Palm Royale, Apple TV+'s new ‘60s-set dramedy, opens with a body in the water. Unlike in The White Lotus’ second season, which begins in exactly the same way, we know who this person is from the off – it's Kristen Wiig, as the show’s star Maxine Delacourt-Simmons. Our blonde debutante is seen floating from beneath the turquoise waves, as she delivers a detached narration in a silky Southern drawl: “It's all a blur, a hazy crazy blur,” she says, before adding “All I ever wanted was to belong, to be a somebody in this world. But there's a catch whenever someone wants to be a somebody – everyone else.”
In Mike White’s widely beloved series, that floating corpse acts as the catalyst for 13 episodes of pervasive suspicion (Who? Why? How?). And, after a dip back in time, we meet a steady stream of people to be eyed with reservation, as the nagging questions build: Are you the murderer? Are you the body? Are you even dead?! In Palm Royale, however, we’re presented with a different set of questions, relating not to the body's identity, but to her character, and who exactly might want to put her beneath those soft waves. As the series unfurls, it becomes less a concern over why someone might snap and more a guessing game of who eventually did.
Even so, there's a lot shared between the two. Palm Royale lands us a few decades back from The White Lotus, in the sun-tinted beachy glam of the late ‘60s. Maxine is new in town and desperate to be a part of an elite set occupied by a cohort of high-class women with beautiful outfits and husbands they are indifferent to. On paper, Maxine is technically part of this set – she’s the wife of the nephew (and only living relation) of Norma Delacourt, Palm Beach's high society queen. But with Norma in a coma, Maxine takes the opportunity to weasel her way into the gilded halls of the Palm Royale, the exclusive beach club, and all that its membership offers by way of status and respect.
The only issue is she hasn't actually got any money, not really – not until Norma kicks the bucket. So, until then, she has to play pretend, scamming her way through custom dress fittings and high-rolling charity auctions while secretly picking off her competition from the inside.
Aimee Lou Wood will be checking into the Thailand resort alongside indie darling Parker Posey and many others
The White Lotus is exceptional at presenting us both sides of the reality of high society, the have-nots who give the haves their life of privileged grandeur – the spa employees, the assistants, the sex workers, the hotel managers. Palm Royale similarly does a good job at switching between veils, especially as Maxine straddles her two lives. There's her nail technician (Kaia Gerber), who equally wants in on a life of luxury; her husband (Josh Lucas), a man hungry for the status he thinks he deserves; a local hippy feminist (Laura Dern) who denounces her place in society to raise awareness for underserved voices and the Palm Royale's pool boy (Ricky Martin), a Korean war veteran who sees more than others expect.
Palm Royale isn't as complex or rigorous as The White Lotus, nor is it the kind of show that will have you conjuring up theories like that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia pinboard meme. Its twists and turns won't shock you, but you won't complain as they take you along for their ride. What it is, though, is glossy and campy and fun. It looks gorgeous, with its vintage Instagram filter-like hues of pink and yellow, and it more than delivers its recommended daily dose of mothering (Laura Dern! Allison Janney! Carol Burnett!). It's essentially a big budget soap opera, something that Apple TV+ does so well (Hello, The Morning Show).
So while we wait for some kind of release date for the show's third season (which will also star Leslie Bibb, who is in Palm Royale) set in Thailand, the sun-dripped locale of Palm Beach is a good little mini-break in the meantime.
The first episode of Palm Royale is out on Apple TV+ now, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.
