Critic Reviews

Funny and wicked with very mature humor, Palm Royale is a throwback to yesteryear classics but with more intricately pointed nuance. Whereas a lot of comedy today is about making the audience cringe and feel uncomfortable, Palm Royale plays like the best old-school, slapstick charm, with humor and depth that makes you feel good at the end.

As more characters help expand the universe, it’s as if the pacing issues are gone and have now evolved into something richer: a study of how people rebuild after the masks crack. It’s this aspect that helps the sharper humor hit harder while grounding the emotional stakes. Never missing a beat on its comedy and heart, Palm Royale is proof that when the claws come out, so does the show’s best self.

Paired with Burnett (flexing her physical comic chops) and Dern (who draws out a few tears), Janney and Wiig make sure a highly anticipated combination of stars doesn’t disappoint. Together, they help ensure the “Palm Royale” is where you’ll want to be.

As long as you focus on the journey, rather than the destination, you’ll be just as eager as Maxine to keep exploring.

While its side narratives about the burgeoning women’s rights movement fall flatter, Palm Royale has enough Aqua Net and quaaludes to buoy the series. A bewitching performance by Wiig ties the whole affair together in one big discount store bow.

The self-aware soap is an increasingly popular format, and Palm Royale adheres to familiar conventions. But showrunner Abe Sylvia (Dead to Me), loosely adapting Juliet McDaniel’s novel Mr. and Mrs. American Pie, makes it feel fresh by nailing both the comedy and the melodrama, in a punchy first season that gets weirder with each episode.

By the time the series ends, Maxine is someone viewers want to root for. Watching her follow her materialistic-centered dreams is a joyfully delicious experience.

“Palm Royale” is above all Wiig’s show, and she is terrific and genuine, alive in her role from moment to moment. It’s a complex performance, funny and painful and endearing, shot through with hope and fear, sass and sadness. .... But even characters who in a lesser piece would be frozen into caricatures are granted some depth and fluidity, which helps sustain the series over 10 episodes.

A deft mix of social commentary and campy social climbing, Palm Royale is one of the year’s smarter comedies and a great vehicle for Kristen Wiig.

So yes, this season of “Palm Royale” does a better job at splashing the pool of feminist thought. But really, the show has found its purpose: it’s just fun.