Stream It Or Skip It?

Apple TV‘s star-laden Palm Royale finished its first season with a crazy episode that ended in a cliffhanger but didn’t really answer many questions. It returns with much of the same cast, the same bright, sunny Palm Beach-fifty-plus-years-ago visual template, but does it have a better sense of who its characters are?

PALM ROYALE SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “It was the beginning of the new season. Like a rising sun, the dawn of a new season brings a fresh start to all,” says Maxine Simmons-Dellacorte (Kristen Wiig) in voice over as she gets out of a limo in front of the Palm Royale country club.

The Gist:  We see an idealized recreation of Maxine’s performance at the Beach Ball, and the disastrous end to it, where Robert (Ricky Martin) gets shot by Mary Jones Davidsoul (Julia Duffy), and Linda Shaw (Laura Dern) takes the fall. But we also see that it’s a hallucination, as Maxine is on a gurney in a sanitarium, sent there by her husband, Douglas (Josh Lucas).

Norma Dellacorte (Carol Burnett) takes over the narration from Maxine, and we also see that she’s fully functioning and scheming to push Maxine out of her family once and for all. She’s keen on seeing Robert recovers from his gunshot, given he seems to know her true identity. She’s also got it out for Evelyn Rollins (Allison Janney) for planning the Beach Ball with Maxine.

Maxine is on a 5150 hold at the sanitarium, the drugs she’s being given making her think she’s sipping martinis (not grasshoppers) poolside at the Palm Royale. Linda is in a padded room at the same hospital, thanks to the efforts of Virginia (Amber Chardae Robinson) to keep her out of jail. While all this is going on, Norma encourages Douglas to annul his marriage to Maine and marry Mitzi (Kaia Gerber), who’s carrying his baby. The heir will unlock a massive trust fund, but only if it’s the product of a marriage.

Also in marriage mode is is Dinah Donohue (Leslie Bibb), who is engaged to her much older, and very wealthy, fiancé, who already has made her a beneficiary of insurance and other items that will make her set for life when he dies. But Norma is involved in that, too, and wants to make sure Dinah keeps her status.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? During Season 1, we said Palm Royale, created by Abe Sylvia (with Wiig as an executive producer) and based on the novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel, feels like a scripted, period version of any of the Real Housewives series. We stick by that, as well as the comparison we made to Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans.

Our Take: After a convoluted Season 1 finale, we were hoping for some clarity during Palm Royale‘s second season. But after the first episode, we’re more confused than ever. The basics of the season, where it’s essentially Norma vs. the rest of the society women in her circle, is fairly apparent. But all of the stories that are swirling around the central theme of the season feel like a lot of unnecessary noise.

It feels like Sylvia, along with his writing staff, just can’t seem to leave well enough alone, which is why we have scenes like the ones where Evelyn is playing tennis with her young, handsome new squeeze and spits out all of the machinations she feels she needs to consider in this new battle with Norma. Going against Norma is dangerous for her society status, but she dislikes the old broad so much that she might just realign herself with Maxine just for the hell of it. That’s essentially what she faces, but the dialogue where she considers it is so jam-packed with words it’s hard to pull out the essence of what she’s talking about.

That’s basically the way it is for the entire first episode. We still appreciate Wiig’s performance as Maxine, as well as the performances of Janney, Duffy and more. But Palm Royale is so in love with its own sense of late-’60s, early-’70s kitsch and piling on characters and plotlines, that those performances often get lost under a blizzard of words.

Performance Worth Watching: Carol Burnett is a legend, of course, but we just marvel at how much verve and energy the she has at 92, given how much more we’re seeing of a fully-present Norma this season.

Sex And Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: After her psych hold ends, Maxine anticipates that Douglas will pick her up. But, hours after he’s supposed to be there, Evelyn picks her up instead. Guess now we know who she’s aligning with.

Sleeper Star: We’re always going to want to see more of Duffy and the other ’80s sitcom star that’s in the cast: Mindy Cohn as Ann Holiday.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Don’t you huff and puff! It’s my turn to huff and puff!” Maxine says to Douglas after she realizes he put her in the sanitarium.

Our Call: SKIP IT. We keep trying to have some patience with Palm Royale, but this show is still too much in love with the visuals, needle drops and word salads it pushes out to viewers, and its characters remain ciphers we find a hard time caring about.

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How To Watch Palm Royale

Apple TV comes with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers and has just one ad-free streaming plan available for $13.99/month.

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Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.