Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed

Amateur sleuthing takes Paula to unexpected places, leading to a denouement that doesn’t entirely tie everything up but makes us crave a second season so we could spend more quality time with a flawed, likeable character you can’t help but fall in love with.

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed seems more interested in the dramatic potential of intimate deceit. What is storytelling if not its own scam, its own manipulation of our confidences and expectations? In this case, the trick is an intriguing one, but you may have some doubts.

Tatiana Maslany is the best reason to watch “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed,” a new thriller premiering Wednesday on Apple TV, and since there is a lot of her in it, across 10 episodes, you can take that as a recommendation, of a sort.

If you go into Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed with the right mindset, and not look for it to be a true dark comedy, then Maslany’s performance and the complex psychological thriller plot is satisfying. If you want it to be funnier, you might not get what you wish for.

Apple TV's quirky thriller "Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed" taps into star Tatiana Maslany's considerable skills, expertly mixing laughs with heart-pounding twists.

The star power in the series is undeniable, but the true hero of the show is its craft, which allows the series to stake its claim as the most fascinating thriller of the year.

The series initially presents itself as a dark comedy, but it quickly turns into a cat-and-mouse game with enough twists and turns to make the casual viewer dizzy — but hardly ever bored.

Her [Tatiana Maslany's] 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.

Strong performances, particularly from Tatiana Maslany and a delightfully ominous Murray Bartlett, help assuage Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed's streaming bloat and handful of inauthentic impediments.

The overall execution is solid (everything makes way more sense than recent “average folks do crime” shows like “Big Mistakes” and “Imperfect Women.”), the cast is charming (shout-out to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ son, Charlie Hall, for escaping Ryan Murphy-land), and the parallels between Paula’s experience and our own prove unmistakable, persuasive, and cathartic.

With an intensive story, an intriguing mystery at the heart of it, and a performance that reminds us of Maslany’s immense caliber of talent, the show solidifies itself as a must-watch.

Tatiana Maslany’s ability is not in question, but here it goes to waste.

Busy without being steamy, and off-the-wall without being funny, it fails to deliver what its title promises.

While Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed might not be the most enjoyment I’ve ever derived from a TV show, its addictive combination of light comedy, unpredictable twists and sharp character work — all anchored by Tatiana Maslany’s fearless-as-usual lead performance — add up to one hell of a good time.

Maslany is the dynamic center of a story that twists in unexpected directions, giving Paula enough intelligence, warmth, and edginess to make her character cohere. Around her, Rosen builds an ensemble out of well-matched duos, drawn in enough detail to give the series potential beyond its first season.

Maslany’s performance can’t overcome the unfinished, hodgepodge quality of how Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed integrates its generic elements with its more substantive ambitions.

The pieces of its puzzle—involving a single mom and a murder mystery that begins online—don’t all fit together perfectly, but it’s hard to care too much about an abundance of coincidences and lucky timing on a show this well-paced, wonderfully performed, and unpredictable.

While the main mystery at hand may sometimes feel unnecessarily complex, it ultimately serves as an entertaining escape that will leave you wishing Season 2 were around the corner.