--- title: 'Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed' Is Indeed a Joy: TV Review description: Tatiana Maslany gives her best performance since 'Orphan Black' in this offbeat Apple TV thriller canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/maximum-pleasure-guaranteed-review/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-05-20T07:00:03.376Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-20T07:00:06.754Z og:title: 'Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed' Is Only a Slight Exaggeration og:description: Tatiana Maslany gives her best performance since 'Orphan Black' in this offbeat Apple TV thriller og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/maximum-pleasure-guaranteed-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86e945c14ef8d1f0/6a0634551423c1cf81bfb631/Maximum_Pleasure_Guaranteed_Photo_010201.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 8196 og:image:height: 4610 og:image:alt: Maximum_Pleasure_Guaranteed_Photo_010201.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed' Is Only a Slight Exaggeration twitter:description: Tatiana Maslany gives her best performance since 'Orphan Black' in this offbeat Apple TV thriller twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86e945c14ef8d1f0/6a0634551423c1cf81bfb631/Maximum_Pleasure_Guaranteed_Photo_010201.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed_ Is an Apt Title for Tatiana Maslany’s Smart New Thriller > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic May 20, 2026 7:00 AM UTC  Nola Wallace, left, and Tatiana Maslany in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Nola Wallace, left, and Tatiana Maslany in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Apple TV  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic May 20, 2026 7:00 AM UTC A great [fact-checker](https://time.com/4858683/fact-checking-history/) is a detective, interrogating every statement as if it’s a case to be solved. No one can get more out of a Google search. But it’s offline, doing the timeless work of journalism, where they really excel—pinning down cagey sources, poring over yellowing documents, leaving their desks to confirm descriptions dashed off by reporters on deadline. Often forgoing the glory of a byline, fact-checkers serve a purpose nobler than ego: truth. If they weren’t an endangered species, vanishing from the payrolls of newsrooms in crisis, you’d wonder why we so rarely see them in the crime shows that now dominate TV. _Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed_, premiering May 20 on Apple TV, corrects this oversight. With a single mom eking out a living as an excellent but undervalued magazine fact-checker for a hero, this witty crime thriller takes its tale of [sex work](https://time.com/5104951/sex-workers-me-too-movement/), [motherhood](https://time.com/article/2026/05/10/the-origins-of-mother-s-day-should-inspire-you-to-ask-new-questions/), and [loneliness](https://time.com/6183058/loneliness-health-effects-what-to-do/) in genuinely surprising directions. Yet its fidelity to the truth of each idiosyncratic character makes the show’s whiplash narrative feel believable.  Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg and Charlie Hall in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Apple TV [Tatiana Maslany](https://time.com/3819974/tatiana-maslany-interview-orphan-black-season-3/), who made her versatile reputation playing a dozen very differentclones in [_Orphan Black_](https://time.com/70179/orphan-black-fan-following-reception/), channels all her talent into _Pleasure_’s singular protagonist. Newlydivorced and angling for an overdue promotion, Maslany’s Paula is also gearing up for a custody battle. Her ex, Karl (Jake Johnson, impressively devoid of his [signature gruff charm](https://time.com/6154788/minx-review-hbo-max/)), wants to move their adorable daughter, Hazel (Nola Wallace), from New York to Boise with his new partner, Mallory (Jessy Hodges), a polished grown-up who makes the bohemian Paula feel like a mess. The stability the couple can demonstrate, relative to her psychological and financial precarity, makes her worry they’ll win. And that’s without anyone knowing she’s been spending her meager paychecks on sexy video-chat sessions with a camboy (Brandon Flynn’s Trevor). Her fear of being exposed becomes suddenly, terrifyingly real when their virtual date is interrupted by violence. Paula can only scream and film her screen as a masked man beats and drags away her sex-worker confidant. When she reports the abduction, a deadpan police detective (Dolly De Leon, a highlight) informs her that _she’s_ likely the real victim—of an extortion scam. Sure enough, calls come in threatening to kill Trevor and, more plausibly, ruin her life if she doesn’t pay up. When the cops shrug off her tips, Paula must scrutinize the evidence to save not just her reputation, but her relationship with the child who means everything to her.  Jon Michael Hill and Dolly De Leon in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Apple TV The most frustrating thing about the preponderance of crime dramas is how flat their characters tend to be. Defined by circumstances more than personality, they are either victims or psycho killers. If we’re lucky, we get a brilliant but troubled detective. Yet an unlikely upside to the trend is emerging. Now that just about every show—even comedies—must have some element of crime, writers who care about characters are improving the genre. _Derry Girls_ creator Lisa McGee, known for her raucous portraits of female friend groups, gave us another lovable crew, plus murder, in [_How to Get to Heaven From Belfast_](https://time.com/7378326/how-to-get-to-heaven-from-belfast-review/). [Mae Martin](https://time.com/7320564/mae-martin-interview-wayward/) followed up their breakthrough rom-dramedy _Feel Good_ with the cult thriller [_Wayward_](https://time.com/7319656/wayward-review-netflix/). A veteran of the similarly offbeat but fatally flawed crime shows _Sugar_ and [_Hunters_](https://time.com/5784690/hunters-amazon-jordan-peele-review/), creator David J. Rosen earns his way onto that list with _Pleasure_. 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. Mallory’s ruthlessness in the custody fight begins to alarm wishy-washy Karl. De Leon’s jaded but shrewd Gonzalez endures a brasher, greener partner (Jon Michael Hill). Especially fun is the work-spouse flirtation between Paula’s younger colleagues and sometimes investigative partners, each of whom has a plan to escape the dead end of fact-checking; while Geri (Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg) is an ambitious aspiring reporter, Rudy (Charlie Hall) has resigned himself to LSAT prep. Barbed banter aside, they’re more loyal to each other than to Paula. Which helps to explain why a woman who once seemed to be the ultimate cool Portland mom is now so lonely in Queens, she pays to confide in a camboy. In a world of symbiotic twosomes, the person who completes her—the one she’ll never stop fighting for—is Hazel. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/maximum-pleasure-guaranteed-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/maximum-pleasure-guaranteed-review/"},"headline":"Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Is an Apt Title for Tatiana Maslany’s Smart New Thriller","datePublished":"2026-05-20T07:00:03.376Z","dateModified":"2026-05-20T07:00:06.754Z","description":"Tatiana Maslany gives her best performance since 'Orphan Black' in this offbeat Apple TV thriller","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/maximum-pleasure-guaranteed-review/","keywords":["Television","review","culturepod","Magazine"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86e945c14ef8d1f0/6a0634551423c1cf81bfb631/Maximum_Pleasure_Guaranteed_Photo_010201.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86e945c14ef8d1f0/6a0634551423c1cf81bfb631/Maximum_Pleasure_Guaranteed_Photo_010201.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Maximum_Pleasure_Guaranteed_Photo_010201.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Apple TV","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/maximum-pleasure-guaranteed-review/","name":"Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Is an Apt Title for Tatiana Maslany’s Smart New Thriller"}}]}] ```