter where she tries to not emulate her persona as a former socialite. Ricky Martin plays Carol's caretaker as well as the resort's bartender. Wiig and Martin end up being great friends and rely on each other. Kaia Gerber who is Cindy Crawford's daughter plays Mitzi the town manicurist who befriends Maxine but by the end deceives her. The series ended on a cliffhanger much like a soap opera and hopefully we will see a second season. Each episode of the show tells us what Maxine is up to and where the story will take her next. I would love to see Wiig win an Emmy for her role, you could feel her struggles and achievements, and along with Burnett the whole storyline is long but gets better as it goes.